An extension of Vroom’s expectancy theory (1964) in examining lecturers’ motivation in Vietnam

Abstract

As academic activities and research performances become important criteria in evaluating the quality of a university, research activities have received a special concern from universities. The key questions are what prompts faculty members to do research and how to motivate them. In order to answer these questions, it is necessary to examine the factors affecting the research motivation, then measure the impact of these factors on the faculty members' research motivation. In this study, the authors employed the expansive expectancy theory proposed by Chiang & Jang to investigate key factors that motivate faculty members to conduct research. The regression results on data collected from a survey on 475 faculty members at universities in Hanoi showed that faculty members are motivated by the intrinsic instrumentality factor (INTIN), financial value factor (FINVA) and expectancy factor (EXPECT – the factor that yields controversial results in previous studies). These findings suggest that the research motivation of lecturers has a positive correlation with academic degree, administrative position and has no relationship with age and gender.