Government support, employee motivation and job performance in the COVID-19 times: evidence from Turkish SMEs during the short work period

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the effect of government support (short work allowances - SWA) on SME employees' job performance and employee motivation perceptions, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were collected from 2,781 employees working in SMEs registered to Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization (SMEDO) in Turkey. The relationships were assessed through structural equation modeling with bootstrap estimation.FindingsThe results support the proposed framework illustrating the positive effect of government support on employees' perceived motivation and job performance. Findings indicate that employee motivation has exhibited a mediating effect between government support and job performance. Another important finding is that, contrary to the classical understanding of Herzberg's two-factor theory, SWA system was able to perform as a motivating factor during the pandemic by meeting the hygiene needs.Research limitations/implicationsSince this is a cross-sectional research study, causal inferences cannot be derived from the research results.Originality/valueThere is a lack of empirical study on SME employees' perceptions on the government support during the pandemic, especially on the perspectives of emerging economies are infrequent. Turkey's case is unique in terms of providing insights on how perceived employee motivation is increased by the government supports (SWA) in Turkey, and how this motivation mediates the job performance perceptions. Besides, the impacts of government support are mostly studied at the firm or macro-levels, this study's unit of analysis is at individual level. Regarding the criticism from the motivation perspective of two-factor theory, COVID-19 context and its impact on the motivation needs have not been elaborated before. This article starts new discussions on how crisis contexts influence individual motivator factors.

What and how driving consumer engagement and purchase intention in officer live streaming? A two-factor theory perspective

To reduce the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, local government officers conducted live streaming to sell and endorse local products. Understanding factors and mechanisms affecting consumer engagement and purchase intention in officer live streaming have a profound effect on local economic recovery and rural revitalization. By integrating the two-factor theory, source credibility model, and Stimuli-Organism-Response (S–O–R) framework, the authors conduct an online survey to investigate how characteristics of officer live streaming drive consumer engagement and purchase intention. The results show that: (1) Motivation factors of officer live streaming include officer streamer physical attractiveness, interaction friendliness, altruism, expertise, product price attractiveness, and product local uniqueness;hygiene factors include product authenticity, officer streamer trustworthiness, and government credibility;(2) Utilitarian benefit, hedonic benefit and risk perception mediate the effects of motivation factors and hygiene factors on consumer engagement and purchase intention;(3) Power distance belief and consumer region (local-shoppers vs out-shoppers) moderate these effects. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.

Analysis of MOOCs Design based on Herzberg's Theory: A Literature Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed all types of activities, including in the education sector. As an online education platform, MOOCs are one of the innovations in distance learning. The number of MOOCs users during the COVID-19 pandemic has increased rapidly, but the drop-out rate for MOOC users has also increased. Many MOOCs users do not complete the course they have chosen on MOOCs. One of the things that causes the high drop-out rate and low retention of MOOCs participants is the level of understanding of MOOCs participants towards the design and the interest and satisfaction of participants in existing MOOCs features or elements. Based on these problems, this research will analyze the design pattern based on the existing element classification using Two Factor Theory. The elements available in the MOOC will be classified into two factors, namely hygiene-factor and motivation-factor. Hygiene-factor is a MOOCs element that must be present, while motivation-factor is a MOOCs element that can increase MOOCs user satisfaction. The method used in the classification of these two factors is sentiment-Analysis by utilizing NLP (Natural Language Processing) technology. The expected results in this literature review are references to elements in the MOOC based on previous research. The results of the identification of these elements will later be used as initialization data in the analysis of the MOOC design pattern using NLP technology. © 2022 IEEE.