Monetary Rewards, Intrinsic Motivators, and Work Engagement in the IT-Enabled Sharing Economy: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Internet Taxi Drivers*

Abstract

The IT-enabled sharing economy has enabled the taxi to become an Internet product, forming a popular new phenomenon in people's daily lives and creating new roles for employees. How the Internet taxi drivers’ work engagement is influenced in the context of the IT-enabled sharing economy has become an interesting new area for IS researchers to explore. Although monetary rewards are important for employees’ behavior and performance, extant studies primarily emphasize the crowding-out and crowding-in effects of financial incentives, rather than the influencing mechanism. This article prospects and develops theoretically the effects of monetary rewards and workplace spirituality on work engagement and demonstrates these effects empirically. An analysis of 35 semistructured interviews revealed three intrinsic motivators: stress reduction, job autonomy, and self-efficacy. We propose a structural model based upon motivation crowding theory. Responses to 235 survey responses showed that work engagement can be improved by providing monetary rewards and enhancing workplace spirituality through intrinsic motivators. This research contributes to exploring the mediating role of intrinsic motivators, extends motivation crowding theory to a new research field, and provides a new perspective on work engagement in the context of the IT-enabled sharing economy. Our findings extend the previous research associated with workplace spirituality and the existing knowledge of operations management from the perspective of labor intensity and trade-off between inputs and outputs.