The motives of 141 contributors to a large Open Source Software project (the Linux kernel) was explored with an internet-based questionnaire study. Measured factors were both derived from discussions within the Linux community as well as from models from social sciences. Participants' engagement was particularly determined by their identification as a Linux developer, by pragmatic motives to improve own software, and by their tolerance of time investments. Moreover, some of the software development was accomplished by teams. Activities in these teams were particularly determined by participants' evaluation of the team goals as well as by their perceived indispensability and self-efficacy. Running Head: MOTIVATION IN OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE PROJECTS Key Words: Open Source Software, Linux, Virtual Teams, Motivation, VIST Model Author notes * Correspondence should be addressed to Guido Hertel, University of Kiel, Institut fuer Psychologie, Olshausenstr. 40, D-24 098 Kiel, Germany. Phone: +49 431 880 2980. Fax: +49 431 880 1559. E-mail: hertel@psychologie.uni-kiel.de. * We thank SuSe Germany for sponsoring a number of lottery prizes for the participants in this study.

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A review of the use of experimental techniques to develop and test theories of personality processes. Threats to valid inference including problems of scaling, reliability, and unintended confounds are considered. Basic experimental designs are discussed as ways of eliminating some, but not all threats to validity. A number of basic analytical procedures are demonstrated using simulated data that can be accessed from the web based appendix. Personality is an abstraction used to explain consistency and coherency in an individuals pattern of affects, cognitions, desires and behaviors. What one feels, thinks, wants and does changes from moment to moment and from situation to situation but shows a patterning across situations and over time that may be used to recognize, describe and even to understand a person. The task of the personality researcher is to identify the consistencies and differences within and between individuals (what one feels, thinks, wants and does) and eventually to try to explain them in terms of set of testable hypotheses (why one feels, thinks, wants and does). Personality research is the last refuge of the generalist in psychology: it requires a familiarity with the mathematics of personality measurement, an understanding of genetic mechanisms and physiological systems as they interact with environmental influences to lead to development over the life span, an appreciation of how to measure and manipulate affect and cognitive states, and an ability to integrate all of this into a coherent description of normal and abnormal behavior across situations and across time. Although the study of personality is normally associated with correlational techniques relating responses or observations in one situation or at one time with responses in other situations and other times, it is also possible to examine causal relations through

The traditional way to define – and model – cognition, from the mid-fifties onward, has been to focus on deliberation, i.e., on those inferential processes that operate on well-defined symbolic mental representations in order to get a task accomplished that would require intelligence for human beings to solve. Consequently, AI programs, as well as computer models of psychological processes, were largely confined to a world of symbols. Only a few projects attempted to overcome these limitations and take a step towards more realistic interaction, such as Winograd’s famous SHRDLU (Winograd, 1972). Still, the seminal work accomplished in GPS (Newell & Simon, 1963) and STRIPS (Fikes & Nilsson, 1971) continues to be the anchor point for most of AI and cognitive science alike. Recent years, however, have brought a veritable paradigm shift: interaction with the ‘real’ environment – physical, or human users, or other ‘agents ’ – has been brought to the fore; and ‘situatedness ’ (Suchman, 1987) and the ability for communication and co-operation (as in distributed AI) have become important criteria. The basic nature of biological cognitive systems, including humans, has been recognised

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After decades of study, there is no consensus as to whether entrepreneurs have a higher risk propensity than do managers. We overcome a variety of limitations in narrative reviews by using psychometric meta-analysis to mathematically cumulate the literature on entrepreneurial risk propensity. The results indicate that entrepreneurs have at least a moderately higher level of risk propensity than do managers, a finding with important implications for further research. Entrepreneurial dispositions are a fundamental element in the development of a theory of the entrepreneur (Carland, Hoy, Boulton, & Carland, 1984; Johnson, 1990). Accordingly, inquiry has attempted to isolate and explain the psychological antecedents of entrepreneurial behavior. One of the most prominent themes is the entrepreneur’s propensity for risk taking (Carland et al., 1984; Long, 1983), or risk propensity, an individual’s willingness to take or avoid risk. While rich conceptualizations of entrepreneurial risk propensity have permeated the literature since Cantillion’s (circa 1700) description of the entrepreneur as a bearer of risk (Kilby, 1971), empirical evidence concerning the distinctiveness of the entrepreneur’s risk propensity appears inconsistent. Reviews of the literature (e.g., Brockhaus & Horwitz, 1986; Chell, 1985; Perry, 1990) have described the contradictory results in individual studies concerning hypothesized differences in the risk propensities of entrepreneurs and managers. As a result, reviewers have often concluded that entrepreneurs do not have a distinctive

Student motivation within the classrooms is a widely recognized problem and will remain so in the foreseeable future. Literature suggests that students ’ motivation for learning and performance can be enhanced by creating an appropriate classroom environment, which is again determined by the design of various structural characteristics of a course, such as type of tasks, autonomy of students, and evaluation. On the basis of the framework of Hackman and Oldham’s Job Characteristics Model (JCM) and support from educational research, this conceptual article identifies the structural characteristics instrumental to an effective course design and presents related instructional strategies for maximizing student motivation in business school classrooms. Various issues related to the proposed application of the JCM framework in classrooms, including its relevance to the larger landscape of business education, are also discussed.

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ive Theory, Bandura (1986) wrote that individuals possess beliefs that enable them to exercise a measure of control over their thoughts, feelings, and actions, that "what people think, believe, and feel affects how they behave" (p. 25). These beliefs comprise a self system with symbolizing, forethinking, vicarious, self-regulatory, and self-reflective capabilities, and human behavior is the result of the interplay between this personal system and external sources of influence. In all, Bandura painted a portrait of human behavior and motivation in which the beliefs that people have about themselves are key elements. Social Cognitive Theory and Self-efficacy Bandura (1986) argued that self-referent thought mediates between knowledge and action and that the capability to self-reflect is the most distinctively human characteristic, for it permits individuals to evaluate their own experiences and thought processes. Through reflection and selfevaluation, individuals can alter their

Women remain underrepresented in computer technology careers and university majors, and adolescent girls shy away from high school computer science courses. More information is needed about females who are attracted to computer technology. This study described the online activities of young adolescent girls ages 12-14 who are highend users of computer technology. Three developmental tasks of adolescence (search for identity, pursuit of social connections, and desire for a sense of competence and accomplishment) were used to frame explorations of the girls' online activities. Eight girls were interviewed, the personal web sites of six girls were analyzed, and postings on a message board for young girls interested in online activities were reviewed. Patterns and themes that emerged from the data indicated that Internet technology was an effective match for the informants' developmental tasks. Specific inferences included: (1) Online technologies offered the informants multiple ways of negotiating social relationships; (2) Internet use supported the informants' engagement in personalized, selfdirected, and self-initiated learning; (3) Support from parents, siblings, and peers iii provided the environment for each girl to develop confidence and competence in Internet use; and (4) The informants' use of the Internet reflected women's ways of knowing. iv Dedication I dedicate this study to the memory of my mother and father. Their lives and their love are etched in my past, my present, and my future. My mother gave me the knowledge that women are strong and powerful in ways often subtle and surprising. My father gave me a fascination with new technology and an appreciation for being "different." He taught me to treasure the moment. Both of my parents would have eagerly em...