The Phase 2 Interview Results - part 4

The questionnaire research on the power motive showed that only the Irish male group had a higher outcome in the power motive and it showed that male participants asserted power more directly compared to female participants who asserted power through gift-giving. Future research should also explore male participants’ relation to gift-giving and ultimately try to validate the way the gender groups assert power. Furthermore, the difference in the questionnaires on the power motive between the Irish male group and the non-Irish male group needs further investigation. Ego-enhancement ranked very high for the Irish male group, which gave the impression that they had a quite negative attitude towards the cartoon character. However, this could be a limitation of the cartoon itself.

            In the questionnaires gift-giving was mostly prominent in the female groups. Belk (1988) made a connection between McClelland’s power motive and Sartre’s idea of making an object a part of one’s self. Gift-giving was seen as a form of control over a possession, which is an extension of the self as the giver continues to be associated with the gift (Belk 1988). In the interview investigations the female groups showed a difference in their motives for the gift-giving. All participants said that they would give a mass customised product as a gift; some even said that they would only buy such a product as a present and not for their own use. The main reason for people to give customised products as presents was that it showed that they put more thought into it. However, Irish females were looking for appreciation from the receiver, whereas non-Irish females wished to be remembered by the receiver, which some emphasized would mostly be a family member. Future research should investigate this difference. Furthermore, it should be explored whether the results would be the same if a standardised product was used as it seemed that the nature of mass customised products, being co-created, had an influence on the answers concerning gift-giving. Future research should also include male participants, to explore whether there is a difference in gift giving between the gender groups and also different European nationalities.

The questionnaires showed a relatively high need for achievement in the form of self expression, which was based on Schreier’s categorisation (2006). This motive revealed a difference between the two female groups. Self expression ranked highest in the non-Irish female group and lowest in the Irish female group. However, further investigation in the interviews showed a different result. Self expression ranked higher in the Irish female group, which was connected to the higher outcome of non-commercial customisation here. However, self expression through non-commercially customised products was linked to teenagers, which meant that it mainly occurred at a certain age. This could possibly explain why self expression ranked lower in the non-Irish group as they had a lower outcome of non-commercial customisation. Nevertheless, one participant emphasized that a person incorporates a part of the self by creating a product, which implied that self expression could also happen unintentionally.

A more direct form of the achievement motive, which is “pride of authorship” (Schreier 2006) was not relevant in the questionnaires, but when asked in the interviews participants did say that they would feel proud of a co-created product. Satisfaction with that product was also an indication of this motive, which came up in the interviews. Whereas self expression was more important for Irish females in the interviews, pride and satisfaction were more significant for the non-Irish group. Future research should be undertaken to establish whether there really is a significant difference between the two groups.


The next blog will elaborate on the results for the experiential need, which includes a major finding of this researches study.