Explaining academic researchers’ performance from the Ability–Motivation–Opportunity (AMO) perspective

Abstract

Drawing from the Ability–Motivation–Opportunity (AMO) framework, this paper aims to study the influence of academic researchers’ ability, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and opportunity on their performance. We conducted an empirical analysis using a sample of 607 academic researchers to examine the relationships between the three AMO dimensions and scientific performance. The findings reveal that academic researchers’ ability, intrinsic motivation, and opportunity are positively associated to their scientific performance, whereas extrinsic motivation has a negative nonlinear association. The results also show two- and three-way interactions between ability, motivation, and opportunity. This paper makes an essential contribution to the literature by showing the linear and nonlinear effects of AMO dimensions on academic researchers’ performance. Thus, the study highlights the importance of each AMO dimension in the academic context, offering broad-scale guidance about which decisions on employee relations will advance scientific performance at universities.