Journal of the National Research University Higher School of Economics

International research laboratories represent a relatively new form for Russia of organizing the scientific community. They aim to attract leading international scientists as well as young scholars and thus to help increase national research capabilities. This paper analyses the efficiency of international labs in achieving these goals in terms of criteria that are intrinsic (number of publications, patents etc.) and perceived (job satisfaction). Motivation and involvement of employees as well as availability of resources are regarded as the main determinants of efficiency. Based on previous international and domestic studies in the field we build a conceptual model to estimate causal relations and correlations between these five variables.  Our data source was the online survey of international scientific laboratories staff, which was conducted in April-June, 2012.

The paper first describes the sample characteristics, then carries out factor analysis of motivation resulting in a typology, and, finally, presents a structural equation modeling to test the conceptual framework of analysis.

Factor analysis reveals that four important groups of employee motives exist. Laboratory staff may be motivated (or unmotivated) by achievement in science, focus on careers abroad, practical-oriented material values and satisfaction with working conditions.

Using structural equation modeling authors provide empirical evidence for the hypothesis about relations between employee engagement and job satisfaction. The more employees are engaged in lab activities, the higher are job satisfaction and productivity level. However, the strength of these effects is relatively small. The assumption of a positive relationship between job satisfaction and available resources was also confirmed. Additionally, analysis showed that employee engagement has a positive effect on the achievement of both objective and subjective results.