This paper offers a test of incentive motivators in the work milieu of factory organization in developing countries. We examined the economic incentive, Akerlof's economic gift-exchange, and the social gift-exchange hypotheses. Results based on a questionnaire survey with interview for 791 factory workers in Laos and Cambodia revealed that the social gift-exchange hypothesis outperformed the others in predicting work morale, while the mainstream economic incentive hypothesis was best in predicting labor shirking behavior.
