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Incentives for creativity

Author

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  • Sanjiv Erat

    (University of California)

  • Uri Gneezy

    (University of California
    University of Amsterdam)

Abstract

We investigate whether piece-rate and competitive incentives affect creativity, and if so, how the incentive effect depends on the form of the incentives. We find that while both piece-rate and competitive incentives lead to greater effort relative to a base-line with no incentives, neither type of incentives improve creativity relative to the base-line. More interestingly, we find that competitive incentives are in fact counter-productive in that they reduce creativity relative to base-line condition. In line with previous literature, we find that competitive conditions affect men and women differently: whereas women perform worse under competition than the base-line condition, men do not.

Suggested Citation

  • Sanjiv Erat & Uri Gneezy, 2016. "Incentives for creativity," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 19(2), pages 269-280, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:expeco:v:19:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s10683-015-9440-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10683-015-9440-5
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Florian Englmaier & Stefan Grimm & Dominik Grothe & David Schindler & Simeon Schudy, 2018. "The Effect of Incentives in Non-Routine Analytical Team Tasks," CESifo Working Paper Series 6903, CESifo.
    3. Christoph H. Loch, 2017. "Creativity and Risk Taking Aren't Rational: Behavioral Operations in MOT," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 26(4), pages 591-604, April.
    4. Giuseppe Attanasi & Michela Chessa & Sara Gil-Gallen & Patrick Llerena, 2021. "A survey on experimental elicitation of creativity in economics," Revue d'économie industrielle, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(2), pages 273-324.
    5. Englmaier, Florian & Grimm, Stefan & Schindler, David & Schudy, Simeon, 2018. "The Effect of Incentives in Non-Routine Analytical Team Tasks – Evidence from a Field Experiment," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168286, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    6. Joaquin Artes & Jennifer Graves & Meryl Motika, 2019. "Creativity under Pressure: Performance Payments, Task Type and Productivity," Working Papers 20190028, New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Social Science, revised Oct 2019.
    7. Jared Rubin & Anya Samek & Roman M. Sheremeta, 2018. "Loss aversion and the quantity–quality tradeoff," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 21(2), pages 292-315, June.
    8. Glenn Dutcher & Cortney S. Rodet, 2022. "Which two heads are better than one? Uncovering the positive effects of diversity in creative teams," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 884-897, November.
    9. Grözinger, Nicola & Irlenbusch, Bernd & Laske, Katharina & Schröder, Marina, 2020. "Innovation and communication media in virtual teams – An experimental study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 201-218.
    10. Emma von Essen & Marieke Huysentruyt & Topi Miettinen, 2020. "Exploration in Teams and the Encouragement Effect: Theory and Experimental Evidence," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(12), pages 5861-5885, December.
    11. Thomas Görzen, 2019. "“What’s the Point of the Task?” Exploring the Influence of Task Meaning on Creativity in Crowdsourcing," Working Papers Dissertations 54, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    12. Charness, Gary & Gneezy, Uri & Henderson, Austin, 2018. "Experimental methods: Measuring effort in economics experiments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 74-87.
    13. De Dreu, Carsten & Nijstad, Bernard A. & Baas, Matthijs, 2023. "Human Creativity: Functions, Mechanisms and Social Conditioning," OSF Preprints pz9yx, Center for Open Science.
    14. Sanjiv Erat & Uri Gneezy, 2017. "Erratum to: Incentives for creativity," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 20(1), pages 274-275, March.
    15. Laura J. Kornish & Jeremy Hutchison‐Krupat, 2017. "Research on Idea Generation and Selection: Implications for Management of Technology," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 26(4), pages 633-651, April.
    16. Elif Incekara‐Hafalir & Raymond Kumar & Juliana Silva‐Goncalves, 2022. "The effect of payment medium on effort," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(3), pages 1111-1126, July.
    17. Alan, Sule & Ertac, Seda & Gumren, Mert, 2020. "Cheating and incentives in a performance context: Evidence from a field experiment on children," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 681-701.
    18. Stylianos Kavadias & Karl T. Ulrich, 2020. "Innovation and New Product Development: Reflections and Insights from the Research Published in the First 20 Years of Manufacturing & Service Operations Management," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 84-92, January.
    19. Jürgen Mihm & Jochen Schlapp, 2019. "Sourcing Innovation: On Feedback in Contests," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(2), pages 559-576, February.
    20. Cortney S. Rodet, 2021. "The wellspring of creativity? Using divergent‐thinking tasks to understand creative characteristics," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(6), pages 1435-1453, September.
    21. Gill, David & Prowse, Victoria L., 2021. "The Creativity Premium," IZA Discussion Papers 14421, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    22. Emma von Essen & Marieke Huysentruyt & Topi Miettinen, 2019. "Exploration in Teams and the Encouragement Effect: Theory and Evidence," Economics Working Papers 2019-10, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    23. Mittone, Luigi & Morreale, Azzurra & Vu, Thi-Thanh-Tam, 2022. "What drives innovative behavior?- An experimental analysis on risk attitudes, creativity and performance," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    24. Carol Nash, 2020. "Report on Digital Literacy in Academic Meetings during the 2020 COVID-19 Lockdown," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-24, September.
    25. Florian Englmaier & Stefan Grimm & Dominik Grothe & David Schindler & Simeon Schudy, 2021. "The Value of Leadership: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment," CESifo Working Paper Series 9273, CESifo.

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