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The Hidden Perils of Career Concerns in R& D Organizations

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  • Enno Siemsen

    (College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois 61820)

Abstract

This research examines how certain economic incentives can lead agents to prefer difficult solutions to their organizational tasks that reduce their likelihood of obtaining a successful task outcome. Drawing on the career concerns literature, I model a decision context in which agents have the operational autonomy to choose among different solutions. Analyzing this model reveals that agents with career concerns will, under certain conditions, deliberately reduce their likelihood of succeeding with a task by choosing a solution that makes their task more difficult. These findings suggest that highly capable agents prefer moderately difficult tasks to showcase their capability, while less-capable agents prefer highly difficult tasks to mask their lack of capability. The robustness of these results is examined in various extensions. Furthermore, the paper provides insights on how incentives can be designed to alleviate this problem.

Suggested Citation

  • Enno Siemsen, 2008. "The Hidden Perils of Career Concerns in R& D Organizations," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(5), pages 863-877, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:54:y:2008:i:5:p:863-877
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.1070.0797
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Raul O. Chao & Stylianos Kavadias & Cheryl Gaimon, 2009. "Revenue Driven Resource Allocation: Funding Authority, Incentives, and New Product Development Portfolio Management," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(9), pages 1556-1569, September.
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    4. Henry Sauermann & Wesley M. Cohen, 2010. "What Makes Them Tick? Employee Motives and Firm Innovation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(12), pages 2134-2153, December.
    5. Jürgen Mihm, 2010. "Incentives in New Product Development Projects and the Role of Target Costing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(8), pages 1324-1344, August.
    6. Elena Katok & Enno Siemsen, 2011. "Why Genius Leads to Adversity: Experimental Evidence on the Reputational Effects of Task Difficulty Choices," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(6), pages 1042-1054, June.
    7. Kräkel, Matthias, 2021. "On the delegation of authority," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 965-981.
    8. 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.
    9. Vivek Tandon & Puay Khoon Toh, 2022. "Who deviates? Technological opportunities, career concern, and inventor's distant search," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 724-757, April.
    10. Jeremy Hutchison-Krupat, 2018. "Communication, Incentives, and the Execution of a Strategic Initiative," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(7), pages 3380-3399, July.
    11. Jochen Schlapp & Nektarios Oraiopoulos & Vincent Mak, 2015. "Resource Allocation Decisions Under Imperfect Evaluation and Organizational Dynamics," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(9), pages 2139-2159, September.
    12. Phong T. H. Ngo & Steven Roberts, 2021. "There is no ‘I’ in team: Career concerns, risk‐taking incentives, and team outcomes," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 122-138, February.

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