Abstract
This paper examines the impact of individual-level motives and incentives upon
innovative effort and performance. Based on research in economics and social
psychology, we develop a basic model of the impact of extrinsic, intrinsic, and
social motives on individual R&D employees’ effort and performance. Using a
survey-based data set provided by the National Science Foundation (SESTAT 2003),
we present descriptive data on the motives salient to personnel in industrial
R&D and subsequently test implications of our model. We find that individuals
engaged in industrial R&D assign a high importance to both intrinsic and
extrinsic work benefits and that there are systematic differences in these
motives across types of individuals and work settings. Several of these motives
have strong impacts upon innovative effort, controlling for a wide range of
other variables. We also find that intrinsic as well as extrinsic motives affect
innovative performance, controlling for effort, suggesting that individuals’
motives affect not only effort but also the innovative productivity of that
effort.