More from the Author

• Article | Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization | April 2019

  Incentives for Public Goods Inside Organizations: Field Experimental Evidence

  Andrea Blasco, Olivia S. Jung, Karim R. Lakhani and Michael Menietti

  Understanding why employees go the extra mile at work is a key problem for many organizations. We conduct a field experiment at a medical organization to study motivations for employees to submit project proposals for organizational improvement. In total, we analyze 1,237 employees, 118 proposals, and quality evaluations for more than 12,000 evaluator-proposal pairs. The analysis shows that solicitations offering a personal reward for top submissions boost participation rates without affecting submission quality. We show that this is due to workers partially internalizing the positive effects of their submissions on the other individuals in the workplace. We also find that offering employees project funding to implement their own proposals potentially backfires, undermining participation. And solicitations emphasizing mission-oriented goals, like improving patient care, are sensitive to the solicited person’s gender, with women responding more than men. These results shed light on the factors that drive employees’ engagement in organizational tasks, beyond regular duties, and provide insights on how to design incentives to foster contributions to public goods inside organizations.

  Keywords: field experiment; innovation; contest; incentives; free-rider problem; healthcare organizations; Employees; Motivation and Incentives; Innovation and Invention; Organizations; Performance Improvement; Perspective;

  Citation:

  Blasco, Andrea, Olivia S. Jung, Karim R. Lakhani, and Michael Menietti. "Incentives for Public Goods Inside Organizations: Field Experimental Evidence." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 160 (April 2019): 214–229.  View Details

  CiteView DetailsFind at Harvard

  Related

• Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2019

  Advancing Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Research Through Open Innovation Competitions

  Andrea Blasco, Michael G. Endres, Rinat A. Sergeev, Anup Jonchhe, Max Macaluso, Rajiv Narayan, Ted Natoli, Jin H. Paik, Bryan Briney, Chunlei Wu, Andrew I. Su, Aravind Subramanian and Karim R. Lakhani

  Open data science and algorithm development competitions offer a unique avenue for rapid discovery of better computational strategies. We highlight three examples in computational biology and bioinformatics research where the use of competitions has yielded significant performance gains over established algorithms. These include studying algorithms for antibody clustering, imputing gene expression data, and querying the Connectivity Map (CMap). Performance gains are evaluated quantitatively using realistic, albeit sanitized, data sets. The solutions produced through these competitions are then examined with respect to their utility and the prospects for implementation in the field. We present the decision process and competition design considerations that lead to these successful outcomes as a model for researchers who want to use competitions and non-domain crowds as collaborators to further their research.

  Keywords: computational biology; bioinformatics; innovation competitions; Research; Mathematical Methods; Strategy;

  Citation:

  Blasco, Andrea, Michael G. Endres, Rinat A. Sergeev, Anup Jonchhe, Max Macaluso, Rajiv Narayan, Ted Natoli, Jin H. Paik, Bryan Briney, Chunlei Wu, Andrew I. Su, Aravind Subramanian, and Karim R. Lakhani. "Advancing Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Research Through Open Innovation Competitions." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-097, March 2019.  View Details

  CiteView Details Read Now

  Related

• Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | October 2013 (Revised February 2019)

  Red Hen Baking Company

  Richard Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Lisa Paige

  The case explores the decision to expand in a small business setting. In 2007, the Red Hen Baking Company (RHB) was deciding whether to move from its cramped and inefficient Duxbury, Vermont facility to a new facility in nearby Middlesex, Vermont. It had been in business about eight years at the Duxbury facility and realized a profit that was over $50,000 for the first time in 2006. Also, by 2006, it had repaid all of its start-up debt and had established its reputation for baking artisan organic bread.
  The Duxbury bakery could not bake more than 2,200 loaves of bread per day, and while demand only exceeded that for a few days a year so far, as bread sales were growing at over 30% per year, George expected the number of those days would be increasing. The new facility was just a few miles away and would be more than twice as large and designed specifically for the bakery. Furthermore, the new location would have space for retail sales of bread and a café that could sell pastries and coffee. The added annual cost of the new location was substantial. The added rent alone was about $58,000, exceeding RHB’s 2006 profitability. The move would require a $300,000 build-out. The case focuses on the strategic and financial evaluation of the potential move and expansion.

  Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Capital; Risk Management; Expansion;

  Citation:

  Ruback, Richard, Royce Yudkoff, and Lisa Paige. "Red Hen Baking Company." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 214-043, October 2013. (Revised February 2019.)  View Details

  CiteView DetailsPurchase

  Related