An experimental test of gaming incentives

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Banuri, Sheheryar, Danková, Katarína and Keefer, Philip (2024) An experimental test of gaming incentives. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 224. pp. 825-850. ISSN 0167-2681

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Abstract

In recent years, many organizations have undertaken efforts to introduce gaming incentives in order to enhance employee effort and user engagement. However, these incentives are not well understood, and subsequently there is a dearth of systematically controlled empirical evidence on their effects, as well as their interaction with other forms of motivation. We present the first comprehensive test of gaming incentives using a real effort lab experiment with a standard lab task adapted to allow the inclusion of gaming incentives. We test the effect of these incentives under two types of extrinsic incentives, an unconditional wage, and a piece rate. In addition, we also measure subject task motivation and explore interaction with intrinsic (task based) incentives. We report three main findings: first, gaming incentives increase effort when extrinsic incentives to exert effort are weak. When extrinsic incentives are strong, gaming incentives have no additional impact on effort, showcasing diminishing returns to multiple forms of incentives. Finally, some forms of gaming incentives are successful in increasing effort among the least task motivated, a property that is similar to extrinsic incentives. Implications for organizations seeking to implement gaming incentives are discussed.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Data availability statement: Data will be made available on request.
Uncontrolled Keywords: effort,extrinsic motivation,feedback,gamification,intrinsic motivation,performance,economics and econometrics,organizational behavior and human resource management ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2000/2002
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Economics
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Sciences
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Behavioural Economics
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Behavioural and Experimental Development Economics
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Environment, Resources and Conflict
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 08 Nov 2024 12:30
Last Modified: 08 Nov 2024 12:30
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/97591
DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2024.05.015

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