Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36080 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4395
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We ran a field experiment in a Dutch retail chain consisting of 128 stores. In a random sample of these stores, we introduced short-term sales competitions among subsets of stores. We find that sales competitions have a large effect on sales growth, but only in stores where the store's manager and a large fraction of the employees have the same gender. Remarkably, results are alike for sales competitions with and without monetary rewards, suggesting a high symbolic value of winning a tournament. Lastly, despite the substantial variation in team size, we find no evidence for free-riding.
Subjects: 
Field experiment
gender differences
competition
sales contests
awards
JEL: 
C93
J16
M52
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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