Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/267453 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 15716
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Revenue drift, where insufficient attention is given to economic, relative to social, goals, threatens social enterprise performance and survival. We argue that financial incentives can address this problem by redirecting employee attention to commercial tasks and attracting workers less inclined to fixate on social tasks. In an online experiment with varying incentive levels, monetary rewards succeed in directing worker effort to commercial tasks; high-powered incentives attract less prosocial employees, but low-powered incentives do not alter workforce composition. Social enterprises combining monetary rewards with a social mission not only attract more workers, but are also able to guard against revenue drift.
Subjects: 
incentives
multitasking
experiment
social enterprise
prosociality
JEL: 
D22
J33
L21
L31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
2.44 MB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.