| By: |
Lingbo Huang (Monash University);
Zarah Murad (University of Portsmouth) |
| Abstract: |
People who compete alone may entertain different psychological motivations
from those who compete for a team. Using a real-effort experiment, we examine
the behavioural consequences of these psychological motivations, absent
strategic interdependence and uncertainty among team members. We exploit a
dynamic pairwise team contest in which strategic uncertainties among team
members play a minimised role in individual rational behaviour; and we create
strategically-equivalent individual contests to isolate the pure psychological
effects of team situation on individual competitive behaviour. We find that
behaviour in individual contests and in sterile team contests follows a
psychological momentum effect in which leaders work harder than trailers. In
contrast, in team contests enriched with intra-team communication, behaviour
follows a neutral effect. We discuss the implications of our results for
theoretical modelling of contests and practical implications for the optimal
design of team incentive schemes and personnel management. |
| Keywords: |
individual versus team behaviour, real-effort experiment, pairwise team contest, best-of-three team contest, communication, psychological momentum effect |
| JEL: |
C33 C72 D79 C91 C92 |
| Date: |
2018–09–19 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pbs:ecofin:2018-06&r=spo |