TY  - JOUR
AU  - Sauermann,Henry
AU  - Cohen,Wesley M.
TI  - What Makes Them Tick? Employee Motives and Firm Innovation
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14443
PY  - 2008
Y2  - October 2008
DO  - 10.3386/w14443
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14443
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14443.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Henry Sauermann
Georgia Institute of Technology
College of Management
800 W. Peachtree St.
Atlanta, GA 30308
E-Mail: henry.sauermann@scheller.gatech.edu

Wesley M. Cohen
The Fuqua School of Business
Duke University
Box 90120
Durham, NC 27708-0120
Tel: 919-451-9770
Fax: NA
E-Mail: wcohen@duke.edu
AB  - We examine the impact of individual-level motives upon innovative effort and performance in firms. Drawing from economics and social psychology, we develop a model of the impact of individuals' motives and incentives upon their innovative effort and performance. Using data on over 11,000 industrial scientists and engineers (SESTAT 2003), we find that individuals' motives have significant effects upon innovative effort and performance. These effects vary significantly, however, by the particular kind of motive (e.g., desire for intellectual challenge vs. pay). We also find that intrinsic and extrinsic motives affect innovative performance even when controlling for effort, suggesting that motives affect not only the level of individual effort, but also its quality. Overall, intrinsic motives, particularly the desire for intellectual challenge, appear to benefit innovation more than extrinsic motives such as pay.
ER  -