Eyes on the Innovation Prize: Motivation and Problem Solving Performance in Innovation Contests

From canned foods to fire extinguishers, many inventions have been developed as a response to contests. The main reason why innovation contests have historically been, and still is, an important channel for solving challenging... [ view full abstract ]

From canned foods to fire extinguishers, many inventions have been developed as a response to contests. The main reason why innovation contests have historically been, and still is, an important channel for solving challenging innovation problems is that they enable organizations to access a pool of knowledge which is larger and more diversified than any single organization would have on its own. The success of an innovation contest mainly relies on its ability to attract a large number of diverse participants to deeply engage in an innovation problem. It is therefore of great importance to understand what motivates people to participate in these contests. The prize (s) provided for winners of a contest is clearly an essential motivation for participation in innovation contests; however, it is unlikely to be the single driver of participation. Yet, the multiplicity of motivations in innovation contests has rarely been acknowledged except a few studies. In addition, and arguably more importantly, what the consequences of these motivations are in terms of problem solving performance has not been addressed in the prior literature.

The main purpose of this paper is to explore how different motivational orientations affect performance in innovation contests. Drawing on data from 646 problem solvers who have participated in contests in the InnoCentive online innovation contest platform, I explore what motivates people to contribute these contests and how this motivation impact their subsequent performance in solving an innovation problem. The results suggest that solvers participate in innovation contests for reasons beyond the prize. Some solvers participate due to their intrinsic motivation (i.e., they enjoy solving problems), learning motivation (i.e., they would like to improve their skills) or prosocial motivation (i.e., they would like to help others with their solutions). In addition, extrinsic motivations of participants were not limited to the prize but also included non-monetary external factors such as reputation and potential career benefits. As expected, the effects of these four groups of motivations on problem solving performance were different. Extrinsic motivation was associated with greater problem solving performance whereas learning and prosocial motivation was found to be detrimental for performance. Intrinsic motivation was positively related to performance but the association was not significant. As a whole, by identifying the motivations and their performance consequences in innovation contests, this paper contributes to the innovation literature and provides clear guidelines for organizations on how to more effectively utilize the potential of such contests.