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Can digital feedback increase employee performance and energy efficiency in firms? Evidence from a field experiment

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  • Hoffmann, Christin
  • Thommes, Kirsten

Abstract

Giving performance feedback to increase employee productivity has shown ambiguous results: Many laboratory studies have demonstrated a statistically significant effect of feedback on performance, but the effect is less evident in the field. In addition, the effects of digital feedback are not well understood. This feedback differs from other types of feedback as it is personalized, but not generated and provided by another human, e.g., the supervisor, but by a machine. We conducted a field experiment in which we introduced digital feedback to improve truck drivers' performance by enhancing their energy-efficient driving behavior. Our results show that digital feedback led to a statistically significant but small overall improvement in energy efficiency and performance that is driven by the improvement of initially very good- and very bad-performing drivers. This effect is robust, even when considering the differences in the room for improvement relative to the initial performance.

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  • Hoffmann, Christin & Thommes, Kirsten, 2020. "Can digital feedback increase employee performance and energy efficiency in firms? Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 49-65.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:180:y:2020:i:c:p:49-65
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2020.09.034
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    2. Hoffmann, Christin & Thommes, Kirsten, 2024. "Can leaders motivate employees’ energy-efficient behavior with thoughtful communication?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    3. Michael Rivera & Cheng Jiang & Subodha Kumar, 2024. "Seek and Ye Shall Find: An Empirical Examination of the Effects of Seeking Real-Time Feedback on Employee Performance Evaluations," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(2), pages 783-806, June.

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