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Entrepreneurial Discovery and the Demmert/Klein Experiment: Another Attempt at Creating the Proper Context*

* This paper is a replication of an original study

Author

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  • Jana Kitzmann
  • Dirk Schiereck

Abstract

Friedrich Hayek conjectured that the free enterprise system is the most effective in making discoveries, and Israel Kirzner refines the conjecture by saying that profit opportunities evoke entrepreneurial discovery. Demmert and Klein (2003) present the first attempt to demonstrate the Hayek/Kirzner conjecture. On the whole, Demmert and Klein (2003) classify the results as disappointing but fruitful. In contrast we argue that additional experimental evidence might yield a demonstration of the conjecture. We continued the diligence and good-faith effort started by Demmert and Klein (2003) to devise an experimental setting that would create a genuine context for entrepreneurial discovery, yet the conjecture eludes our efforts at controlling the experiment. We duplicated the experiment at a Business School in Germany, with two simple variations. First, Demmert and Klein (2003) recruited only male students. We include male and female students. Second, Demmert and Klein (2003) used a payment schedule that includes a flat rate for participation and additional earnings depending on the presented performance. We drop the flat rate and slightly reduce the earnings per unit outperformance. Our results show that overall money matters. Our results are rather like those of Demmert and Klein (2003) and do not seem to be influenced by a baseline payment. Moreover, there are gender specific divergences showing male students earning significant higher additional earnings than their female fellow students. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2005

Suggested Citation

  • Jana Kitzmann & Dirk Schiereck, 2005. "Entrepreneurial Discovery and the Demmert/Klein Experiment: Another Attempt at Creating the Proper Context," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 18(2), pages 169-178, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:revaec:v:18:y:2005:i:2:p:169-178
    DOI: 10.1007/s11138-005-6825-2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Vandegrift, Donald & Brown, Paul, 2003. "Task difficulty, incentive effects, and the selection of high-variance strategies: an experimental examination of tournament behavior," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 481-497, August.
    2. Uri Gneezy & Muriel Niederle & Aldo Rustichini, 2003. "Performance in Competitive Environments: Gender Differences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(3), pages 1049-1074.
    3. Brown, Paul M., 1995. "Learning from experience, reference points, and decision costs," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 381-399, August.
    4. Demmert, Henry & Klein, Daniel B., 2003. "Experiment on entrepreneurial discovery: an attempt to demonstrate the conjecture of Hayek and Kirzner," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 295-310, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Matthew McCaffrey, 2014. "On the Theory of Entrepreneurial Incentives and Alertness," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 38(4), pages 891-911, July.
    2. Jason Arentz & Frederic Sautet & Virgil Storr, 2013. "Prior-knowledge and opportunity identification," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 461-478, August.
    3. Dimo Dimov, 2007. "Beyond the Single-Person, Single-Insight Attribution in Understanding Entrepreneurial Opportunities," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 31(5), pages 713-731, September.

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