IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ecl/stabus/1647.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Performance and the Design of Economic Incentives in New Product Development

Author

Listed:
  • Davila, Tony

    (Stanford U)

Abstract

This study investigates the use of variable compensation to motivate product development managers and its impact upon the performance of product development projects. Grounded on measurement theory, the paper presents a model to explore the question of how to combine subjective and objective measures of performance contingent upon the uncertainty of the project. Next, the model is used to guide the analysis of data from 56 product development projects and understand how technology-intensive firms use variable compensation. Using a hierarchical modeling approach, I find that higher uncertainty is associated with lower variable compensation. Moreover, organizational structure, through its effect upon the allocation of uncertainty among organizational participants, also affects the level of variable compensation. I also explore whether the level of variable compensation is related to better or, alternatively, worse project performance. While extrinsic rewards may motivate a manager to exert more effort, they can also reduce intrinsic motivation or focus the manager's attention away from relevant project dimensions. I find a positive relationship between economic incentives and Project performance; however, the slope of this relationship is not linear decreases as the percentage of variable compensation increases. Finally, the paper uncovers that European companies are more likely to give a flat salary than their U.S. counterparts.

Suggested Citation

  • Davila, Tony, 2000. "Performance and the Design of Economic Incentives in New Product Development," Research Papers 1647, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
  • Handle: RePEc:ecl:stabus:1647
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://gsbapps.stanford.edu/researchpapers/library/RP1647.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Banker, Rd & Datar, Sm, 1989. "Sensitivity, Precision, And Linear Aggregation Of Signals For Performance Evaluation," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 21-39.
    2. John R. Hauser, 1998. "Research, Development, and Engineering Metrics," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(12-Part-1), pages 1670-1689, December.
    3. Lawrence M. Kahn & Peter D. Sherer, 1990. "Contingent Pay and Managerial Performance," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 43(3), pages 107-1-120-, April.
    4. Bengt Holmstrom, 1979. "Moral Hazard and Observability," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 74-91, Spring.
    5. HOLMSTROM, Bengt, 1979. "Moral hazard and observability," LIDAM Reprints CORE 379, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    6. Holmstrom, Bengt & Milgrom, Paul, 1991. "Multitask Principal-Agent Analyses: Incentive Contracts, Asset Ownership, and Job Design," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(0), pages 24-52, Special I.
    7. Marc H. Meyer & Peter Tertzakian & James M. Utterback, 1997. "Metrics for Managing Research and Development in the Context of the Product Family," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(1), pages 88-111, January.
    8. Scott Keating, A., 1997. "Determinants of divisional performance evaluation practices," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 243-273, December.
    9. David G. Hoopes & Steven Postrel, 1999. "Shared knowledge, “glitches,” and product development performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(9), pages 837-865, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christian Hofmann, 2005. "Gestaltung von Erfolgsrechnungen zur Steuerung langfristiger Projekte," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 57(8), pages 689-716, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Davila, Antonio, 2003. "Short-term economic incentives in new product development," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1397-1420, September.
    2. Bouwens, J.F.M.G. & van Lent, L.A.G.M., 2003. "Effort and Selection Effects of Incentive Contracts," Discussion Paper 2003-130, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    3. Bouwens, J.F.M.G. & van Lent, L.A.G.M., 2003. "Effort and Selection Effects of Incentive Contracts," Other publications TiSEM 46a62de7-d051-4620-93bb-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Merchant, Kenneth A. & Van der Stede, Wim A. & Zheng, Liu, 2003. "Disciplinary constraints on the advancement of knowledge: the case of organizational incentive systems," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(2-3), pages 251-286.
    5. Jan Bouwens & Laurence Van Lent, 2007. "Assessing the Performance of Business Unit Managers," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 667-697, September.
    6. Bushman, Robert M. & Smith, Abbie J., 2001. "Financial accounting information and corporate governance," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 237-333, December.
    7. Park, Sohee, 2023. "Customer prospects and pay-performance sensitivity: Evidence from Korea," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    8. Bouwens, J.F.M.G. & van Lent, L.A.G.M., 2006. "Assessing the Performance of Business Unit Managers," Other publications TiSEM f83d0732-69e7-4b1c-87c2-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    9. Ikram, Atif & Li, Zhichuan (Frank) & Minor, Dylan, 2023. "CSR-contingent executive compensation contracts," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    10. Iryna Alves & Sofia M. Lourenço, 2022. "The use of non-financial performance measures for managerial compensation: evidence from SMEs," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 151-187, June.
    11. van Veen-Dirks, Paula, 2010. "Different uses of performance measures: The evaluation versus reward of production managers," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 141-164, February.
    12. Kroos, P., 2009. "The incentive effects of performance measures and target setting," Other publications TiSEM 944001f9-198b-4b81-8824-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    13. Michael J. Petersen, 2007. "Using Downstream Revenue in a Performance Measurement System," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(4), pages 1193-1215, December.
    14. Madhav V. Rajan & Stefan Reichelstein, 2006. "Subjective Performance Indicators and Discretionary Bonus Pools," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 585-618, June.
    15. Hu, Jinshuai & Kim, Jeong-Bon, 2019. "The relative usefulness of cash flows versus accrual earnings for CEO turnover decisions across countries: The role of investor protection," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 91-107.
    16. Cecchini, Mark & Ecker, Joseph & Kupferschmid, Michael & Leitch, Robert, 2013. "Solving nonlinear principal-agent problems using bilevel programming," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 230(2), pages 364-373.
    17. Gibbs, Michael, 2012. "Design and Implementation of Pay for Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 6322, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Robert Gibbons, 2005. "Incentives Between Firms (and Within)," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(1), pages 2-17, January.
    19. Carter, Mary Ellen & Choi, Jen & Sedatole, Karen L., 2021. "The effect of supplier industry competition on pay-for-performance incentive intensity," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2).
    20. Jay C. Hartzell & Christopher A. Parsons & David L. Yermack, 2010. "Is a Higher Calling Enough? Incentive Compensation in the Church," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(3), pages 509-539, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ecl:stabus:1647. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/gsstaus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.