Company-Sponsored Online Co-Creation and Financial Incentives: The Impact of Intrinsic Motivation on Participation Intention

ABSTRACT

Participation in sponsored online co-creation is said to be driven primarily by an individual’s intrinsic motivation, which in turn may be crowded-out, or undermined by financial incentives. The effect of financial incentives, specifically in a company-sponsored online co-creation brainstorming (COCB) context, however, remains unexplored. In this study, we use LEGO Ideas, a prominent COCB, as an exemplar and employ a between-subjects randomized experimental design to examine the effect of different types of financial incentives on intrinsic motivation’s impact on participation intention in a COCB context, either directly or indirectly through personal innovativeness in the domain of information technology. Our findings suggest that focused financial incentives, representing situations where financial rewards are administered exclusively on the basis of excellent performance, offer the best outcome for predicting participation intention. These findings contribute to our knowledge of the use of financial incentives in sponsored online co-creation generally, and specifically in COCBs.

KEYWORDS:

• online co-creation
• crowding-out
• financial incentives
• intrinsic motivation
• participation intention
• personal innovativeness in IT
• online brainstorming
• extrinsic motivation

Participation Intention (adapted from [6])

1. I intend to participate in this Company Sponsored Online Co-Creation Brainstorming (COCB) community.

2. I will try to participate in this Company Sponsored Online Co-Creation Brainstorming (COCB) community.

3. I am determined to participate in this Company Sponsored Online Co-Creation Brainstorming (COCB) community.

Personal Innovativeness in IT [3]

1. If I heard about a new information technology, I would look for ways to experiment with it.

2. Among my peers, I am usually the first to try out new information technologies.

3. I like to experiment with new information technologies.

State Expectancy (adapted from [74])

1. Compared to other participants in your chosen Company Sponsored Online Co-Creation Brainstorming (COCB) community, how do you think you will perform the overall co-creation task? Pick one of the following:

   • Better than 9 out of 10 of the other participants

   • Better than 7 out of 10 of the other participants

   • Better than 5 out of 10 of the other participants

   • Better than 3 out of 10 of the other participants

   • 9 out of 10 of the other participants will perform better than me

2. Compared to other participants in your chosen Company Sponsored Online Co-Creation Brainstorming (COCB) community, how do you think your creativity will compare to others on the co-creation task? Pick one of the following:

   • More creative than 9 out of 10 of the other participants

   • More creative than 7 out of 10 of the other participants

   • More creative than 5 out of 10 of the other participants

   • More creative than 3 out of 10 of the other participants

   • 9 out of 10 of the other participants will be more creative than me

3. Compared to other participants in your chosen Company Sponsored Online Co-Creation Brainstorming (COCB) community, how do you think your project execution (quality of your product) will compare to others on the co-creation task? Pick one of the following:

   • Better project execution than 9 out of 10 of the other participants

   • Better project execution than 7 out of 10 of the other participants

   • Better project execution than 5 out of 10 of the other participants

   • Better project execution than 3 out of 10 of the other participants

   • 9 out of 10 of the other participants will have better project execution than me

4. Compared to other participants in your chosen Company Sponsored Online Co-Creation Brainstorming (COCB) community, how do you think your promotional skills (the ability to convince others of the value of your product) will compare to others on the co-creation task? Pick one of the following

   • Better promotional skills than 9 out of 10 of the other participants

   • Better promotional skills than 7 out of 10 of the other participants

   • Better promotional skills than 5 out of 10 of the other participants

   • Better promotional skills than 3 out of 10 of the other participants

   • 9 out of 10 of the other participants will have better promotional skills than me

Correlation Matrix

Table

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Siddharth Baswani

Siddharth Baswani is a Ph.D. candidate in Information Systems and Business Analytics at the Ivy College of Business at Iowa State University. He received his Bachelor of Business from the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. He also completed a Diploma for Graduates (in Information Systems) through the University of London International Programmes. His research focuses on individuals’ interactions with various established and emerging consumer technologies including online co-creation, Internet of Things (IoT) and online retail, and consumer 3D printing.

Anthony M. Townsend

Anthony M. Townsend is an Associate Professor of Information Systems and Business Analytics at Iowa State University. He received his Ph.D. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He is conducting research in collaborative systems designed to enhance a variety of organizational processes, including security. Dr. Townsend has published in MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, and the Communications of the ACM, among other venues.

Andy Luse

Andy Luse is an Associate Professor of Management Science and Information Systems in the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University. He received Ph.D. degrees in Human Computer Interaction, Computer Engineering, and Information Systems from Iowa State University. Dr. Luse’s research has focused on computer security and research methods. He has published in Journal of Management Information Systems, Communications of the Association of Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, and many other journals.