Why do people participate in Innovation Tournaments?

This thesis investigates the relation between incentives and participation in innovation tournaments in a student environment. It investigates whether tangible, intangible and multiple-­‐winner vs. winner-­‐takes-­‐it-­‐all influence the intention to participate, the intensity of participation and the confidence that the tournament will create new ideas. I found that intangible and tangible incentives do influence these output variables separately, but there is no evidence for an interaction effect. This implies that tangible and intangible incentives seem to be substitutes. Results of multiple-­‐winner incentives are mixed. Multiple-­‐winner tournaments attract more people, have no effect in their planned intensity of participation in general but, importantly, the effect is highly significant on the planned effort to help mature others’ ideas. A winner-­‐takes-­‐it-­‐all tournament leads people to be less willing to collaborate with others, which is rational given that they are more “competitors” than in the multiple-­‐winner tournament.