1.Intuitively, incentives improve performance because ‘‘incentives increase effort and that increased effort leads to improvements in performance’’ (Bonner and Sprinkle 2002, 310). At a more nuanced level, performance incentives speak to the perceived complexity of an experimental task. To explain, if an individual has insufficient skill to complete a task (i.e., the task is too complex), then financial incentives will not improve performance (Bonner and Sprinkle 2002). Similarly, if a task is too simple, then incentives are not needed (i.e., more effort will not improve performance).9
2. Furthermore, for incentives to influence the effort exerted on a task, the benefits from the incentives must outweigh the cost of completing the task in a high-quality manner (Bonner and Sprinkle 2002, 306). Indeed, incentives need to be adequately large to effectively incentivize participants; otherwise, rewards will be ineffective or even counter-effective if deemed too small (Heyman and Ariely 2004; Gneezy and Rustichini 2000). The performance-contingent monetary incentives in this study ($11 to $25) are slightly larger than the average payouts in Luft and Shields (2001) and in Hodge et al. (2010). Thus, we posit that financial incentives will promote learning because decision makers will exert more mental effort, which in turn will increase performance in this relatively complex task.
3. Formally, we predict:
H2: Incentivized decision makers will outperform non-incentivized decision makers in a relatively complex prediction task.
4. While H1 predicts that, in total, OFB will improve performance in a relatively complex task,10 and H2, perhaps not surprisingly, predicts that incentivized decision makers will outperform nonincentivized decision makers in a relatively complex task, Bonner and Sprinkle (2002, 329) note that ‘‘it is unclear whether feedback has additive or interactive effects with monetary incentives.’’ To explain, if feedback and incentives have an additive effect on performance, then feedback and incentives will each improve performance, but the interaction of feedback and incentives will be insignificant. If, however, OFB and incentives positively complement each other, then incentivized participants with OFB will improve performance by more than the combination of each main effect.11
5. Although an economic meta-analysis finds that the positive effect of financial incentives becomes more prevalent when a task is faced repeatedly (Lee 2007, 630), this collective result does not directly speak to the interactive effect of feedback and incentives. In fact, Lee (2007) explicitly notes this issue requires further exploration. We respond to the call for research by examining the interaction between summary OFB and incentives.
6. While prior psychology research offers limited insight into the interactive effects of monetary incentives and OFB,12 recent accounting studies suggest that incentives and OFB may complement each other. Earley (2001, 2003) finds that self-explanations can enhance the ability of OFB to improve performance. Specifically, when auditors are required to self-explain (i.e., explain to themselves the underlying rationale of the task) after receiving OFB, the effect of OFB on performance in a valuation exercise is enhanced (Earley 2001, 2003). As such, Earley (2001, 2003) shows that in a relatively difficult OFB task, decision makers can acquire more in-depth knowledge contained in OFB reports by exerting additional mental effort (via self-explanations), thus increasing performance. Similarly, performance incentives should induce decision makers to apply additional mental effort to OFB, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will develop the innovative strategies required to perform well in complex judgment tasks (Sprinkle 2000, 299). In short, to the extent that incentives increase mental effort, incentives should enhance the effectiveness of OFB.
7. Similarly, Sprinkle (2000) finds that incentivized participants are more likely to request and use OFB relative to non-incentivized participants, indicating that monetary incentives can encourage individuals to obtain and use OFB, thus enhancing learning and performance. Sprinkle (2000), however, does not manipulate the provision of OFB; thus, an interaction between OFB and incentives was not directly assessed. In this study, we directly assess the interaction of OFB and incentives in a relatively complex task environment.
8. In essence, we expect that incentives will increase the effort applied to OFB, thus enhancing the learning process and improving performance. While the mere provision of OFB can enable learning to occur, if participants are not motivated to use the OFB to learn the properties of the task, the effectiveness of OFB will likely be attenuated. However, if adequate incentives are provided, we predict that participants will exert a sufficient level of effort to use the OFB and incrementally improve performance.
9. Formally, we predict:
H3: Incentivized decision makers who receive summary outcome feedback will improve performance more than non-incentivized decision makers who receive summary outcome feedback in a relatively complex prediction task.