Revenue drift, incentives, and effort allocation in social enterprises

B-Tier
Journal: Journal of Economics & Management Strategy
Year: 2024
Volume: 33
Issue: 3
Pages: 630-651

Score contribution per author:

0.503 = (α=2.01 / 4 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Revenue drift, whereby insufficient attention is given to economic, relative to social, goals, threatens social enterprise performance and survival. We argue that financial incentives can address this problem by redirecting employee attention to commercial tasks and attracting workers less inclined to fixate on social tasks. In an online experiment with varying incentive levels, monetary rewards succeed in directing worker effort to commercial tasks; high‐powered incentives attract less prosocial employees, but low‐powered incentives do not alter workforce composition. Social enterprises combining monetary rewards with a social mission not only attract more workers but are also able to guard against revenue drift.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:bla:jemstr:v:33:y:2024:i:3:p:630-651
Journal Field
Industrial Organization
Author Count
4
Added to Database
2026-01-29