Please use this form to submit your study for inclusion into our database. It will be checked by a member of the Innovation Growth Lab team, who may be in contact to ask for more information. Your email address * Your name * Title * The name of the study Short summary In the context of online developer tournaments this study found that added rivalry is likely to induce higher performance given that failing to exert effort will reduce the likelihood of winning a prize. Tournament organizers can leverage contest size, dividing competitors by ability, and opening entry to all, as policy tools to manipulate the performance of competitors, particularly when changes allow the reallocation of prize money. A brief description of the project's goals and its current state Abstract <p>Tournaments are widely used in the economy to organize production and innovation. We study individual data on 2,775 contestants in 755 software algorithm development contests with random assignment. The performance response to added contestants varies non-monotonically across contestants of different abilities, precisely conforming to theoretical predictions. Most participants respond negatively, while the highest-skilled contestants respond positively. In counterfactual simulations, we interpret a number of tournament design policies (number of competitors, prize allocation and structure, number of divisions, open entry) and assess their effectiveness in shaping optimal tournament outcomes for a designer.</p> The full abstract of the study, if available Links http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1756-2171.12121/full Links to any published papers and related discussions Authors * Affiliations Academic and other institutes that the authors of the study are members of Delivery partner Organisations involved in delivering the trial, if appropriate Year Year Year199419951996199719981999200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026 Month MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Day Day12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031 Journal Journal publishing the study, if available Publication stage * Working Paper Published Ongoing Research Forthcoming Discussion Paper Research theme * Entrepreneurship Innovation Business Growth Country Country or countries where this study took place. Topics What sort of topics does the study cover? Sample attributes Hypotheses / research question What is the relationship between performance and competition across the distribution of ability? The researchers aim to clarify heterogeneous responses in terms of effort across competitors of different ability levels. Theory predicts that as the number of competitors increases, competitors with the lowest ability have little response, competitors with intermediate ability respond negatively, and competitors with the highest ability respond positively. Sample Trial population and sample selection Subjects were from the TopCoder platform’s existing membership of software and algorithm programmers. A short panel within a stable period of TopCoder's History during which the assignment of contests to online "rooms" was based on a randomised assignment procedure. The study data is from algorithm contests offering cash prizes between 2005 and 2007. The analysis is focused on the higher-skilled Division I. In total, the data included 755 independent contests ("rooms") across 32 events in the sample, in which 2,775 individual competitors participated. Number of treatment groups Size of treatment groups N/A Size of control group Unit of analysis Clustered? Yes No Cluster details Trial attributes Treatment description Roughly 20% of the contests have cash prizes. Coders that win a prize receive an average of $110. Researchers exploit variations in these monetary payoff sizes and those contests with only non-monetary prizes as proxies of the competitive stakes. Rounds of data collection Baseline data collection and method Panel data was drawn directly from TopCoder's comprehensive database over the sample period of interest. Variables include individual performance measures (points received / "score"), individual skill rating, number of competitors by contest, prizes by contest. Data collection method and data collected Evaluation Outcome variables <p>Individual contestant performance.</p> Results <p>Increased competition reduces the likelihood of winning a prize, which reduces strategic incentives to exert high effort. The least-skilled contestants are negligibly affected by rising competition, the response becomes progressively more negative with higher levels of ability until, toward the range of the highest-skilled contestants the relationship becomes more positive.</p> Intervention costs Not available. Cost benefit ratio Reference Lakhani, K., Boudreau, K., & Menietti, M., [forthcoming]. 'Performance Responses To Competition Across Skill-Levels In Rank Order Tournaments: Field Evidence and Implications For Tournament Design'. Management Science. Citation for use in academic references
