The IRF's Academic Insights materials reflect the IRF’s commitment to building deeper links with the academic community, including the IRF's academic network of more than 50 university researchers worldwide, and to expediting the use of academic findings in business and programs.
Academic Research in Action
Each month, Academic Research in Action provides a quick-hit lesson on a key academic theory, then applies the theory to incentive, rewards, and recognition programs. Each installment includes insights and key talking points as well as sources for further reading.
November 2021: The Psychology of Points Reward Programs
October 2021: Applying Behavioral Science & Experimentation in Reward Program Design
September 2021: Individual or Team-Based Incentives? When to Use One, the Other … or Both
August 2021: Applied Social Exchange Theory in Social Recognition Program Design
THE IRF QUARTERLY ACADEMIC REVIEW
FOR INCENTIVE, REWARD & RECOGNITION PROFESSIONALS
An official publication of the Incentive Research Foundation
The IRF Quarterly Academic Review presents presents academic research summarized into the key findings and takeaways most relevant to incentive, reward, and recognition programs owners and designers. Each study is summarized, with additional key findings, actionable takeaways, and question and answer with the author. The Quarterly also offers research abstracts and book recommendations.
The IRF Quarterly Academic Review and Acdemic Reserach in Action are written by
Allan Schweyer, IRF Chief Academic Advisor.
- Volume 3, Number 1
Release: Spring 2020
Access Spring 2020 Issue Here
This issue of The IRF Quarterly Academic Review contains:
• Working Paper Summary: Impact of Reward/Recognition and Engagement Programs on Turnover Likelihood
• Rewards Strategy: A Key Driver of Service–Profit Chain
• Opting-in to Prosocial Incentives
• Working Paper Summary: Corporate Purpose and Financial Performance
• Higher Purpose, Incentives, and Economic Performance
• Books Reviewed & Recommended - Volume 2, Number 4
Release: Winter 2019
Access Winter 2019 Issue Here
This issue of The IRF Quarterly Academic Review contains:
• The Effects of Financial and Recognition Incentives Across Work Contexts: The Role of Meaning• The Effects of Knowledge Sharing on Helping Behavior: Implications for Reward System Design
• Tangible and Intangible Rewards and Employee Creativity: The Mediating Role of Situational Extrinsic Motivation
• The Impact of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivators on Employee Engagement in Information Organizations
• Managing Laggards: The Importance of a Deep Sales Bench
• Book Reviews and Recommendations - Volume 2, Number 3
Release: Fall 2019
Access Fall 2019 Issue Here
This issue of The IRF Quarterly Academic Review contains:
• Unrestricted Gift Cards: Compensation, Not Recognition
• Format Matters in the Mental Accounting of Funds: The Case of Gift Cards and Cash Gifts
• Gift Cards and Mental Accounting: Green-Lighting Hedonic Spending
• On the Mental Accounting of Restricted-Use Funds: How Gift Cards Change What People Purchase
• Employee Incentive Programs: Recipient Behaviors in Points, Cash, and Gift Card Programs
• The Perceived Value of Money Depends on Irrelevant Uses
• Books Reviewed and Recommended - Volume 2, Number 2
Release: Summer 2019
Access Summer 2019 Issue Here
This issue of The IRF Quarterly Academic Review contains:
• Effective Incentive Compensation for Sales Employees During Tough Economic Times
• How to Really Motivate Salespeople
• (Re)defining Salesperson Motivation: Current Status, Main Challenges, and Research Directions
• The Motivational Power of Incentive Travel: The Participant’s Perspective
• The Perils of Altering Incentive Plans: A Case Study
• Enhancing Return on Salesforce Investment: Reallocating Incentives and Training Resources with Intrinsic Valuation Approach
• Incentives Versus Reciprocity: Insights from a Field Experiment
• The Effects of Salesperson Need for Achievement and Sales Manager Leader Reward Behavior
• Sales Contest Effectiveness: An Examination of Sales Contest Design Preferences of Field Sales Forces
• Books Reviewed and Recommended - Volume 2, Number 1
Release: Spring 2019
This issue of The IRF Quarterly Academic Review contains:
• Pre-Release Research Summary: The Interactive Effect of Reward Type and Employee-Firm Identity on Instrumental-Symbolic Valuation of Rewards and Willingness to Exert Effort
• Micro-Review: The Impact of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivators on Employee Engagement in Information Organizations
• Pre-Release Research Summary: When Do Tangible Rewards Motivate Greater Effort Than Cash Rewards? An Analysis of Three Commonly Cited Differences
• Pre-Release Research Summary: Needs Versus Wants: Which Motivates More Effort?
• Pre-Release Research Summary: Rejections, Incentives, and Employee Creativity: When Chocolate Is Better Than Cash
• Recent & Relevant Research Summary: Self-Selected Sales Incentives: Evidence of their Effectiveness, Persistence, Durability, and Underlying Mechanisms
• Books Reviewed and Recommended - Volume 1, Number 4
Release: Winter 2018
Access Winter 2018 Issue Here
This issue of The IRF Quarterly Academic Review contains:
• Summary: The Motivational Properties of Tangible Incentives
• Summary: The Performance Effects of Tangible Versus Cash Rewards: The Mediating Role of Categorization
• Summary: Motivational Spillovers from Awards: Crowding Out in a Multitasking Environment
• Summary: The Carrot or the Stick? Investigating the Functional Meaning of Cash Rewards and Their Motivational Power According to Self-Determination Theory
• Summary: When are Rewards Bad for Innovation? Leaders as Catalysts for Positive Linkages Between Work Motivation and Innovation
• Books: Reviewed & Recommended - Volume 1, Number 3
Release: Fall 2018
Access Fall 2018 Issue Here
This issue of The IRF Quarterly Academic Review contains:
• Summary: Intrinsic Motivation and Extrinsic Incentives Jointly Predict Performance: A 40-year Meta-Analysis
• Summary: Do All Material Incentives for Prosocial Activities Backfire?
• Summary: Employee Incentive Programs: Recipient Behaviors in Points, Cash, and Gift Card Programs
• Summary: Preference Reversals in Evaluations of Cash Versus Non-Cash Incentives
• Summary: A Wonderful Life: Experiential Consumption and thePursuit of Happiness, and We’ll Always Have Paris: The Hedonic Payoff from Experiential and Material Investments
• Summary: Experiential Gifts Foster Stronger Social Relationships than Material Gifts
• Books: Reviewed & Recommended
- Volume 1, Number 2
Release: Summer 2018
Access SUMMER 2018 ISSUE HERE
This issue of The IRF Quarterly Academic Review contains:
• Summary: Is Cash King for Sales Compensation Plans?
• Summary: It's Not All About the Jacksons
• Summary: The Currency of Reciprocity
• Summary: Paying $30,000 for a Gold Star
• Books: Reviewed & Recommended - Volume 1, Number 1
Release: Spring 2018
Access SPRING 2018 ISSUE here
This issue of The IRF Quarterly Academic Review contains:
• Summary: Why Individuals Want Money is What Matters
• Summary: The Effects of Cash vs. Non-Cash Rewards in Sales Contests
• Summary: The Reward Value of Time
• Research Abstracts
• Books: Reviewed & Recommended