Testing incentive schemes in a retail setting

Last registered on March 13, 2023

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Testing incentive schemes in a retail setting

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0011044

Initial registration date

March 11, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

March 13, 2023, 3:26 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name

Francisco de Asis Martinez Jerez

Affiliation

The Hotel School, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University

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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Pablo Casas-Arce

PI Affiliation

Arizona State University

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2023-03-15

End date

2023-06-30

Keywords

Behavior, Firms & Productivity, Gender, Other

Additional Keywords

Race, Incentives

JEL code(s)

D23, J53, M50

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

The proposed objective the research team has converged on is to evaluate how much the incentive effect of a relative performance measurement system (such as a sales contest) is affected by the contestant’s knowledge of its opponent in the competition: their ability, their race, and their gender.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Casas-Arce, Pablo and Francisco de Asis Martinez Jerez. 2023. "Testing incentive schemes in a retail setting." AEA RCT Registry. March 13. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11044-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

We plan to organize a sales contest among stores during the NCAA basketball playoffs and championship games. We will have one-on-one matches of stores every week of the March basketball competition. The winner will be the store that achieves a higher growth in number of transactions over the last year.
In each of the three contests, stores will compete in one-on-one matches similar to those in the March Madness bracket. However, there will be no eliminations. Stores will be matched to a different store each week.

Intervention Start Date

2023-03-15

Intervention End Date

2023-04-04

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Our main variables of interest are sales and number of transactions. Number of transactions is the performance metric of the tournament but the ultimate objective of the firm is to increase sales.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We will assign regions to each of the two experimental groups (full information and restricted information) and within each region we will pair stores randomizing the pairs using a two group blocking. The dimension of the blocking is product offering (fashion versus sport).
The contests will last for 3-4 days coinciding with the NCAA basketball games. We will test our hypotheses using dollar sales and number of transactions in a Diff-in-Diffs framework.

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

We will have the regions assigned to treatments using the synthetic control method described in Abadie, A., & Zhao, J. (2021). Synthetic Controls for Experimental Design (Unpublished Working Paper).
Then we will pair stores randomizing within two blocks in each region. The blocks will be formed classifying the stores by the type of product offering (fashion vs. sport). The randomization will be done in the office by a computer.

Randomization Unit

We will assign regions to treatments (full information and restricted information) using the synthetic control method.
We will pair stores in tournaments using a randomized routine that blocks stores by product
offering.

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes