Nudging and Intrapreneurship

Last registered on March 24, 2020

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Nudging and Intrapreneurship

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0000692

Initial registration date

April 15, 2015

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

April 15, 2015, 9:10 AM EDT

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

Last updated

March 24, 2020, 10:39 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

Netherlands

Region

Europe

Primary Investigator

Name

Utz Weitzel

Affiliation

Radboud University

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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Coen Rigtering

PI Affiliation

Utrecht University School of Economics

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Additional Trial Information

Status

Completed

Start date

2014-09-18

End date

2016-03-31

Keywords

Governance

Additional Keywords

Nudging, intrapreneurship

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

Intrapreneurship refers to bottom-up entrepreneurial activities by employees in existing firms and is an important source of innovation and organizational growth. As intrapreneurship is typically not codified in job descriptions, firms largely depend on the willingness of employees to develop intrapreneurial ideas during their own personal time. This project will explore to what extent subtle non-monetary cues, commonly referred to as nudging, can be used to influence intrapreneurial behavior in a large corporation.

Using a randomized controlled trial, we allocate employees to different experimental conditions where ideas can be submitted to an innovation challenge for further support and development. In a 2x2 and a 1x3 design we randomly apply interventions with default options, peer effects and minority/majority social norms as nudges. We combine the experimental data with survey data, expert evaluations, corporate HR data and post-hoc data to examine the effect of corporate nudging on the number and quality of intrapreneurial activities from idea generation to market success.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Rigtering, Coen and Utz Weitzel. 2020. "Nudging and Intrapreneurship." AEA RCT Registry. March 24. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.692-3.0

Former Citation

Rigtering, Coen and Utz Weitzel. 2020. "Nudging and Intrapreneurship." AEA RCT Registry. March 24. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/692/history/64793

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

We use of a multi-method approach, combining experimental, archival, survey and interview data. We apply three interventions (default options; peer effects; minority/majority social norms) to an existing corporate innovation process where employees submit ideas to the top management in order to receive corporate funding for further development of these ideas. The three interventions are all applied at the stage where employees are asked to submit their ideas to a contest. The contest is designed in line with an existing corporate innovation process.

Intervention (Hidden)

Intervention Start Date

2015-04-20

Intervention End Date

2015-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

We have several outcome variables to measure the effectiveness of the interventions. First, we measure the number of ideas submitted to the contest. Second, we measure the quality of ideas with expert evaluations. Third, we measure the success with which employees develop their ideas to a marketable product.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

not available

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Coin flip randomization within size categories

Randomization Unit

individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

800 individuals

Sample size: planned number of observations

800 individuals

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Sample size in first phase (2x2 design): 800/4 = 200 individuals per task. Sample size in second phase (1x3 design; 1 treatment with 3 dimensions applied to one half of participants of first phase): 400/3 = 133 individuals per task

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB