Effects of individualizing incentives on team formation in science

Purpose Teamwork plays a critical role in science. Unlike other teams in organizations, scientific teams are mostly self-assembled, and scientists have substantial autonomy in forming teams. However, little is known about the factors that drive individual decisions to form and maintain teams. To address this issue, this paper aims to investigate how individualizing incentives, i.e. incentives that encourage individual work, affect these decisions. Design/methodology/approach A pilot study using publication data ( n = 2,138) indicates that papers from faculties using individualizing incentives had fewer coauthors and lower impact factors. In the main study ( n = 246), five or six participants were asked to work on intellectual tasks. They could choose between working in a team or individually. Findings In the individualizing-incentives condition, where cash prizes for completed tasks were divided by the number of persons involved, participants were seven times less likely to work in a team than in two different control conditions. Moreover, our findings suggest effects of individualizing incentives on task choice and work experience. Originality/value The current work illustrates the effect of incentives in the context of team formation. This is an important issue for scientific teams and beyond, because for teamwork to unfold its positive effects, individuals do have to decide to collaborate in the first place.