Many companies are using open innovation projects to create new and innovative ideas. Individuals who engage in open innovation usually participate voluntarily and without monetary rewards. What motivates these individuals and how can their motivation be increased? In two studies, the authors identify activity-related incentives as crucial. The authors find that achievement-related incentives and, with some limitations, power-related incentives positively correlate with optimal motivation, flow experience, and self-reported behaviour, when voluntarily working with an open innovation software platform. The authors conclude that open innovation projects should focus on activity-related incentives to enhance participants’ motivation for open innovation and their flow experience.
One of the prominent questions in flow research is the investigation of conditions that need to be met so that people will get involved in an activity for the sheer sake of doing it. The present study examined the relationship between distal (i.e., implicit motives) and proximal (i.e., affective preferences, cognitive preferences, perceived abilities) motivational processes and flow experience based on assumptions of the compensatory model of motivation and volition. In order to arouse the implicit agentic motive, 63 participants worked on an online platform in an open innovation environment. Results showed that affective preferences mediated the effect of the implicit agentic motive on flow experience. Moreover, a hierarchical regression analysis with simple slope tests yielded that, at the proximal level, the congruence of affective preferences, cognitive preferences, and perceived abilities was associated with flow experience. The present research adds some new and essential ingredients to Csikszentmihalyis’ traditional conception of flow.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.