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Awards are a widespread phenomenon. They cater to the fundamental desire for social recognition and serve as a valuable incentive to influence behaviour. The study of awards such as medals, prizes and titles has in recent years gained momentum in economics, complementing the longstanding focus on material incentives. To evaluate the effectiveness of awards as a motivator is difficult as the effect of awards must be separated from the fact that awards are meant to be given to the best. We show how research on awards has advanced over the last couple of years, thus providing points of departure for future work.There are an enormous number of awards adorning people's chests and organizations' entry halls. They range from orders and crosses bequeathed by heads of state, to decorations handed out by the military, and to many different other prizes and titles bequeathed by all sorts of organizations in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. It would be difficult to find an area of society in which awards are not employed. State orders and decorationsAll countries around the world (with the exception of Switzerland) know the institution of official awards in the form of state orders and crosses

Research summary:Awards are a valuable strategic resource. Motivation theory and the emerging body of empirical literature suggest that awards can have a significant effect on employee motivation and corporate performance, though not always in the intended direction. Awards can also destroy value. The organizational award literature has so far largely neglected this important issue. We develop a synthesis of the dimensions critical for successful award bestowals, and analyze under which conditions awards generate firm-specific value that is sustained and difficult for competitors to imitate. The process of value creation and capture is contingent on the given firm's organizational characteristics and nature of production. The article concludes by laying out empirical implications. JEL codes: M52, M54, J24, J30. Managerial summary: Awards are widely used in the corporate sector. They fundamentally differ from monetary incentives, which risk crowding out employees' intrinsic motivation. Among the variety of awards, two general types can be distinguished: confirmatory awards based on explicit, pre-determined performance criteria, and discretionary awards, which rely on broad performance evaluations and may be used ex post to honor outstanding performance. Appropriately designed and adjusted to the specific firm's characteristics, awards enhance employees' motivation and corporate performance. They express recognition and support their recipients' perceived competence and social status. Awards help to retain valuable employees and to establish role models. However, awards may also backfire, for instance, when they provoke envy among coworkers. We propose when awards risk destroying value and when they are particularly useful.

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