Make it too Difficult and I’ll Give-Up; Let me Succeed and I’ll Excel: The Interaction between Assigned and Personal Goals

James Fan (), Joaquín Gómez-Miñambres () and Samuel Smithers ()
Additional contact information
James Fan: Naval Postgraduate School, Graduate School of Business and Public Policy
Joaquín Gómez-Miñambres: Lafayette College, Department of Economics
Samuel Smithers: University of Leicester, Department of Economics

Working Papers from Chapman University, Economic Science Institute

Abstract: We examine the motivational effects of setting both assigned and personal nonbinding goals on a real effort laboratory experiment. In order to derive conjectures for our experiment, we develop a model with goal-dependent preferences. In line with previous studies, we find that goal setting leads to a higher performance. We also find that goal-setting is most effective if subjects were able to achieve previous goals. Therefore, in goal setting, “success breeds success”. In particular, we observe that when subjects are initially allowed to attain assigned goals, they are better at self-motivating in the future when performing under personal goals.

JEL-codes: C91 D23 M50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:chu:wpaper:19-23

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