The Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard (LISH) is changing the way we look at incentives and governance in industry and academia through experimentation and analysis with a focus on behavioral economics.
Key questions
What are the motives for creative workers engaged in innovation activities?
How do extrinsic, intrinsic, and pro-social motives interact in driving effort and performance for creative workers?
When are contests vs. community most effective?
What is the optimal balance between autonomy and managerial control for innovation activities?
These, and related questions, drive the research conducted by LISH and provide a clear pathway to achieve LISH’s mission. Research projects span a diverse array of areas of application, from the development of crowdsourcing best practices to exploring the science of science by examining the value of scientific citations. See below for more information on each of the individual projects in this research track.