Formulation of hypotheses

Abstract

Based on the integrative framework (Chap. 2) and the experimental design (Chap. 3) specific expectations about the participants’ behavior in the study are formulated. The hypotheses formulation is structured according to the three main objectives: disentangling incentive and sorting effects (Sect. 4.1), analyzing contingencies of incentive effects (Sect. 4.2) and analyzing contingencies of sorting effects (Sect. 4.3). The formulation of the hypotheses is based on empirical evidence of related literature, theories from connected research fields as well as conceptual considerations based on a simple utility model using general agency theory assumptions. The variables addressed have been identified in the previous chapters to be necessary for considering incentive and sorting issues (i.e. magnitude of incentive and freedom of choice) or to be interesting to observe because of gaps in existing literature (contingencies of the effects). There are two main outcome variables: productivity levels as well as contracts selected (also referred to as magnitude of incentive in the contract selected). The productivity levels are addressed in Sects 4.1 and 4.2, the influences on the contracts selected, which differ in magnitude of incentive level, are analyzed in Sect. 4.3.