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Free-Riding And Knowledge Spillovers In Teams: The Role Of Social Ties

Author

Listed:
  • Maria De Paola
  • Francesca Gioia
  • Vincenzo Scoppa

    (Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza, Università della Calabria)

Abstract
We investigate whether and how social ties affect performance in teams by implementing a field experiment in which a sample of undergraduate students are randomly assigned to either teams composed by friends or teams composed by individuals not linked by friendship relationships. Students undertake an intermediate exam divided into two parts: one graded on the basis of individual performance and the other graded on the basis of the team performance. We find that students assigned to socially connected teams perform significantly better than control students in both the team part and the individual part of the exam, suggesting that social ties are relevant both for solving free-riding problems and for inducing knowledge spillovers among teammates. The positive effect of friendship in teams persists over time and treated students have a better performance also in a second test evaluated exclusively on the basis of their individual performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria De Paola & Francesca Gioia & Vincenzo Scoppa, 2016. "Free-Riding And Knowledge Spillovers In Teams: The Role Of Social Ties," Working Papers 201609, Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza "Giovanni Anania" - DESF.
    • Handle: RePEc:clb:wpaper:201609
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Josse Delfgaauw & Robert Dur & Oke Onemu & Joeri Sol, 2022. "Team Incentives, Social Cohesion, and Performance: A Natural Field Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(1), pages 230-256, January.
    2. Liao, Shi-Gen & Yi, Shu-Ping, 2021. "Modeling and analyzing knowledge transmission process considering free-riding behavior of knowledge acquisition: A waterborne disease approach," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 569(C).
    3. De Paola, Maria & Gioia, Francesca & Scoppa, Vincenzo, 2019. "Free-riding and knowledge spillovers in teams: The role of social ties," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 74-90.
    4. De Paola, Maria & Gioia, Francesca & Scoppa, Vincenzo, 2022. "Female leadership: Effectiveness and perception," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 134-162.
    5. Julius Duker & Alexander Rieber, 2024. "Performance, Knowledge Acquisition and Satisfaction in Self-selected Groups: Evidence from a Classroom Field Experiment," Papers 2403.12694, arXiv.org.
    6. Mehic, Adrian & Olofsson, Charlotta, 2021. "Get Rich or Fail Your Exam Tryin': Gender, Socioeconomic Status and Spillover Effects of Blended Learning," Working Papers 2021:8, Lund University, Department of Economics, revised 16 Oct 2022.
    7. Li, Sherry Xin & Wang, Shengzhe & Yang, Shuo, 2023. "What is in Local Dialects? A Field Experiment on Social Distance and Human Capital Development in Job Training," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 106(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Free-Riding; Knowledge Spillover; Social Ties; Randomized Field Experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • D86 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Economics of Contract Law
    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments

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