{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,6]],"date-time":"2026-02-06T20:14:10Z","timestamp":1770408850157,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)","issue":"2","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Management Science"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,2]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Innovation contests incentivize the participants\u2019 to exert effort toward combining (recombining) their existing knowledge to create solutions. In the current work, we consider the case of serial contests, where effort to create solutions for earlier contests can also expand the participant\u2019s knowledge, which can then be valuable in future contests. We develop a novel framework that explicitly includes the generation and utilization of knowledge by participants in knowledge-driven serial innovation contests, and we analyze the implications of this framework for optimal incentive design. Analysis of our model reveals that the efforts expended by participants in a contest can depend on future rewards, especially when learning emerges as a \u201cside effect\u201d of execution effort (i.e., learning while doing). In fact, participants will exert effort in an earlier contest even when its associated reward is zero. In contrast, when explicit knowledge generation effort is feasible (i.e., learning before doing), the contest designer should increase the reward for the earlier contest to prevent participants from postponing their learning. Our model demonstrates that whether one should assign higher reward to the earlier or later contest depends on the mode of learning, the participant pool\u2019s ex ante knowledge, and the transferability of learning from one contest to the next.<\/jats:p>\n                  <jats:p>This paper was accepted by Ashish Arora, entrepreneurship and innovation.<\/jats:p>\n                  <jats:p>Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1287\/mnsc.2022.03369 .<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.2022.03369","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,23]],"date-time":"2025-05-23T11:59:01Z","timestamp":1748001541000},"page":"1095-1111","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Designing Knowledge-Driven Innovation Contests"],"prefix":"10.1287","volume":"72","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8450-7359","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lakshminarayana","family":"Nittala","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Business Administration, University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio 45469"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9878-3562","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sanjiv","family":"Erat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rady School of Management, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"109","reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/opre.2016.1575"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/poms.13342"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1006\/obhd.2000.2893"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.36.2.140"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.49.4.571.14424"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/2295952"},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1756-2171.2009.00087.x"},{"key":"B8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.1110.1322"},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jebo.2016.11.009"},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.46.2.265.11925"},{"key":"B11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.1040.0234"},{"key":"B12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s11127-011-9905-9"},{"key":"B13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.2020.3673"},{"key":"B14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.41.11.1750"},{"key":"B15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.40.8.947"},{"key":"B16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/opre.44.1.77"},{"key":"B17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.1110.1418"},{"key":"B18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1540-5885.2012.00959.x"},{"key":"B19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s00199-009-0463-z"},{"key":"B20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Grossmann M (2022) Adjustment costs and disinvestment in q contests. 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