When Rivalry Backfires: How Individual Skill and Risk of Status Loss Moderate the Effects of Rivalry on Performance
Management Science · 2026 · Tom Grad、Christoph Riedl、Gavin J. Kilduff
中文摘要
现有竞争对抗研究发现, 人们在与其对手竞争时会更加努力并有更好的表现。然而, 是否存在某些条件会使竞争对抗损害绩效?我们将竞争对抗理论与调节匹配理论 (regulatory fit theory) 相结合, 提出竞争对抗的两个调节变量: 个人技能与地位变化的情境风险。我们利用软件编程竞赛数据检验上述预测, 该数据涵盖 16,846 名软件开发者 ("程序员") 之间超过 460 万次竞争交锋, 以考察竞争对抗的因果效应及其可能适得其反的条件。我们发现, 平均而言, 被随机分配与共享对抗历史的竞争者同场竞技的程序员表现出更高的绩效, 且这一效应超出了竞争中其他已确立的绩效驱动因素。然而, 值得注意的是, 竞争对抗的这种正向效应受以下两方面调节: (1) 程序员的技能水平, 即竞争对抗对技能较高的程序员更为有利, 而对技能较低的程序员则有害; (2) 程序员经历地位变化的风险, 即面临潜在地位丧失的程序员在与对手竞争时绩效下降。因此, 我们通过揭示竞争对抗可能损害绩效的条件拓展了相关研究, 这对理解其在组织中的作用至关重要。本文由 Sameer Srivastava (组织) 接收录用。补充材料: 在线附录和数据文件可在 https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.00344 获取。
Abstract
Existing rivalry research finds that people try harder and perform better when competing against their rivals. However, are there conditions under which rivalry can harm performance? We integrate rivalry theory with regulatory fit theory to propose two moderators of rivalry: individual skill and situational risk for status change. We test our predictions using data from software programming contests involving more than 4.6 million competitive encounters across 16,846 software developers (“coders”) to examine the causal effects of rivalry and the conditions under which it may backfire. We find that, on average, coders who are randomly assigned to compete against a field of competitors with whom they share a rivalrous history exhibit higher performance, above and beyond other established drivers of performance in competition. Importantly, however, this positive effect of rivalry is moderated by (1) coders’ skill level, such that rivalry is more beneficial for more skilled coders and is harmful for less skilled coders, and (2) coders’ risk of experiencing a status change, such that coders who face a possible status loss exhibit decreased performance when competing against rivals. Thus, we extend research on rivalry by revealing the conditions under which it can harm performance, which is vital to understanding its role in organizations. This paper was accepted by Sameer Srivastava, organizations. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.00344 .