Completed NRP 73 research project: Nudging small and medium-sized companies
24.02.2023
“Nudging” is a way of influencing people’s behaviour. A new project shows that it can be applied effectively to SMEs too.
The “Nudging small and medium-sized companies” project investigated whether strategies that have proven effective in influencing individual behaviour can be applied to SMEs or whether they require adaptation – and, if so, in what form. The results of the project show that nudging SMEs can work and has the potential to improve their resource efficiency. Furthermore, SMEs are not motivated solely by financial benefits, but above all by making a positive contribution to the environment. In addition, SMEs are significantly influenced by examples of best practice from other companies, which suggests that providing benchmarks can motivate companies to step up their efforts to reduce resource consumption.
The project also found that corporate decisions can have positive spillover effects on employees’ behaviour. Moreover, repeated campaigns that simply urge people to adopt environmentally friendly habits have few or no spillover effects. However, minor obstacles (known as “sludges”) can impede the success of nudges and the efficacy of the underlying political programmes.
More information:
More information on the research project
Selected publications:
Contact:
Dr. Jan Schmitz
Department of Economics, Radboud University
+31 24 361 24 60
jan.schmitz@ru.nl