ABSTRACT
Incentive systems are patterned transactions between members and their collective action organizations. Several incentives may be offered simultaneously to attract new members as well as to maintain current supporters. The essential feature of an incentive system is an exchange of organizationally controlled values for individuals’ resources, financial and participatory, that are needed by the association to pursue its collective goals. Utilitarian services appeal to persons’ rational choice motives, social/recreational activities elicit involvement on the basis of affective bonding, and public policy influence efforts attract persons with strong normative conformity predispositions. Considerable congruence is anticipated between the predominant organization goals and the character of its incentive systems. The theoretical literature is unclear about the emergence of heterogeneous incentive systems. A central part of any association’s internal economy is the structure through which leaders organize and coordinate the pooling of personal resources relinquished to the group by individual members.
