Inducement prize has experienced a wide range of practices with a long history worldwide. Inducement prize is considered as a research management tool to attract potential participants to solve specific problems by offering a reward in cash or other ways. In China, a research management system called "Jie Bang Gua Shuai" has been proposed recently. It refers to an open competition mechanism to select the best candidates. It is essentially consistent with the concept, process, and objectives of the inducement prize. Since it is a new concept in China, relevant administrators and participants do not have deep understanding of the system and its application skills. By combing and summarizing the development process and characteristics of global inducement prize , we analyze the typical cases organized by European and American countries since the new century and put forward referential enlightenment and suggestions on the key elements such as "setting awards", "publishing information", "evaluation and selection" and "project incentive", in the hope of finding ways to improve and enhance the application of "Jie Bang Gua Shuai" system in China.
From the authoritative database, a total of 124 worldwide inducement prize projects are collected and 6 of them with high qualifications, long periods, different emphases, multiple achievements, and tremendous influence are selected as the object of case analysis. In the case study, taking the establishment principle, organizational authorization and incentive mechanism as the starting point, this paper summarizes the application and development history of inducement award in the world. Moreover, the typological analysis method has been applied in this paper. Finally, it analyzes and summarizes the characteristics and experience of three types of inducement awards launched by the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union in the new century, focusing on goal design, full authorization and hierarchical incentive. The results show that since the 21st century, the worldwide inducement prize has formed its unique style in terms of target and award setting principle, organizational authorization, and motivation mechanism. From the 6 collected Western inducement prize cases, we conclude three contemporary characteristics as efficient guiding effect, clear design principles, and complex influencing factors. To be more specific, firstly, the government, enterprises and relevant organizations precisely set the reward targets for science and technology, and the expert teams can quickly focus on the most urgent technical needs. Meanwhile it also stimulates the public innovation consciousness, and win public support of the scientific research and innovation activities. Secondly the communication cost of different departments and participants should be reduced as much as possible. The reward setting period should also be cross demonstrated in all core departments to ensure that the project cost will not be excessively consumed or wasted. Thirdly there are multiple factors affecting the effectiveness of project with inducement prize, such as the effectiveness of research objectives, the compatibility of incentive system, the comprehensive effect of project implementation, the pertinence of reward forms, the guarantee of policy mechanism and the core needs of competition audiences. It is an effective method to confirm and find out the correlation and cross effect between each element and the final goal.
The existing practical experience of worldwide inducement prize sheds light on China's "Jie Bang Gua Shuai" project management in 3 main aspects. (1) It is vital to clarify the reward principle that meets the organizational demands in the preparation and design stage of the project. Also, founders and organizers have to reach a consensus on the standard of objective setting. (2) It is essential to accurately analyze the crucial elements that meet the demands of potential target participating groups, and formulate and implement diversified incentive methods that can operate stably for a long time. Moreover, in the process of project design and implementation, we should also combine the characteristics of the technical field and organizational culture to loosen the empowerment of competition teams and individuals, shorten the length of process approval chain and improve management efficiency, so as to create favorable conditions for organizers and participants to make scientific decisions and operate effectively in the rapidly changing project environment. (3) In the process of initiation, implementation, and acceptance for the "Jie Bang Gua Shuai" project, the organizers should carefully organize and apply the complete system construction to provide the necessary guarantee for the project's successful operation. In management practice, relevant system management rules and standard operating procedures are not only the necessary conditions for establishing project rules, but also an important program for unifying the thought and decision-making behavior of all staff in the process of tackling key technical problems.
There are two main contributions in this paper. First of all, Chinese academia lacks research on the development and practice of the current global inducement award. By combing the development history of inducement awards in western countries, this study expounds the characteristics, differences and key points of inducement awards in the same period, and reveals the background, evolution process and development reform of European and American science and technology awards. Secondly, this study selects typical cases in the 21st century with significant influence in the world, and makes a in-depth analysis of the top-level design, system construction, cultural atmosphere, motivation policy, system guarantee, and other vital aspects of inducement prize. The research provides suggestions and experience for establishing and perfecting the research organization mode suitable for the "Jie Bang Gua Shuai" system.