
The following post was published on theKnowledge@Wharton website on May 23, 2012.
In the 1987 movie Wall Street, the character Gordon Gekko famously declared that “greed is good,” a line that has come to symbolize the darkest aspects of materialism. But the latest research from Wharton management professorEthan Mollick sheds light on that bleak outlook and shows that not everyone is in it for the money.
In his paper titled, “Filthy Lucre: What Motivates the Commercialization of Innovation,” Mollick posits that financial gain sometimes plays little to no role in the decision making of highly creative people. In fact, the desire to stay out of the market can even smother some people’s career aspirations.
Mollick builds his theory...