Ever since the federal TARP bailout of banks and insurance companies led to a huge public and political backlash against incentive travel, the industry has become galvanized by the realization that there is very little hard research that backs up its long-held beliefs about the power and value of non-cash incentives.

In our September cover story, Incentive will look at one new piece of research set to be published in the Journal of Economic Psychology next year. "Preference Reversals in the Evaluation of Cash Versus Noncash Incentives," by Prof. Victoria Shaffer of Wichita State University, is among the first examples of scholarly research comparing the cash and non-cash awards in corporate incentive programs. And the news is generally good.

Go to the Incentive Insights Podcast Web site (click the "here" link at the bottom to hear the podcast).