Meaning & use
profit incentive
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable or uncountablebusiness
The motivation to make money, which encourages people or companies to start or expand a business activity.
Grammar: Can be used with 'a' or without an article: 'a profit incentive' or 'profit incentive'.
Patterns
- a profit incentive to do something
- provide a profit incentive
- create a profit incentive
The profit incentive encourages companies to cut costs and innovate.
Without a profit incentive, few would invest in such a risky project.
Low taxes can act as a profit incentive for small businesses.
nouncountablebusiness
A reward, often financial, offered to employees or managers to encourage them to increase company profits.
Grammar: Often used in HR or business contexts.
Patterns
- offer a profit incentive
- a profit incentive scheme
- tie pay to a profit incentive
The firm introduced a profit incentive to boost sales.
Managers received a profit incentive for exceeding their targets.
A profit incentive plan can align workers' goals with the company's.
Word forms
| plural | profit incentives |
|---|
Common combinations
- provide a profit incentive
- The government provided a profit incentive for renewable energy projects.
- profit incentive scheme
- The company's profit incentive scheme rewards top performers.
- lack of profit incentive
- A lack of profit incentive discouraged investment in the region.
- strong profit incentive
- There is a strong profit incentive to develop new drugs.
Synonyms and how they differ
- financial incentive
- Financial incentive is broader; it includes any money-related reward, not just profit.
- profit motive
- Profit motive refers to the overall desire to make money, while profit incentive often means a specific reward or motivation.
Commonly confused: profit incentive or profit sharing?
profit incentive vs profit sharing
Profit sharing is a system where employees get a share of profits; a profit incentive is the motivation or reward that encourages profit-making.
Practice
In which sentence is 'profit incentive' used correctly?
Choose one answer.
Profit incentive refers to the motivation to make money, so it makes sense that it drove the company to expand. Option 0 is contradictory for a charity; option 2 is about volunteering, not profit; option 3 confuses it with a tax.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “profit incentive”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.