Status Spillovers

37 Pages Posted: 30 May 2015

See all articles by Brian Philip Reschke

Brian Philip Reschke

Brigham Young University - Marriott School

Pierre Azoulay

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Toby Stuart

Harvard University - Entrepreneurial Management Unit; University of California, Berkeley - Haas School of Business

Date Written: May 28, 2015

Abstract

When an actor experiences a sudden gain in status — for example, when a scientist wins a Nobel Prize, or a film director wins an Oscar — what does this jump in status do to the fates of the winner’s many ‘neighbors’? Do non-winners bask in the reflected glory of the winner, and therefore rise with her? Or conversely, does competition for attention ensue, attenuating the recognition neighbors otherwise would have received? We investigate this question in the scientific community. Using article keywords assigned by third-party experts, we identify articles highly related to publications by eventual appointees to the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). We find that, on average, these 'neighbor articles' experience a substantial decline in citation rates after HHMI appointments are announced, relative to controls. That is, neighbors receive substantially less attention when a focal actor receives a prestigious prize. While this negative spillover effect dominates our findings, it is not absolute. For instance, neighbors are shielded from the negative effect if they share a direct social connection with a prize winner. Also, in areas of science in which endorsements are particularly valuable, such as novel fields of research, the spillover effect of a neighbor’s prize is instead positive.

Keywords: status, spillovers, prizes, science

Suggested Citation

Reschke, Brian Philip and Azoulay, Pierre and Stuart, Toby E. and Stuart, Toby E., Status Spillovers (May 28, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2611840 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2611840

Brian Philip Reschke

Brigham Young University - Marriott School ( email )

United States

Pierre Azoulay

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management ( email )

100 Main Street
E62-416
Cambridge, MA 02142
United States

HOME PAGE: http://scripts.mit.edu/~pazoulay/

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Toby E. Stuart (Contact Author)

University of California, Berkeley - Haas School of Business ( email )

545 Student Services Building, #1900
2220 Piedmont Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94720
United States

Harvard University - Entrepreneurial Management Unit ( email )

Cambridge, MA 02163
United States

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