Status Signals

• ISBN13: 9780691136431
• ISBN10: 0691136432
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-02-25
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Why are elite jewelers reluctant to sell turquoise, despite strong demand? Why did leading investment bankers shun junk bonds for years, despite potential profits?Status Signalsis the first major sociological examination of how concerns about status affect market competition. Starting from the basic premise that status pervades the ties producers form in the marketplace, Joel Podolny shows how anxieties about status influence whom a producer does (or does not) accept as a partner, the price a producer can charge, the ease with which a producer enters a market, how the producer's inventions are received, and, ultimately, the market segments the producer can (and should) enter. To achieve desired status, firms must offer more than strong past performance and product quality--they must also send out and manage social and cultural signals. Through detailed analyses of market competition across a broad array of industries--including investment banking, wine, semiconductors, shipping, and venture capital--Podolny demonstrates the pervasive impact of status. Along the way, he shows how corporate strategists, tempted by the profits of a market that would negatively affect their status, consider not only whether to enter the market but also whether they can alter the public's perception of the market. Podolny also examines the different ways in which a firm can have status. Wal-Mart, for example, has low status among the rich as a place to shop, but high status among the rich as a place to invest. Status Signalsprovides a systematic understanding of market dynamics that have--until now--not been fully appreciated.

Author Biography

Joel M. Podolny is dean and the William S. Beinecke Professor of Management at the Yale School of Management

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
List of Tables	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction: An Emergent Perspective from an Emergent Field	p. 1
Status, Reputation, and Quality	p. 10
The Matthew Effect (Un)bounded	p. 22
Getting More for Less in the Investment Banking Industry	p. 40
To Mingle or Not to Mingle with the Hoi Polloi: That Is the Question	p. 76
The Medium, the Message, and the Signal	p. 103
Status and Invention	p. 132
Embeddedness and Entry	p. 175
An Evolutionary Perspective on Status Segregation	p. 199
Uncertainty Reconsidered	p. 227
Conclusion	p. 249
Bibliography	p. 267
Credits	p. 279
Index	p. 281
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