IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/phsmap/v644y2024ics0378437124003571.html

Simulating the emergence of superstar firms: The role of luck vs talent

Author

Listed:
  • Biondo, A.E.
  • Pluchino, A.
  • Zanola, R.

Abstract

This paper explores the dynamics of superstar firms, introduced by Rosen's seminal work on talent's role in success. The traditional viewpoint posits that technological advancements drive market dominance by highly talented individuals, creating a 'superstars' landscape. The paper challenges this perspective, introducing luck as a crucial and overlooked factor in shaping the success of superstar firms. Using an agent-based model, the study simulates the emergence of superstars in twelve countries. The results suggest that while talent and technology are essential, luck also plays a significant role in the 'rich get richer' phenomenon observed in superstar firms, emphasizing the multifaceted nature of success and suggesting opportune policy strategies to foster true meritocracy.

Suggested Citation

  • Biondo, A.E. & Pluchino, A. & Zanola, R., 2024. "Simulating the emergence of superstar firms: The role of luck vs talent," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 644(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:644:y:2024:i:c:s0378437124003571
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2024.129848
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437124003571
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.physa.2024.129848?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xavier Gabaix & Augustin Landier, 2008. "Why has CEO Pay Increased So Much?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(1), pages 49-100.
    2. David Autor & David Dorn & Lawrence F Katz & Christina Patterson & John Van Reenen, 2020. "The Fall of the Labor Share and the Rise of Superstar Firms [“Automation and New Tasks: How Technology Displaces and Reinstates Labor”]," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(2), pages 645-709.
    3. Damien Challet & Alessandro Pluchino & Alessio Emanuele Biondo & Andrea Rapisarda, 2020. "The Origins Of Extreme Wealth Inequality In The Talent Versus Luck Model," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(02), pages 1-17, March.
    4. Damien Challet & Alessandro Pluchino & Alessio Emanuele Biondo & Andrea Rapisarda, 2020. "On the origins of extreme wealth inequality in the Talent vs Luck Model," Post-Print hal-02188240, HAL.
    5. Antonelli, Cristiano, 1997. "The economics of path-dependence in industrial organization," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 643-675, October.
    6. Kevin Xiaoguo Zhu & Zach Zhizhong Zhou, 2012. "Research Note ---Lock-In Strategy in Software Competition: Open-Source Software vs. Proprietary Software," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(2), pages 536-545, June.
    7. Caroline Stiel & Alexander Schiersch, 2022. "Testing the superstar firm hypothesis," Journal of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 583-603, December.
    8. Alessandro Pluchino & Alessio Emanuele Biondo & Andrea Rapisarda, 2018. "Talent Versus Luck: The Role Of Randomness In Success And Failure," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(03n04), pages 1-31, May.
    9. Meghana Ayyagari & Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & Vojislav Maksimovic, 2024. "The Rise of Star Firms: Intangible Capital and Competition," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 37(3), pages 882-949.
    10. Holger M. Mueller & Paige P. Ouimet & Elena Simintzi, 2017. "Wage Inequality and Firm Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 379-383, May.
    11. Erik Brynjolfsson & Yu (Jeffrey) Hu & Michael D. Smith, 2010. "Research Commentary --- Long Tails vs. Superstars: The Effect of Information Technology on Product Variety and Sales Concentration Patterns," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(4), pages 736-747, December.
    12. Luis Garicano & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2006. "Organization and Inequality in a Knowledge Economy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(4), pages 1383-1435.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. José Luis Gracia Bustelo & Albert Miró Pérez & Harold Meruvia Torrez, 2025. "The Determinants of the Concentration of Superstar Firms: Cluster Analysis and Its Relationship with Economic Development and Artificial Intelligence," Economies, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-20, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aigerim Yergabulova & Dinara Alpysbayeva & Venkat Subramanian, 2023. "Wage dispersion and firm performance: evidence from Kazakhstan," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 45(3), pages 425-448, July.
    2. Lukas B. Freund, 2025. "Superstar Teams," CESifo Working Paper Series 12303, CESifo.
    3. Claudine Gartenberg & Julie Wulf, 2020. "Competition and Pay Inequality Within and Between Firms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(12), pages 5925-5943, December.
    4. Luis Garicano & Thomas N. Hubbard, 2016. "The Returns to Knowledge Hierarchies," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 32(4), pages 653-684.
    5. Klaus S. Friesenbichler & Agnes Kügler, 2026. "Short and medium-term effects of intangible capital on firm growth: firm-level evidence from austrian microdata," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 53(1), pages 113-148, February.
    6. Pardesi, Mantej, 2024. "Productivity convergence and firm’s training strategy," ROA Research Memorandum 003, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    7. Binnur Balkan & Semih Tumen, 2016. "Firm-Size Wage Gaps along the Formal-Informal Divide: Theory and Evidence," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 235-266, April.
    8. Vladimirov, Vladimir, 2021. "Financing Skilled Labor," CEPR Discussion Papers 15751, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    9. Monte, Ferdinando, 2011. "Skill bias, trade, and wage dispersion," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 202-218, March.
    10. Cortes, Matias & Lerche, Adrian & Schönberg, Uta & Tschopp, Jeanne, 2023. "Technological Change, Firm Heterogeneity and Wage Inequality," IZA Discussion Papers 16070, IZA Network @ LISER.
    11. Antonelli, Cristiano & Tubiana, Matteo, 2020. "Income inequality in the knowledge economy," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 153-164.
    12. Keller, Wolfgang & Olney, William W., 2021. "Globalization and executive compensation," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    13. Xavier Gabaix & Jean‐Michel Lasry & Pierre‐Louis Lions & Benjamin Moll, 2016. "The Dynamics of Inequality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 2071-2111, November.
    14. Huitfeldt, Ingrid & Kostøl, Andreas R. & Nimczik, Jan & Weber, Andrea, 2023. "Internal labor markets: A worker flow approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 233(2), pages 661-688.
    15. Francois Geerolf, 2015. "A Static and Microfounded Theory of Zipf's Law for Firms and of the Top Labor Income Distribution," 2015 Meeting Papers 516, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    16. Lee, Tim & Shin, Yongseok, 2017. "Horizonatal and Vertical Polarization: Task-Specific Technological Change in a Multi-Sector Economy," TSE Working Papers 17-800, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    17. Mitchell Hoffman & Christopher T. Stanton, 2024. "People, Practices, and Productivity: A Review of New Advances in Personnel Economics," NBER Working Papers 32849, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Luis Medrano‐Adán & Vicente Salas‐Fumás & Javier Sanchez‐Asin, 2024. "Organization of production and income inequality," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 582-604, August.
    19. Jacques Bughin & Nicolas van Zeebroeck, 2024. "Strategic Renewal and Corporate Return of Digital Transformation," Working Papers TIMES² 2024-071, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    20. Andrés César & Guillermo Falcone & Pablo Garriga, 2022. "Robots, Exports and Top Income Inequality: Evidence for the U.S," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0307, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:644:y:2024:i:c:s0378437124003571. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/physica-a-statistical-mechpplications/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.