IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0290954.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

And the award goes to…the Matthew Effect: Examining external status as a predictor of productivity and opportunity

Author

Listed:
  • Molly E Contini
  • Jeffrey R Spence

Abstract

It has been suggested that increased status that comes from being an award winner can generate enduring advantages that compound over one’s career via the Matthew Effect. However, research in this area has yielded conflicting results and has been unable to isolate the unique effect of status on career outcomes from the positive endogenous characteristics of award winners. In the current research, we attempt to address previous research limitations and examine if winning an award is associated with career outcomes (i.e., opportunities and productivity) irrespective of individual productivity levels prior to receiving an award. We examined our research questions using observational data of National Hockey League (NHL) league championship winners and non-winners (N = 427). By using a team award and several different analytic approaches we were able to examine the unique effects of affiliation-based external status, generated from an award win, on career outcomes. Our results generally show support for the Matthew Effect and suggest that affiliation-based external status, achieved by an award win, provides access to increased opportunities, which ultimately results in more productivity. We discuss the importance of incorporating opportunity and investigating its role in the cumulative advantage process and implications of the results.

Suggested Citation

  • Molly E Contini & Jeffrey R Spence, 2023. "And the award goes to…the Matthew Effect: Examining external status as a predictor of productivity and opportunity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(10), pages 1-25, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0290954
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290954
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0290954
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0290954&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0290954?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George J. Borjas & Kirk B. Doran, 2015. "Prizes and Productivity: How Winning the Fields Medal Affects Scientific Output," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(3), pages 728-758.
    2. Iacus, Stefano & King, Gary & Porro, Giuseppe, 2009. "cem: Software for Coarsened Exact Matching," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 30(i09).
    3. Rudolf Farys & Tobias Wolbring, 2017. "Matched control groups for modeling events in citation data: An illustration of nobel prize effects in citation networks," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 68(9), pages 2201-2210, September.
    4. Matthew Blackwell & Stefano Iacus & Gary King & Giuseppe Porro, 2009. "cem: Coarsened exact matching in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 9(4), pages 524-546, December.
    5. Caroline S Wagner & Edwin Horlings & Travis A Whetsell & Pauline Mattsson & Katarina Nordqvist, 2015. "Do Nobel Laureates Create Prize-Winning Networks? An Analysis of Collaborative Research in Physiology or Medicine," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-13, July.
    6. Birkmaier, Daniel & Wohlrabe, Klaus, 2014. "The Matthew effect in economics reconsidered," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 880-889.
    7. Richard S.J. Tol, 2009. "The Matthew effect defined and tested for the 100 most prolific economists," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 60(2), pages 420-426, February.
    8. Ginger Zhe Jin & Benjamin Jones & Susan Feng Lu & Brian Uzzi, 2019. "The Reverse Matthew Effect: Consequences of Retraction in Scientific Teams," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(3), pages 492-506, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Lucas A. Mariani & Jose Renato Haas Ornelas & Bernardo Ricca, 2023. "Banks’ Physical Footprint and Financial Technology Adoption," Working Papers Series 576, Central Bank of Brazil, Research Department.
    2. Misty L Heggeness & Donna K Ginther & Maria I Larenas & Frances D Carter-Johnson, 2023. "Advancing biomedical science through investments in elite training," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(2), pages 1-23, February.
    3. Sergio Afcha & Jose García-Quevedo, 2016. "The impact of R&D subsidies on R&D employment composition," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(6), pages 955-975.
    4. Merino, José & Borja, Victor Hugo & Lopez, Oliva & Ochoa, José Alfredo & Clark, Eduardo & Petersen, Lila & Caballero, Saul, 2021. "Ivermectin and the odds of hospitalization due to COVID-19: evidence from a quasi-experimental analysis based on a public intervention in Mexico City," SocArXiv r93g4, Center for Open Science.
    5. Jing Wang & Gen Li & Kai-Lung Hui, 2022. "Monetary Incentives and Knowledge Spillover: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(5), pages 3549-3572, May.
    6. Wheeler, P. Barrett, 2019. "Loan loss accounting and procyclical bank lending: The role of direct regulatory actions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 463-495.
    7. Leduc, Elisabeth & Tojerow, Ilan, 2020. "Subsidizing Domestic Services as a Tool to Fight Unemployment: Effectiveness and Hidden Costs," IZA Discussion Papers 13544, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Patricio Aroca & Juan Gabriel Brida & Juan Sebastián Pereyra & Serena Volo, 2014. "Tourism statistics: correcting data inadequacy using coarsened exact matching," BEMPS - Bozen Economics & Management Paper Series BEMPS22, Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bozen.
    9. Guignet, Dennis & Jenkins, Robin R. & Belke, James & Mason, Henry, 2023. "The property value impacts of industrial chemical accidents," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    10. Philipp vom Berge & Achim Schmillen, 2023. "Effects of mass layoffs on local employment—evidence from geo-referenced data," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(3), pages 509-539.
    11. Matteo Aquilina & Giulio Cornelli & Marina Sanchez del Villar, 2024. "Regulation, information asymmetries and the funding of new ventures," BIS Working Papers 1162, Bank for International Settlements.
    12. repec:zbw:rwirep:0170 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Heejung Byun & Joseph Raffiee & Martin Ganco, 2019. "Discontinuities in the Value of Relational Capital: The Effects on Employee Entrepreneurship and Mobility," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(6), pages 1368-1393, November.
    14. Mossberger, Karen & LaCombe, Scott & Tolbert, Caroline J., 2022. "A new measure of digital economic activity and its impact on local opportunity," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1).
    15. Kärnä, Anders & Myers, Samantha, 2024. "Plundered or profitably pumped-up? The effects of private equity takeover," Working Paper Series 444, Sveriges Riksbank (Central Bank of Sweden).
    16. Lauren Lanahan & Daniel Armanios, 2018. "Does More Certification Always Benefit a Venture?," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(5), pages 931-947, October.
    17. Giuliano Masiero & Michael Santarossa, 2020. "Earthquakes, grants, and public expenditure: How municipalities respond to natural disasters," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 481-516, June.
    18. Sara Pavone & Elena Ragazzi & Lisa Sella, 2015. "Sostenere le imprese agro-industriali in Piemonte: un?analisi controfattuale," SCIENZE REGIONALI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(3 Suppl.), pages 129-143.
    19. Heß, Moritz & Scheve, Christian von & Schupp, Jürgen & Wagner, Aiko & Wagner, Gert G., 2018. "Are Political Representatives More Risk-Loving Than the Electorate? Evidence from German Federal and State Parliaments," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 4, pages 1-7.
    20. Unsal, Omer & Houston, Reza, 2024. "R&D grants and medical innovation," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    21. John Beshears & James J. Choi & David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian & William L. Skimmyhorn, 2022. "Borrowing to Save? The Impact of Automatic Enrollment on Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(1), pages 403-447, February.

    More about this item

    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:plo:pone00:0290954. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.