IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jospec/v22y2021i5p571-586.html

Peer Effects on Individual Performance in a Team Sport

Author

Listed:
  • Mariia Molodchik
  • Sofiia Paklina
  • Petr Parshakov

Abstract

The paper investigates the variety of peer effects on individual performance in a team sport. The individual performance of more than 5,000 soccer players, from 234 teams, between 2010 and 2015, is measured with the help of the FIFA video game simulator developed by EA Sports. The study reveals positive peer effects on individual performance although the marginal benefit decreases. Additionally, team cohesion contributes to an improvement of players’ ranking.

Suggested Citation

  • Mariia Molodchik & Sofiia Paklina & Petr Parshakov, 2021. "Peer Effects on Individual Performance in a Team Sport," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(5), pages 571-586, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jospec:v:22:y:2021:i:5:p:571-586
    DOI: 10.1177/15270025211000389
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15270025211000389
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/15270025211000389?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. Craig A. Depken II & Lisa E. Haglund, 2011. "Peer Effects in Team Sports: Empirical Evidence From NCAA Relay Teams," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 12(1), pages 3-19, February.
    2. Charles F. Manski, 1993. "Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(3), pages 531-542.
    3. Scott E. Carrell & Richard L. Fullerton & James E. West, 2009. "Does Your Cohort Matter? Measuring Peer Effects in College Achievement," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(3), pages 439-464, July.
    4. Bernd Frick & Robert Simmons, 2008. "The impact of managerial quality on organizational performance: evidence from German soccer," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(7), pages 593-600.
    5. Wen-Jhan Jane, 2015. "Peer Effects and Individual Performance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 16(5), pages 531-539, June.
    6. Emerson, Jamie & Hill, Brian, 2018. "Peer effects in marathon racing: The role of pace setters," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 74-82.
    7. Egon Franck & Stephan Nuesch, 2011. "The effect of wage dispersion on team outcome and the way team outcome is produced," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(23), pages 3037-3049.
    8. Robert S. Huckman & Gary P. Pisano, 2006. "The Firm Specificity of Individual Performance: Evidence from Cardiac Surgery," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(4), pages 473-488, April.
    9. Armin Falk & Andrea Ichino, 2006. "Clean Evidence on Peer Effects," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(1), pages 39-58, January.
    10. Robert S. Huckman & Bradley R. Staats & David M. Upton, 2009. "Team Familiarity, Role Experience, and Performance: Evidence from Indian Software Services," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(1), pages 85-100, January.
    11. Petr Parshakov & Dennis Coates & Marina Zavertiaeva, 2018. "Is diversity good or bad? Evidence from eSports teams analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(47), pages 5064-5075, October.
    12. Simon Rodan & Charles Galunic, 2004. "More than network structure: how knowledge heterogeneity influences managerial performance and innovativeness," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(6), pages 541-562, June.
    13. Thomas Cornelissen & Christian Dustmann & Uta Schönberg, 2017. "Peer Effects in the Workplace," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(2), pages 425-456, February.
    14. Franck, Egon & Nüesch, Stephan, 2010. "The effect of talent disparity on team productivity in soccer," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 218-229, April.
    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. Richard J. Paulsen, 2022. "Peer effects and human capital accumulation: Time spent in college and productivity in the National Basketball Association," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(8), pages 3611-3619, December.
    2. Francesco Principe & Jan van Ours, 2025. "Labor Market Dynamics in a Highly Competitive Industry," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 25-020/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    3. Hasan Muhammad Baniamin & Ishtiaq Jamil & Narendra Raj Paudel, 2025. "Effects of Peers' Performance Nature on an Employee: An Experimental Exploration of Nepalese Civil Service," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 311-326, March.
    4. Evgeniya Shenkman & Mariia Molodchik & Petr Parshakov, 2025. "Online Versus Offline eSports Tournaments: Prize Structure and Individual Performance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 26(1), pages 115-132, January.

    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. Richard J. Paulsen, 2022. "Peer effects and human capital accumulation: Time spent in college and productivity in the National Basketball Association," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(8), pages 3611-3619, December.
    2. Matteo Pazzona, 2022. "Peer interactions and performance in a high‐skilled labour market," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(4), pages 1087-1116, October.
    3. Ashby, Nathan J., 2023. "An examination of peer effects using high school competition realignments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 122-135.
    4. Maria De Paola & Roberto Nisticò & Vincenzo Scoppa, 2024. "Workplace Peer Effects in Fertility Decisions," CSEF Working Papers 714, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy, revised 01 Sep 2025.
    5. Dottori, Davide & Modena, Francesca & Tanzi, Giulia Martina, 2024. "Peer effects in parental leave: Evidence from Italy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    6. Brady, Ryan R. & Insler, Michael A. & Rahman, Ahmed S., 2017. "Bad Company: Understanding negative peer effects in college achievement," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 144-168.
    7. Adrian Chadi & Konstantin Homolka, 2023. "Under (peer) pressure: Experimental evidence on team size and task performance," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(7), pages 3769-3786, October.
    8. James Farrell, 2019. "Peer Effects Among Teachers: A Study of Retirement Investments," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 486-497, September.
    9. Beugnot, Julie & Fortin, Bernard & Lacroix, Guy & Villeval, Marie Claire, 2019. "Gender and peer effects on performance in social networks," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 207-224.
    10. Yi Cao & Tao Zhou & Jian Gao, 2024. "Heterogeneous peer effects of college roommates on academic performance," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    11. Battisti, Michele, 2017. "High wage workers and high wage peers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 47-63.
    12. Essbaumer, Elisabeth, 2024. "Peer Effects and Social Mobility," Economics Working Paper Series 2401, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    13. Arai, Natsuki & 荒井, 夏來 & Nakazawa, Nobuhiko & 中澤, 伸彦, 2021. "Does Working with a Future Executive Make Junior Employees More Likely to Be Promoted ?," Discussion Papers 2021-01, Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University.
    14. Jin, Miao & Liu, Yu-Jane & Meng, Juanjuan & Zhang, Yu, 2025. "Peer effects in the hierarchy: Evidence from the workplace," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    15. Stephen Gibbons & Shqiponja Telhaj, 2016. "Peer Effects: Evidence from Secondary School Transition in England," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 78(4), pages 548-575, August.
    16. Wennberg, Karl & Norgren, Axel, 2021. "Models of Peer Effects in Education," Working Papers 21/3, Stockholm School of Economics, Center for Educational Leadership and Excellence.
    17. Semih Tumen & Tugba Zeydanli, 2016. "Social interactions in job satisfaction," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 37(3), pages 426-455, June.
    18. Beugnot, Julie & Fortin, Bernard & Lacroix, Guy & Villeval, Marie Claire, 2017. "Gender and Peer Effects in Social Networks," IZA Discussion Papers 10588, IZA Network @ LISER.
    19. Tat Y. Chan & Jia Li & Lamar Pierce, 2014. "Compensation and Peer Effects in Competing Sales Teams," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(8), pages 1965-1984, August.
    20. Saghafian, Soroush & Imanirad, Raha & Traub, Stephen J., 2019. "Do Physicians Influence Each Other’s Performance? Evidence from the Emergency Department," Working Paper Series rwp19-018, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.

    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:sae:jospec:v:22:y:2021:i:5:p:571-586. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.