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Laboratory Evidence on the Effects of Sponsorship on the Competitive Preferences of Men and Women

Author

Listed:
  • Katherine Coffman

    (Department of Economics and Accounting, College of the Holy Cross)

  • Nancy Baldiga

    (Department of Economics and Accounting, College of the Holy Cross)

Abstract

Sponsorship programs have been proposed as one way to promote female advancement in competitive career fields. A sponsor is someone who advocates for a prot�g�, and in doing so, takes a stake in her success. We use a laboratory experiment to explore two channels through which sponsorship has been posited to increase advancement in a competitive workplace. In our setting, being sponsored provides a vote of confidence and/or creates a link between the prot�g�s and sponsor�s payoffs. We find that both features of sponsorship significantly increase willingness to compete among men on average, while neither of these channels significantly increases willingness to compete among women on average. As a result, sponsorship does not close the gender gap in competitiveness or earnings. We discuss how these insights from the laboratory could help to inform the design of sponsorship programs in the field.

Suggested Citation

  • Katherine Coffman & Nancy Baldiga, 2018. "Laboratory Evidence on the Effects of Sponsorship on the Competitive Preferences of Men and Women," Working Papers 1815, College of the Holy Cross, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hcx:wpaper:1815
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    File URL: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2606
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    Cited by:

    1. Ifcher, John & Zarghamee, Homa, 2020. "Competitive Preferences among Asians in the U.S," IZA Discussion Papers 13913, IZA Network @ LISER.
    2. Kessel, Dany & Mollerstrom, Johanna & van Veldhuizen, Roel, 2021. "Can simple advice eliminate the gender gap in willingness to compete?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 138, pages 1-1.
    3. Fu, Jingcheng & Zhong, Songfa, 2025. "Visceral influences and gender difference in competitiveness," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    4. Helena Fornwagner & Monika Pompeo & Nina Serdarevic, 2020. "Him or her? Choosing competition on behalf of someone else," Discussion Papers 2020-13, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    5. Kenney, Jeanna & Mangoubi, Tomer, 2025. "Bargaining on behalf of others: Incentives, beliefs, and gender gaps," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    6. Siqi Ma & Li Hao & John A. Aloysius, 2021. "Women are an Advantage in Supply Chain Collaboration and Efficiency," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(5), pages 1427-1441, May.
    7. Eszter Czibor & Silvia Dominguez Martinez, 2019. "Never too Late: Gender Quotas in the Final Round of a Multistage Tournament," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 319-363.
    8. Oriana Bandiera & Nidhi Parekh & Barbara Petrongolo & Michelle Rao, 2022. "Men are from Mars, and Women Too: A Bayesian Meta‐analysis of Overconfidence Experiments," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(S1), pages 38-70, June.
    9. Clingingsmith, David & Sheremeta, Roman M, 2017. "Status and Economic Rent: Experimental Evidence on the Matthew Effect," SocArXiv evwpa, Center for Open Science.
    10. Zhang, Peilu & Zhang, Yinjunjie & Palma, Marco, 2018. "Social Norms and Competitiveness: My Willingness to Compete Depends on Who I am (supposed to be)," MPRA Paper 89727, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Schier, Uta K., 2020. "Female and male role models and competitiveness," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 55-67.
    12. repec:osf:socarx:evwpa_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Ifcher, John & Zarghamee, Homa, 2020. "Do Nominations Close the Gender Gap in Competition?," IZA Discussion Papers 13852, IZA Network @ LISER.
    14. Bramucci, Francesca & Munoz Boudet, Ana Maria & Viollaz, Mariana, 2025. "Promoting Women’s Leadership : What Works, What Doesn’t, and What’s Missing," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11239, The World Bank.
    15. Helena Fornwagner & Monika Pompeo & Nina Serdarevic, 2023. "Choosing Competition on Behalf of Someone Else," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(3), pages 1555-1574, March.
    16. Nathan Barrymore & Cristian L. Dezső & Benjamin C. King, 2022. "Gender and competitiveness when earning for others: Experimental evidence and implications for sponsorship," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 905-934, May.
    17. Zhang, Peilu & Zhang, Yinjunjie & Palma, Marco A., 2024. "Social roles and competitiveness: My willingness to compete depends on who I am (supposed to be)," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 125-151.
    18. Perihan O. Saygin & Garrison Pollard & Thomas Knight & Mark Rush, 2025. "Gender Biased Resistance to Harsh Feedback," Working Papers wpdea2510, Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Z28 - Other Special Topics - - Sports Economics - - - Policy
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • R53 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Public Facility Location Analysis; Public Investment and Capital Stock

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