While scholars have shown that well-connected applicants are advantaged in selection processes, less understood is whether such applicants produce important returns to the organization when key decision makers favor them. We begin to address this gap by investigating whether and why application endorsements―an informal practice whereby certain individuals (i.e., endorsers) advocate for particular applicants―affect organizational selection during the screening of applicants. Through the analysis of the population of 21,324 applicants to a full-time MBA program over a seven-year period, we find that even after controlling for individual qualifications and competencies, endorsed applicants are advantaged over non-endorsed applicants in admissions interview and offer decisions. In seeking to explain this advantage, we develop and test four key theoretical explanations pertaining to the potential returns on application endorsements for the organization. We find inconsistent evidence that endorsed applicants are “better qualified” compared with non-endorsed applicants during screening: while endorsed applicants are sometimes assessed to be stronger “on paper,” they generally receive lower competency assessments than non-endorsed applicants later, during the admissions interviews. Further, our analysis of data on matriculating MBA students reveals that those endorsed as applicants are not “better performers” academically (measured by grade point average) or in the job market after graduation (measured by full-time salaries or signing bonuses) compared with non-endorsed individuals. In contrast, individuals endorsed as applicants appear to be “better citizens” upon joining the organization—in our research setting, they are more likely to participate in student club leadership roles than non-endorsed individuals. We also find that they are “better alumni”―that is, they make larger monetary donations to the school after graduating than their non-endorsed counterparts. We conclude with implications for understanding the impact of application endorsements on labor and educational markets.
AdlerP. S.KwonS.2002 “Social capital: Prospects for a new concept.” Academy of Management Review, 27: 17–40.
2.
AgrawalJ.KamakuraW. A.1995 “The economic worth of celebrity endorsers: An event study analysis.” Journal of Marketing, 59: 56–62.
3.
AntebyM.2013Manufacturing Morals: The Values of Silence in Business School Education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
4.
ArmstrongE. A.HamiltonL. T.2013Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
5.
AutorD. H.2014 “Skills, education, and the rise of earnings inequality among the ‘other 99 percent’.” Science, 344: 843–851.
6.
AveryC.JollsC.PosnerR. A.RothA. E.2001 “The market for federal judicial law clerks.” University of Chicago Law Review, 68: 793–902.
7.
BakerW. E.BulkleyN.2014 “Paying it forward vs. rewarding reputation: Mechanisms of generalized reciprocity.” Organization Science, 25: 1493–1510.
8.
BearmanP.1997 “Generalized exchange.” American Journal of Sociology, 102: 1383–1415.
9.
BirdS. R.2011 “Unsettling universities’ incongruous, gendered bureaucratic structures: A case-study approach.” Gender, Work, and Occupations, 18: 202–230.
10.
BlauP. M.1965Exchange and Power in Social Life. New York: Wiley.
11.
BollenK. A.1989Structural Equations with Latent Variables. New York: Wiley.
12.
BoudreauC.2015 “The persuasion effects of political endorsements.” Unpublished manuscript, Dept. of Political Science, University of California, Irvine.
13.
BourdieuP.1973 “Culture reproduction and social reproduction.” In RichardsonJ. (ed.), Knowledge, Education and Cultural Change: 71–112. Westport, MA: Greenwood Press.
14.
BourdieuP.PasseronJ.1990Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. London: Sage.
15.
BowenW. G.KurzweilM. A.TobinE. M.2005Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.
16.
BriefA. P.MotowidloS. J.1986 “Prosocial organizational behaviors.” Academy of Management Review, 11: 710–725.
BurtR. S.1992Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
20.
BurtR. S.2001 “Structural holes vs. network closure as social capital.” In LinN.CookK. S.BurtR. S. (eds.), Social Capital Theory and Research: 31–56. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
21.
CappelliP.1999The New Deal at Work. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
CarnahanS.SomayaD.2013 “Alumni effects and relational advantage: The impact on outsourcing when a buyer hires employees from a supplier’s competitors.” Academy of Management Journal, 56: 1578–1600.
24.
CastillaE. J.2005 “Social networks and employee performance in a call center.” American Journal of Sociology, 110: 1243–1283.
25.
CastillaE. J.2008 “Gender, race, and meritocracy in organizational careers.” American Journal of Sociology, 113: 1479–1526.
26.
CastillaE. J.2015 “Accounting for the gap: A firm study manipulating organizational accountability in pay decisions.” Organization Science, 26: 311–333.
27.
CastillaE. J.2017 “Meritocracy.” In MoghaddamF. M. (ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Political Behavior: 479–482. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
28.
CastillaE. J.BenardS.2010 “The paradox of meritocracy in organizations.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 55: 543–576.
29.
CastillaE. J.LanG. J.RissingB. A.2013 “Social networks and employment: Mechanisms and outcomes.” Sociology Compass, 7: 999–1026.
30.
CialdiniR. B.BordenR. J.ThorneA.WalkerM. R.FreemanS.SloanL. R.1976 “Basking in reflected glory: Three (football) field studies.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34: 366–375.
31.
ColemanJ. S.1988 “Social capital in the creation of human capital.” American Journal of Sociology, 94: S95–S120.
32.
CriscuoloP.DahlanderL.GrohsjeanT.SalterA.2014 “Evaluating novelty: The role of panels in the selection of R&D projects.” Academy of Management Journal, 60: 433–460.
33.
DiMaggioP.1982 “Cultural entrepreneurship in nineteenth-century Boston: The creation of an organizational base for high culture in America.” Media, Culture and Society, 4: 33–50.
34.
DobbinF.2009Inventing Equal Opportunity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
EkehP. P.1974Social Exchange Theory: The Two Traditions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
38.
EspenshadeT. J.ChungC. Y.WallingJ. L.2004 “Admission preferences for minority students, athletes, and legacies at elite universities.” Social Science Quarterly, 85: 1422–1446.
39.
FernandezR. M.CastillaE. J.MooreP.2000 “Social capital at work: Networks and employment at a phone center.” American Journal of Sociology, 105: 1288–1356.
40.
FernandezR. M.FriedrichC.2011 “Gender sorting at the application interface.” Industrial Relations, 50: 591–609.
41.
FernandezR. M.GalperinR. V.2014 “The causal status of social capital in labor markets.” In BrassD. J.LabiancaG.MehraA.HalginD. S.BorgattiS. P. (eds.), Research in the Sociology of Organizations, vol. 40: Contemporary Perspectives on Organizational Social Networks: 445–462. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group.
42.
FernandezR. M.WeinbergN.1997 “Sifting and sorting: Personal contacts and hiring in a retail bank.” American Sociological Review, 62: 883–902.
43.
GoldenD.2006The Price of Admission: How America’s Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges—And Who Gets Left outside the Gates. New York: Three Rivers Press.
44.
GouldR. V.2002 “The origins of status hierarchies: A formal theory and empirical test.” American Journal of Sociology, 107: 1143–1178.
45.
GouldnerA. W.1960 “The norm of reciprocity: A preliminary statement.” American Sociological Review, 25: 161–179.
46.
GranovetterM.1973 “The strength of weak ties.” American Journal of Sociology, 78: 1360–1380.
47.
GranovetterM.1974Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
48.
GreenbergJ.FernandezR. M.2016 “The strength of weak ties in MBA job search: A within-person test.” Sociological Science, 3: 296–316.
49.
GrigoryevP.2006 “Hiring by competency models.” Journal for Quality and Participation, 29: 16–19.
50.
GusdorfM.2008 “Recruitment and selection: Hiring the right person.” SHRM Staffing Management Instructor’s Manual. Alexandria, VA: Society for Human Resource Management.
51.
HansenM. T.HaasM. R.2001 “Competing for attention in knowledge markets: Electronic document dissemination in a management consulting company.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 46: 1–28.
52.
HeckmanJ. J.1976 “The common structure of statistical models of truncation, sample selection and limited dependent variables and a simple estimator for such models.” Annals of Economic and Social Measurement, 5: 475–492.
53.
HeckmanJ. J.1979 “Sample selection bias as a specification error.” Econometrica, 47: 153–161.
54.
HoffmanR.CasnochaB.YehC.2014The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.
55.
HousemanS. N.2001 “Why employers use flexible staffing arrangements: Evidence from an establishment survey.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 55: 149–170.
56.
HurwitzM.2011 “The impact of legacy status on undergraduate admissions at elite colleges and universities.” Economics of Education Review, 30: 480–492.
57.
IngramP.YueL. Q.RaoH.2010 “Trouble in store: Probes, protests, and store openings by Wal-Mart, 1998–2007.” American Journal of Sociology, 116: 53–92.
58.
JohnsonD. I.2004 “Relationships between college experiences and alumni participation in the community.” Review of Higher Education, 27: 169–185.
59.
KahnemanD.1973Attention and Effort. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
60.
KalevA.KellyE.DobbinF. R.2006 “Best practices or best guesses? Assessing the efficacy of corporate affirmative action and diversity policies.” American Sociological Review, 71: 589–617.
61.
KallebergA. L.2000 “Nonstandard employment relations: Part-time, temporary and contract work.” Annual Review of Sociology, 26: 341–365.
62.
KallebergA. L.KnokeD. H.MarsdenP. V.SpaethJ. L.1996Organizations in America: Analyzing Their Structures and Human Resource Practices. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
63.
KarabelJ.2005The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
64.
KingB. G.2008 “A political mediation model of corporate response to social movement activism.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 53: 395–421.
65.
KnittelC. R.StangoV.2013 “Celebrity endorsements, firm value, and reputation risk: Evidence from the Tiger Woods scandal.” Management Science, 60: 21–37.
KousserT.LucasS.MasketS.McGheeE.2015 “Kingmakers or cheerleaders? Party power and the causal effects of endorsements.” Political Research Quarterly, 68: 443–456.
70.
KozinskiA.1991 “Confessions of a bad apple.” Yale Law Journal, 100: 1707–1730.
LongJ. S.1997Regression Models for Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
74.
MaelF.AshforthB. E.1992 “Alumni and their alma mater: A partial test of the reformulated model of organizational identification.” Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13: 103–123.
MarinA.2012 “Don’t mention it: Why people don’t share job information, when they do, and why it matters.” Social Networks, 34: 181–192.
77.
MawdsleyJ. K.SomayaD.2016 “Employee mobility and organizational outcomes: An integrative conceptual framework and research agenda.” Journal of Management, 42: 85–113.
78.
McDermottM. L.2006 “Not for members only: Group endorsements as electoral information cues.” Political Research Quarterly, 59: 249–257.
MolmL. D.CollettJ. L.SchaeferD. R.2007 “Building solidarity through generalized exchange: A theory of reciprocity.” American Journal of Sociology, 113: 205–242.
81.
MontgomeryJ. D.1991 “Social networks and labor-market outcomes: Toward an economic analysis.” American Economic Review, 81: 1408–1418.
MuellerA.2004 “Turning MBA students into good alumni: A qualitative study about alumni socialization.” Unpublished diploma thesis, The University of Technology Dresden.
84.
NeckermanK.FernandezR. M.2003 “Keeping a job: Network hiring and turnover in a retail bank.” In SnijdersC.BuskensV.RaubW. (eds.), The Governance of Relations in Markets and Organizations: 299–318. Somerville, MA: Emerald Group.
85.
NoeR. A.HollenbeckJ. R.GerhartB.WrightP. M.2012Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
86.
ObukhovaE.LanG.2013 “Do job seekers benefit from contacts? A direct test with contemporaneous searches.” Management Science, 59: 2204–2216.
87.
OcasioW.1997 “Towards an attention-based view of the firm.” Strategic Management Journal, 18: 187–206.
88.
OkunadeA. A.1993 “Logistic regression and probability of business school alumni donations: Micro-data evidence.” Education Economics, 1: 243–259.
89.
OkunadeA. A.BerlR. L.1997 “Determinants of charitable giving of business school alumni.” Research in Higher Education, 38: 201–214.
90.
OstermanP.2000Securing Prosperity: The American Labor Market: How It Has Changed and What to Do about It. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
91.
PennerL. A.2002 “The causes of sustained volunteerism: An interactionist perspective.” Journal of Social Issues, 58: 447–467.
PikettyT.2014Capital in the Twenty-first Century. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
94.
PodolnyJ. M.2001 “Networks as the pipes and prisms of the market.” American Journal of Sociology, 107: 33–60.
95.
PowellW. W.1985Getting into Print. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
96.
RidgewayC. L.BackorK.LiY. E.TinklerJ. E.EricksonK. G.2009 “How easily does a social difference become a status distinction? Gender matters.” American Sociological Review, 74: 44–62.
97.
RidgewayC. L.CorrellS. J.2006 “Consensus and the creation of status beliefs.” Social Forces, 85: 431–453.
98.
RissingB. A.CastillaE. J.2014 “House of green cards: Statistical or preference-based inequality in the employment of foreign nationals.” American Sociological Review, 79: 1226–1255.
99.
RiveraL. A.2011 “Ivies, extracurriculars, and exclusion: Elite employers’ use of educational credentials.” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 29: 71–90.
100.
RiveraL. A.2012 “Hiring as cultural matching: The case of elite professional service firms.” American Sociological Review, 77: 999–1022.
101.
RiveraL. A.2015Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
102.
RiveraL. A.TilcsikA.2016 “Class advantage, commitment penalty: The gendered effect of class signals in an elite labor market.” American Sociological Review, 81: 1097–1131.
103.
RothL.2006Selling Women Short: Gender and Money on Wall Street. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
104.
SahlinsM.1972Stone Age Economics. Chicago: Aldine.
105.
SauderM.EspelandW. N.2009 “The discipline of rankings: Tight coupling and organizational change.” American Sociological Review, 74: 63–82.
106.
SauderM.EspelandW. N.2016Engines of Anxiety: Academic Rankings, Reputation, and Accountability. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
107.
ScullyM. A.1997 “Meritocracy.” In FreemanR. E.WerhaneP. H. (eds.), Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Business Ethics: 413–414. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
108.
ShulmanJ. L.BowenW. G.2002The Game of Life: College Sports and Educational Values. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
109.
SimmelG.1950The Sociology of Georg Simmel. Compiled and translated by K. Worff. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
110.
SimonC. J.WarnerJ. T.1992 “Matchmaker, matchmaker: The effect of old boy networks on job match quality, earnings, and tenure.” Journal of Labor Economics, 10: 306–329.
111.
SmithS. S.2005 “‘Don’t put my name on it’: (Dis)trust and job-finding assistance among the black urban poor.” American Journal of Sociology, 111: 1–57.
SteinbergJ.2003The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College. New York: Penguin Books.
114.
SterlingA. D.2014 “Friendships and search behavior in labor markets.” Management Science, 9: 2341–2354.
115.
SterlingA. D.FernandezR. M.2018 “Once in the door: Gender, tryouts, and the initial salaries of managers.” Management Science, published online ahead of print. DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2017.2880.
116.
StevensM. L.2007Creating a Class: College Admissions and the Education of Elites. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
117.
StuartT. E.HoangH.HybelsR. C.1999 “Interorganizational endorsements and the performance of entrepreneurial ventures.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 44: 315–349.
118.
TanD.RiderC. I.2017 “Let them go? How losing employees to competitors can enhance firm status.” Strategic Management Journal, 38: 1848–1874.
119.
ThomasK.2017 “The labor market value of taste: An experimental study of class bias in U.S. employment.” Unpublished manuscript, Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research, University of Southern California.
120.
TilcsikA.2011 “Pride and prejudice: Employment discrimination against openly gay men in the United States.” American Journal of Sociology, 117: 586–626.
121.
TillyC.1998Durable Inequality. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
122.
TobinJ.1958 “Estimation of relationships for limited dependent variables.” Econometrica, 26: 24–36.
123.
WanousJ. P.1978 “Realistic job previews: Can a procedure to reduce turnover also influence the relationship between abilities and performance?” Personnel Psychology, 31: 249–258.
124.
WanousJ. P.1980Organizational Entry: Recruitment, Selection, and Socialization of Newcomers. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
125.
WeberM.1958 “Class, status, party.” In GerthH.MillsC. W. (trans. and
eds.), From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology: 180–195. New York: Oxford University Press.
126.
WeisbrodB. A.BallouJ. P.AschE. D.2010Mission and Money: Understanding the University. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
127.
WilkS. L.CappelliP.2003 “Understanding the determinants of employer use of selection methods.” Personnel Psychology, 56: 103–124.
128.
YakubovichV.LupD.2006 “Stages of the recruitment process and the referrer’s performance effect.” Organization Science, 17: 710–723.
129.
YamagishiT.CookK. S.1993 “Generalized exchange and social dilemmas.” Social Psychology Quarterly, 56: 235–248.
130.
YateM. J.2014Knock ’em Dead—Hiring the Best: Proven Tactics for Successful Employee Selection, 6th ed.Avon, MA: Adams Media.
131.
YatesJ.OrlikowskiW. J.1992 “Genres of organizational communication: A structurational approach to studying communication and media.” Academy of Management Review, 17: 299–326.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
