Abstract
Due to their disproportionate contribution to organizational performance, star performers are increasingly important for the success of knowledge-based organizations. This study extends and tests ideas in recent theoretical and empirical work and addresses the question: How does the hiring of different types of stars affect unit-level performance? Based upon star performers’ human capital and social capital, we distinguish three types of stars: productive stars, networking stars and all-stars. Using a large proprietary dataset from academia, we find that the hiring of networking stars or all-stars is positively related to academic departments’ future performance. Moreover, we investigate situations where multiple stars are hired and find that redundancies in the form of a networking star or a productive star in tandem with an all-star reduces the positive performance effects of the all-star. Overall, this study highlights the importance of social capital in the form of collaboration as a key component underlying the effect of stars on unit-level performance.
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