The Contingent Effects of High-status Affiliations on Low-status Partners

Abstract

We examine how low-status actors are influenced by being affiliated with high-status actors. Grounded in the social status literature and the signaling theory, we propose a contingent view on the effects of being affiliated with high-status others. Specifically, we argue that the benefits of partnering up with high-status others depend on the quality of the low- status actors themselves: low-status but better quality actors can better reap the benefits than low-status, low-quality ones. The analysis of a set of longitudinal data on U.S. NBA players from the 1999/2000 to 2009/2010 seasons renders strong support to our theoretical predictions. In particular, we found that teaming up with a greater number of star players helped the low-status but better quality players get selected into the prestigious All-Star Game and attract more media attention, but it prevented the low-status, low-quality players from getting access to the same resources.