An Expanded Model of Status Dynamics: The Effects of Status Transfer and Interfirm Coordination

Abstract

Organizational status is shaped by a firm's choice of exchange partners and the material outcomes of relationships with them. Prior research on status dynamics has shown that status is transferred between exchange partners. Seeking partners of similar or higher status minimizes status losses due to this transfer effect. However, the material outcomes of exchange relationships are often dependent upon interfirm coordination, making it also important to understanding changes in organizational status. Research on deference in hierarchical relations suggests that the status characteristics that minimize transfer are not necessarily the ones that best facilitate interfirm coordination. Thus, I propose that partners' relative status has a more complex relationship to status change than previously conceptualized.