Stone Center for Inequality Dynamics Speaker Series: Chris Rider
When:
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Where:
ISR 2030 (426 Thompson St.)
Join the Stone Center for Inequality Dynamics as Chris Rider, Thomas C. Kinnear Professor and Associate Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, presents, “Network Position and Performance: Merit or Privilege?”
Abstract: “We theorize the relationship between an organization’s performance and its position within an inter-organizational network (i.e., the position-performance relationship) and propose an analytical framework for adjudicating accounts of positional advantage that emphasize superior capabilities (i.e., merit) versus superior opportunities (i.e., privilege). We demonstrate the framework’s utility by analyzing data on new firms entering the U.S. venture capital industry’s co-investment network between 2000 and 2021. Analyses of investment observables and performance residuals implies that the position-performance relationship is largely attributable to superior access to investment opportunities. Specifically, we find that firms whose members possess privileged characteristics, both ascribed (i.e., race, ethnicity, gender) and achieved (i.e., prior education and employment), tend to invest in high potential deals but do not typically produce performance in excess of that predicted by deal observables. We conclude with a discussion of the assumptions justifying merit versus privilege interpretations of network advantage.”
Learn more and RSVP: https://inequality.umich.edu/chris-rider/