| While stratification research has focused primarily on the processes that contribute to the unequal distribution of resources across individuals, the processes that distribute goods and services across and among actors operate at other levels as well. Indeed, this study, drawing on data from the venture capital industry, focuses on the dynamics of organizational stratification and status. I argue that it extends existing research in at least three ways. First, while previous studies have measured organizational status in various ways, they have failed to provide empirical evidence that such measures adequately capture status within the organizational field being examined. Here, I combine ethnographic and survey research along with exploratory analysis to determine which measure best captures organizational status within the venture capital industry. Second, research to date has tended to equate organizational status with organizational-level characteristics, but it has either ignored the effects that salient individual-level characteristics of key organizational members have on organizational status or treated them as a form of human capital. Here, I separate the human and social capital aspects of individuallevel characteristics and highlight how individual and organizational status interpenetrate one another. Finally, while previous research has focused on either the causes or consequences of organizational status, I combine them into an integrated theoretical model to examine the interplay of organizational status and firm performance. My results support some, but not all, of the hypotheses I develop: Net of other factors, I found that having partners on staff that previously worked in the information technology industry contributes positively to a venture capital firm's status, that a venture capital firm's prior performance is positively related to its status, and that a venture capital firm's status is positively associated with its future performance. However, my analyses found that having partners with information technology experience does not directly lower the probability that venture capital firms will fail, nor does it contribute positively to their bottom line. This final result challenges much conventional wisdom and suggests that at least within the venture capital industry, the benefits that information technology experience brings to the table are indirect at best. |
