About
I am Associate Professor of Innovation Management at SPRU, within the University of Sussex Business School. Most recently, I was a British Academy Innovation Fellow, working in partnership with The Fragrance Foundation UK.
Previously, I was a Senior Lecturer in Organizational Behavior at Kingston Business School; a Junior Research Fellow in the Department of Management & Entrepreneurship at Imperial College Business School and an Affiliate Fellow of the Data Science Institute at Imperial College London; and a Visiting Lecturer at ESMT Berlin.
I am also an alumna and current affiliate of the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. I earned a Ph.D. in Management (Organisational Behaviour) and an MSc.Res. in Organisational & Social Psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an A.B. (cum laude) in Psychology from Harvard College.
Research
I am a behavioral scientist focused on how individuals gain and maintain social status for themselves, and how they judge deservingness to allocate social status to others. My principal research interests combine organization theory, strategy, networks, and innovation. Building on Robert K. Merton’s theories of status and competition, I use approaches from economic sociology, social psychology, and economics. I adopt interdisciplinary research tools – including experimentation, computational social science, and mixed-methods approaches.
My research focuses on awards and prizes. I study the design of, and the mechanisms that drive, competitions. My current work involves peer effects among elites, and invisible status effects during blinded judging. A second stream of my research examines innovation tournaments, and particularly Advance Market Commitments. My ongoing projects include: prize scarcity, prize sharing, establishment of new prizes, and prize refusals.
Research Profile
Keywords: Status, Prizes, Hierarchy & Networks, Cultural & Creative Industries, Evaluation, The Matthew Effect, Elites, Innovation, Expertise, Meta-Research (incl. Metascience & Research on Research)
Research Publications:
Betancourt, N., Jochem, T., & Otner, S. M. G. (2023). “Standing on the shoulders of giants: How star scientists influence their coauthors.” Research Policy, 52(1).
Video Abstract, October 2022
Full paper available at https://bit.ly/BJO-ResPol-2023
Recent Papers I Wish That I Had Written:
Berg, J. M. (2022). One-Hit Wonders versus Hit Makers: Sustaining Success in Creative Industries. Administrative Science Quarterly, 67(3), 630–673.
Bothner, M. S., et al. (2012). "How Does Status Affect Performance? Status as an asset vs. status as a liability in the PGA and NASCAR." Organization Science, 23(2): 416-433.
Kovács, B., and Sharkey, A. J. (2014). "The Paradox of Publicity: How an award can negatively impact the evaluation of quality." Administrative Science Quarterly, 59(1): 1-33.
Bowers, A., and Prato, M. (2018). "The Structural Origins of Unearned Status: How arbitrary changes in categories affect status position and market impact." Administrative Science Quarterly, 63(3): 668-699.
Piazza, A., Phillips, D. J., and Castellucci, F. (2020). “High-Status Affiliations and the Success of Entrants: New Bands and the Market for Live Music Performances, 2000–2012.” Organization Science, 31(5): 1053-1312.
Younkin, P., and Kashkooli, K. (2020). "Stay True to Your Roots? Category Distance, Hierarchy, and the Performance of New Entrants in the Music Industry." Organization Science, 31(3): 604-627.
Rossman, G., and Schilke, O. (2014). “Close, But No Cigar: The Bimodal Rewards to Prize-Seeking.” American Sociological Review, 79(1): 86-108.
Paik, E. T., Pollock, T. G., et al. (2022) A Star Is Born: The Relationship Between Performance and Achieving Status Through Certification Contests in the Context of Equity Analysts. Organization Science, 1-25.
Boudreau, K. J., et al. (2016). "Looking Across and Looking Beyond the Knowledge Frontier: Intellectual distance, novelty, and resource allocation in science." Management Science, 62(10): 2765-2783.
Kim, J. W., and King, B. G. (2014). "Seeing Stars: Matthew Effects and status bias in Major League Baseball umpiring." Management Science, 60(11): 2619-2644.
Aadland, E., et al. (2019). “Friends, Gifts, and Cliques: Social Proximity and Recognition in Peer-Based Tournament Rituals.” Academy of Management Journal, 62(3): 883-917.
Azoulay, P., et al. (2017). "Social Influence Given (Partially) Deliberate Matching: Career imprints in the creation of academic entrepreneurs." American Journal of Sociology, 122(4): 1223-1271.
Lee, Y.-N., et al. (2015). "Creativity in scientific teams: Unpacking novelty and impact." Research Policy, 44(3): 684-697.
Cao, J., and Smith, E. B. (2021). “Why Do High-Status People Have Larger Social Networks? Belief in Status-Quality Coupling as a Driver of Network-Broadening Behavior and Social Network Size.” Organization Science, 32(1): 111-132.
Negro, G., Kovács, B., & Carroll, G. R. (2023). “What’s Next? Artists’ Music after Grammy Awards.” American Sociological Review, 87(4): 644-674.
Teaching
I teach undergraduate and postgraduate courses in courses in organizational behavior, strategy & organization theory, negotiations, networks, innovation, and leadership. I am a specialist instructor for MBA and Executive Education.
At SPRU, I deliver modules in basic & advanced quantitative research methods, including networks & infographics.
Media
Interviews
Professor Henning Piezunka & Dr Sarah Otner on Power, Status & Competition
Hosted at Imperial College London by Amin Siala on 9 October 2018
TRT World Now interview about risk evaluation, 19 March 2021
Commentaries
Kennedy, M. T., & Otner, S. M. G. What can we learn from umbrellas? Why social data science matters. IB Knowledge.
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/business-school/knowledge/technology/can-learn-umbrellas-social-data-science-matters/
Otner, S. M. G. The role of the Flight Simulator ImpactLab:tm: in Management and Leadership Development.
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/business-school/executive-education/resources/articles/role-flight-simulator-impactlab-management-leadership-development/
Podcasts
Talking About Organizations Podcast (TAOP), Episode 61: Power & Influence in Organizations — Dan Brass: