Sissi Chen
Pronouns: She/her
Research Mentor(s): Jusang Lee
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Strategy / Business
Program: UROP
Session: Session 3 (11:00am – 11:50am)
Authors:
Abstract
Conventional knowledge believes status, defined here as a ranking of an organization within an industry, to be enduring overtime and always brings a variety of benefits. Applying the Matthew Effect of accumulative advantage, high-status firms become increasingly profitable while low-status firms worse off. Therefore, the general expectation is that high-status firms will be constantly successful. However, this study challenges this assumption by arguing that high-status firms seek to maintain their status but sometimes this goal conflicts with their other goal of growth or profit seeking process. We identify the mechanisms of how maintaining status becomes the constraint of growth seeking, and the strategic decisions made between them for high-status firms, taking the law industry as an example. The results of this study will be generated from literature review, empirical analysis, including data analysis to the database NALP and interviews with University of Michigan Alumni working in law firms in AmLaw 200 ranking, and comparing the empirical analysis with theories. This study expects to see results showing a relationship between the rankings of the law firms and growth strategies they employ, including diversification, merger & acquisition, and human resource management. From these results, the study aims to broaden the understanding of status by challenging the conventions of high-status as uniform and enduring. We hope our findings would help high-status organizations improve strategic decision-making by managing multiple goals together, while at the same time helping low-status firms to improve their performance by taking advantage of the high-status constraints. This study also hopes to provide insights for consulting organizations when advising their clients.
