Status signals: a sociological study of market competition

Joel Podolny's Status Signals is a rich and engaging work and a major contribution to the sociology of markets. Going beyond the ‘embeddedness’ tradition in economic sociology (Granovetter, 1985), Podolny's book brings together the fruits of his decade-long research program focusing on status-based stratification of market relations in a variety of industries, ranging from investment banking to semiconductors. Compelling theoretical arguments and careful empirical analyses reveal why and how status distinctions both within the market domain and in other domains are implicated in exchange relations, market segmentation, pricing, technological innovation, financial performance and industry evolution. I cannot attempt to do justice to the richness of Podolny's empirical findings within the scope of this review, so I will focus primarily on what Podolny has to say about the status construct, since I suspect that this construct will play an increasingly important role in studies of organizational populations and fields.