Through the looking glass: Status spillovers across social boundaries

This study explores how and under what conditions the social status acquired in a field may influence status judgments in another field. We focus on scientists’ involvement with industry and predict that academic status will be partially recognized by private research funders. Yet, such status spillovers are not unconditional, but may vary with the credentials scientists have accumulated in industry and the experience funders have acquired of academia. We test and find strong support for our theory on the full population of scientists at Imperial College London from 2004 to 2011. Contributions to the literatures on social status and organization theory are briefly discussed in conclusion.