A Network Filter for Social Learning: Evidence from Equity Research
- Title:
- A Network Filter for Social Learning: Evidence from Equity Research
- Author(s):
- Uribe, Jose Nicolas
- Thesis Advisor(s):
- Ingram, Paul
- Date:
- 2015
- Type:
- Theses
- Degree:
- Ph.D., Columbia University
- Department(s):
- Business
- Persistent URL:
- https://doi.org/10.7916/D8MS3RQ6
- Abstract:
- When are decision makers able to learn from others? I argue that actors occupying network positions that enable social learning gain a competitive advantage. I show that the accuracy of security analysts' earnings forecasts improves when the coverage network readily conveys information about competitors' decision-making context. The benefits of social learning are most pronounced in unstable environments, measured by firms' forecast dispersion. Causality is established using a natural experiment: surviving analysts' network positions -along with their forecasting accuracy -deteriorated to the extent that their coverage overlapped with analysts who perished in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The importance of social learning in the analyst profession goes well beyond improving forecasting accuracy. I show that analysts' clients recognize narrow expertise on those stocks where the analyst is ideally positioned for social learning. This article contributes to organizational theory by specifying network positions providing a superior view of competitors' information environment and to strategy research by identifying conditions under which these positions confer a competitive advantage.
- Subject(s):
- Management
- Item views
- 141
- Metadata:
-
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- Suggested Citation:
- Jose Nicolas Uribe, 2015, A Network Filter for Social Learning: Evidence from Equity Research, Columbia University Academic Commons, https://doi.org/10.7916/D8MS3RQ6.
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