Shared Pedigree and Ideational Convergence in Elite Professional Advisory Firms

• In Event: 2434 - Economic Sociology Regular Session: Corporations and Elites

Abstract

Work in economic sociology, political sociology, and political economy argues that capitalism expands and reconstructs relations of production and consumption. The impulse of creative destruction and disruptive innovation propels firms to recruit from prestigious universities, believing these are the fount of innovative thinkers. On the other hand, scholarship in the sociology of education, elites, and occupations emphasizes elite reproduction, arguing shared social background, tastes, mannerisms, and credentials limit the ability of candidates from non-elite backgrounds to participate in elite labor markets ensuring incoming cohorts largely mirroring the current employees. Elite reproduction and disruptive innovation perspectives, therefore, suggest competing hypotheses about the ideational diversity of elite labor: if elite reproduction prevails we should see ideational convergence but disruptive innovation should encourage ideational divergence as capitalists strive to differentiate themselves from competitors. I evaluate these predictions by considering to what extent ideational similarity exists, and is predicted by shared pedigree, prestigious graduate credentials, and time in the elite global advisory field. I use a novel dataset of articles written by consultants and cutting-edge text analysis techniques to measure ideational similarity. Consistent with the elite reproduction perspective, shared pedigree and institutional age both predict greater ideational convergence. Beyond reproducing economic privilege, this shows how certain ways of thinking maintain hegemony within a highly influential professional field.

Author

• Dustin S. Stoltz, University of Notre Dame