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Peer influence in the workplace: Evidence from an enterprise digital platform

Author

Listed:
  • Haoyuan Liu

    (McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, 2110 Speedway Stop B6500, Austin, TX 78712)

  • Wen Wen

    (McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, 2110 Speedway Stop B6500, Austin, TX 78712)

  • Andrew B. Whinston

    (McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, 2110 Speedway Stop B6500, Austin, TX 78712)

Abstract
We study how the broadcasting of peer success on an enterprise digital platform affects worker productivity. Using sales workers in an IT service company as our research context, we leverage the unexpected resignation of several HR staff members as an exogenous shock to the sharing of peer success and implement a difference-in-differences estimation. The empirical evidence shows that sales workers exert less effort when peer success messages are absent. We next investigate how the framing of peer success messages may generate different forms of peer influence, and particularly explore two ways of framing—messages that highlight peer’s ability (i.e., ability-based messages) and messages that highlight peer’s effort (i.e., effort-based messages). We find that although both types of peer success messages have a positive influence on worker productivity, there exists important heterogeneity. For ability-based messages, workers respond most strongly if their peers are socially close or have worse historical performance. By contrast, the effect of effort-based messages does not vary by peer characteristics.

Suggested Citation

  • Haoyuan Liu & Wen Wen & Andrew B. Whinston, 2018. "Peer influence in the workplace: Evidence from an enterprise digital platform," Working Papers 18-08, NET Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:net:wpaper:1808
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    File URL: http://www.netinst.org/Wen_18-08.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    peer success; work effort; productivity; peer influence; online organizational communication; peer pressure; difference-in-differences;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software
    • M54 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Labor Management

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