Star entrepreneurs on digital platforms: Heavy-tailed performance distributions and their generative mechanisms

Kaushik Gala, Andreas Schwab and Brandon A. Mueller

Journal of Business Venturing, 2024, vol. 39, issue 1

Abstract: This study extends emerging theories of star performers to digital platforms, an increasingly prevalent entrepreneurial context. It hypothesizes that the unique characteristics of many digital platforms (e.g., low marginal costs, feedback loops, and network effects) produce heavy-tailed performance distributions, indicating the existence of star entrepreneurs. Using longitudinal data from an online learning platform, proportional differentiation is identified as the most likely generative mechanism and lognormal distribution as the most likely shape for distributions of entrepreneurial performance in digital contexts. This study contributes theory and empirical evidence for non-normal entrepreneurial performance with implications for scholars and practitioners of digital entrepreneurship.

Keywords: Digital platforms; Entrepreneurial performance; Star entrepreneurs; Lognormal performance distributions; Proportional differentiation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 L26 M13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbvent:v:39:y:2024:i:1:s0883902623000617

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2023.106347

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