“Tweet to the Top? Personal Branding and Executive Employment” by Ms. Yanzhen Chen
IIM SEMINAR
Speaker:
Ms. Yanzhen Chen
PhD Candidate in Information Systems
The University of Texas at Austin
Abstract:
We study the relationship between one’s Personal Branding (PB) and labor market performance by examining 822 S&P 500 executives’ PB on Twitter and also their career paths. To unravel the effects of sorting and compensation negotiations, we utilize a structural model based on the two‐sided matching theory to estimate how PB relates to a candidate’s chance of accepting a specific offer and the compensation negotiation outcome. We find that the past performance significantly moderates the association between PB and job market performance. For example, for CEO and CMO candidates, more PB on social media is associated with better sorting score only for those with very good or poor past job performance. In terms of compensation negotiation, more PB is associated with higher compensation only for those with good past job performance. This
paper contributes to the IS literature by being the first to study the emerging phenomenon of PB on social media and has important implications for job seekers, employers, and social media platforms.
