Marktplatz der Eitelkeiten: Status-Hierarchien zur Koordination der Firmen

Firms compete in markets on prices and qualities. Customers select the offer that best matches their premises. This is the short form the view of economic textbooks. At the same time have more or less high status, similar to individuals. Investments in status, whether through advertising, public relations, networking, or the like or similar, are traditionally interpreted as a contribution to the solution of the the information problem in the market - status as a signal - when economically relevant when economically relevant criteria, such as price and quality, are difficult to determine. are difficult to determine. The paper first describes work which question this explanation. Probably the first alternative approach modelled by the sociologist Harrison White (1981) as a market profile under the premise that it is easier for individual firms to orient themselves to other other firms and to distinguish themselves from them in a status order than to than to explore consumer preferences. This approach has been further developed in several directions. In the paper status is seen as an essential mechanism for coordinating the firms, to establish and to maintain the market profile is postulated. In the main part of the paper a model is offered, partly based on this and on organizational theory concepts. concepts, a model is offered that does not only shows not only stable status orders, but also conditions under which these status orders break and are replaced by new ones. are replaced.