{"id":{"repo_id":"mit","oai_identifier":"oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/117996"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/mit/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/117996","repository":{"repo_id":"mit","name":"MIT","base_url":"https://dspace.mit.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Death of the salesman, but not the sales force : reputational entrepreneurship and the valuation of scientific achievement","abstract":"Using citations as a measure of valuation and death as a shock that affects efforts to \"sell\" scientific work but not the quality of the work itself, we estimate the importance of \"reputational entrepreneurship\" on the valuation of life scientists' research. Insofar as reputational entrepreneurship is impactful, it is unclear whether the most effective reputational entrepreneurs are those selling their own work (\"salesman\") or those promoting the work of others (the \"sales force\"). While the salesman has more incentive to promote her work, the sales force is larger and likely to be seen as more credible. We find that by commemorating the death of a scientist, the sales force boosts the valuation of the deceased's work relative to what the salesman could have done had she remained alive. This suggests that while science seeks to divorce the researcher's identity from their work, scientists' identities nonetheless play an important role in determining scientific valuations.","abstract_html":"Using citations as a measure of valuation and death as a shock that affects efforts to "sell" scientific work but not the quality of the work itself, we estimate the importance of "reputational entrepreneurship" on the valuation of life scientists' research. Insofar as reputational entrepreneurship is impactful, it is unclear whether the most effective reputational entrepreneurs are those selling their own work ("salesman") or those promoting the work of others (the "sales force"). While the salesman has more incentive to promote her work, the sales force is larger and likely to be seen as more credible. We find that by commemorating the death of a scientist, the sales force boosts the valuation of the deceased's work relative to what the salesman could have done had she remained alive. This suggests that while science seeks to divorce the researcher's identity from their work, scientists' identities nonetheless play an important role in determining scientific valuations.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Wahlen, Jesse Michael"],"institution":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":"Sloan School of Management.","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Ezra Zuckerman Sivan."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2018,"date_issued":"2018","date_published":"2018","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:22:04Z","subjects":["Sloan School of Management."],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission."],"rights_urls":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/117996","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Ezra Zuckerman Sivan."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["Sloan School of Management."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.other","label":"Dc Contributor Other","values":["Sloan School of Management."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Wahlen, Jesse Michael"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2018-09-17T15:53:07Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2018-09-17T15:53:07Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2018"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Sloan School of Management."]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission."]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/117996"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Thesis: S.M. in Management Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2018.","Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.","Includes bibliographical references (pages 44-47, 83)."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Using citations as a measure of valuation and death as a shock that affects efforts to \"sell\" scientific work but not the quality of the work itself, we estimate the importance of \"reputational entrepreneurship\" on the valuation of life scientists' research. Insofar as reputational entrepreneurship is impactful, it is unclear whether the most effective reputational entrepreneurs are those selling their own work (\"salesman\") or those promoting the work of others (the \"sales force\"). While the salesman has more incentive to promote her work, the sales force is larger and likely to be seen as more credible. We find that by commemorating the death of a scientist, the sales force boosts the valuation of the deceased's work relative to what the salesman could have done had she remained alive. This suggests that while science seeks to divorce the researcher's identity from their work, scientists' identities nonetheless play an important role in determining scientific valuations."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["S.M. in Management Research"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Death of the salesman, but not the sales force : reputational entrepreneurship and the valuation of scientific achievement"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Ezra Zuckerman Sivan."],"dc:contributor.department":["Sloan School of Management."],"dc:contributor.other":["Sloan School of Management."],"dc:creator":["Wahlen, Jesse Michael"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2018-09-17T15:53:07Z"],"dc:date.available":["2018-09-17T15:53:07Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2018"],"dc:description":["Thesis: S.M. in Management Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2018.","Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.","Includes bibliographical references (pages 44-47, 83)."],"dc:description.abstract":["Using citations as a measure of valuation and death as a shock that affects efforts to \"sell\" scientific work but not the quality of the work itself, we estimate the importance of \"reputational entrepreneurship\" on the valuation of life scientists' research. Insofar as reputational entrepreneurship is impactful, it is unclear whether the most effective reputational entrepreneurs are those selling their own work (\"salesman\") or those promoting the work of others (the \"sales force\"). While the salesman has more incentive to promote her work, the sales force is larger and likely to be seen as more credible. We find that by commemorating the death of a scientist, the sales force boosts the valuation of the deceased's work relative to what the salesman could have done had she remained alive. This suggests that while science seeks to divorce the researcher's identity from their work, scientists' identities nonetheless play an important role in determining scientific valuations."],"dc:description.degree":["S.M. in Management Research"],"dc:identifier.uri":["http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/117996"],"dc:language.iso":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology"],"dc:rights":["MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission."],"dc:rights.uri":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"],"dc:subject":["Sloan School of Management."],"dc:title":["Death of the salesman, but not the sales force : reputational entrepreneurship and the valuation of scientific achievement"],"dc:type":["Thesis"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:22:04Z"}