Conspicuous
Employment
Theory, Measurement, and Consequences of Prestigious Employer Preference
Dr. rer. oec. · University of St. Gallen · Springer Nature
6
Empirical studies
5
PEP factors
200+
Years of status research
2
Consequence studies
When work becomes
a status signal
In 1915, Thorstein Veblen described a society in which consumption functions as a social signal — the phenomenon of «conspicuous consumption». What he did not foresee: work would take its place. Today, idleness is not luxury but social stigma. The ultimate status symbol is not what you buy — but where you work.
This dissertation investigates what lies behind this phenomenon. At its centre is the construct of prestigious employer preference (PEP): the individual tendency to systematically favour employers with high prestige. PEP is not irrational — but it is not purely rational either.
The work makes three contributions: it integrates more than 200 years of dispersed status research, develops and validates a psychometric measurement instrument for PEP, and examines two concrete consequences — in the context of employer attractiveness and decision-making behaviour.
Project data
Publication form
Dissertation for the degree of
Doctor of Economics (Dr. rer. oec.),
University of St. Gallen (HSG)
First examiner
Prof. Dr. Sven Reinecke, HSG St. Gallen
Second examiner
Prof. Dr. Günter Müller-Stewens, HSG St. Gallen
Publisher
Springer Nature
Methodology
Literature review · Scale development
Randomised experiment · Quasi-experiment
Citation (hardcover)
Berghaus, B. (2020). Conspicuous Employment: Theory, Measurement, and Consequences of Prestigious Employer Preference. Contributions to Management Science. Springer Cham. ISBN 978-3-030-37700-7.
doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37701-4«Where Veblen identified the leisure class who conspicuously enjoyed their lives without work, we now see: the position at the best employer is the true luxury of self-realisation.»
— Berghaus (2016), p. 2
Five Factors. One Construct.
PEP is not a one-dimensional tendency. Two individual factors (Perfectionism, Hedonism) and three social factors (Association, Uniqueness, Conspicuousness) together form the construct — adapted from research on prestige-driven consumer behaviour (Vigneron & Johnson, 1999).
Six Chapters. One Argument.
The dissertation follows a three-phase structure: grounding through literature, construct development through empirical studies, application to two consequences.
Introduction
Two market dynamics as a starting point: the growing importance of people for corporate success and the increasing role of work in individual biographies. The conclusion: competition for prestige-based positions is not a marginal phenomenon, but a structural consequence.
Theory
Systematic literature review covering 200 years of status research — across disciplines. Focus on status in recruitment, derivation of the research framework, and identification of the gap: missing conceptualisation of individual prestige preference.
Measurement
Six sequential empirical studies: from exploratory interviews through pilot studies, piloting, and revision to nomological network evaluation. Result: a validated psychometric scale with five factors (PEP scale).
Prestige & PO-Fit
Experimental study: 2×1 randomised design comparing the influence of prestige preference satisfaction and values-based person-organisation fit on perceived employer attractiveness.
Prestige & Confidence
Quasi-experimental study: how does regulatory promotion focus affect decision-making behaviour in groups? Manipulation of regulatory focus shows that group decisions can be systematically reversed — with implications for prestige-shaped environments.
Discussion
Findings, limitations, and practical implications for employers and job seekers. Theoretical outlook: how the findings contribute to integrating status research and which research questions remain open.
Scale development in detail — Chapter 3
S1
Exploratory interviews
S2
Literature integration
S3
Pre-study
S4
Piloting
S5
Revision
S6
Nomological network
but how much more it matters than values.»
Lead finding from Chapter 4
University of St. Gallen
The fulfilment of prestige preferences has a substantially stronger influence on employer attractiveness than values-based person-organisation fit — even though both are significant predictors.
Even minimal prestige cues in context systematically shift the perceived value profiles of employers — a signal of how strongly prestige framing overwrites cognitive evaluation processes.
Regulatory promotion focus predicts overconfidence in decision situations. Deliberate manipulation of regulatory focus in decision groups can systematically reverse prior group decisions.
Prestigious employer preference (PEP) correlates positively with self-enhancing work values (power, achievement) and negatively with communal values — a signature relevant to HR decisions.
How the project came about
The starting point was the observation of a contradiction: although the pursuit of prestige in the working world is ubiquitous, it had no conceptual foundation — no construct, no measurement instrument, no integration with adjacent theory.
The dissertation was developed in close connection with the Swiss Student Value Survey (SSVS) — a project that reached more than 1,500 students at four Swiss universities over several survey rounds and provided the empirical basis for scale development. The SSVS was also directly applied: every participation led to a personal advisory conversation.
The work was published by Springer Nature and supervised at the Institute of Marketing and Commerce at the University of St. Gallen.
Interested in the findings — for employer branding strategies, HR research, or academic collaboration? Or questions about methodology and scale development?
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