Exploring the antecedents and effects of celebrity in a business context

This thesis explores an important yet underexplored aspect of management studies, which is that some individuals and organisations in business gain a cultural significance and popularity in society, which goes beyond simply being known as being high quality. Specifically, I explore how business actors garner celebrity value and explore consequences it can have for themselves and those around them. In paper 1, co-authored with my thesis supervisors, I explore how the press construct entrepreneurs as celebrities and this study provides new knowledge about how certain individuals in business become celebrities and how the press create their personas. In the second paper, under the guidance of Michael Pfarrer and Daniel Gamache while a visiting scholar at the University of Georgia, I theorise the formation and consequences of hubris developing at a collective level in an organization. In my third paper, I explore a celebrity spillover effect from a focal celebrity actor to those that they compete with.