Sharing the Spotlight: The Benefits of Having a Celebrity Competitor

Abstract

Drawing from media routines and narrative theory research, we theorize that benefits spill over to competitors who are cognitively linked to a celebrity via media narratives. Specifically, we argue that actors with direct competitive relationships with a celebrity will receive increased media attention and emotive media content, as well as increased performance. Due to the nature of these narratives, we further argue that this effect continues into periods after the direct relationship has ended. We test our hypotheses using a novel, eight-year data set from the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Our findings support our theoretical arguments, providing evidence on how celebrities benefit others in ways that other social evaluation assets—namely, high reputation and high status—do not.