Bio
Anne Bowers is an Associate Professor of Strategic Management at Rotman. Her primary research interest include how classification shapes market outcomes, particularly the impact of rating systems, market categories and social categories on organizational performance. In a second stream of research, she studies how information flows among market intermediaries, and how their non-market strategies affect the overall level of information available to the market at large. Research settings include the financial services sector (equity research, relationship banking) as well as online marketplaces, such as eBay.
View Curriculum Vitae
Selected Publications – Papers
- Overt status seeking behaviour and competitive emergence among securities analysts; Bowers, A., Greve, H., Mitsuhashi, H.; Research in the Sociology of Organizations; Issue: 50; 2017; Pages: 351-382
- The structural origins of “unearned” status: How arbitrary changes in categories affect status position and market impact; Bowers, A., Prato, M.; Administrative Science Quarterly, conditionally accepted; 2017
- Relative comparison and category membership: the case of equity analysts; Bowers, A.; Organization Science; Issue: 26; 2015; Pages: 571-583
- Mutual Forbearance and Competition for Information Leadership among Security Analysts; Baum, J., A. Bowers, and P. Mohanram; Management Science, Forthcoming; 2015
- Category Expectations, Category Boundaries, and Market Outcomes; Bowers, A.; Advances in Strategic Management; Issue: 32; 2015; Pages: 241-276
- Competitive Parity, Status Disparity, and Mutual Forbearance: Securities Analysts’ Competition for Investor Attention; Bowers, A., Greve, H., Mitsuhashi, H, Baum, J.; Academy of Management Journal; Issue: 57; 2014; Pages: 38-62
- Getting a Bonus: Social Networks, Performance, and Reward among Commercial Bankers; Mizruchi, M.S., L. B. Stearns, and A. Fleischer; Organization Science; Issue: 22; 2011; Pages: 42-59
- Ambiguity and the Equity of Rating Systems: United States Brokerage Firms, 1995-2000; Fleischer, A.; Administrative Science Quarterly; Issue: 54; 2009; Pages: 555-574
Academic / Professional Service
| 2012- | Editorial Board, Administrative Science Quarterly |
| 2012- | Editorial Board, Organization Science |
| 2016- | Editorial Board, Sociological Science |
| 2016- | Editorial Board, Strategic Organization |
Honors and Awards
| 2009-2012 | Excellence in Teaching; Rotman School of Management |
| 2011 | Research Grant ($93,739; co-PI with Joel Baum); SSHRC |
| 2013 | Insight Development Grant ($61,876); SSHRC |
Research and Teaching Interests
My research to date focuses on how social classification and market intermediaries impact market information. Market information, such as ratings, forecasts, and rankings, assists in exchange by providing summary evaluations that potential audiences can use to assess the value of particular firms or products.
My work examines how market information may be shaped by cognitive, social, and strategic processes that complicate the relationship between firms and products themselves and the information created about them. I am currently interested in the creation of rating systems and rankings and the effects that such creation has on firm performance.