The predictive power of university pedigree on the graduate's performance in global virtual teams

The university rank is commonly used as a predictor of the performance of graduates. Unfortunately, prior research has primarily focused on the effect of university rank on graduates’ pay level, which is not the same as performance. We tested both the positive and negative effects of the academic pedigree on the different aspects of actual performance. Using a sample of 28,339 students from 294 universities in 79 countries who completed a business consulting project, we tested if and how the performance of students from higher-ranked universities differed from that of students from lowerranked universities. The results show that graduates from higher-ranked universities generally perform slightly better. However, a more prestigious academic pedigree can also be associated with arrogance, excessive focus on tasks at the expense of relationships, and envy of co-workers, which could undermine the performance potential of graduates from higher-ranked universities.