Does paying for talent work?
Yes. When the value-creating asset is portable, it transfers with the person.
No. When the value-creating asset is not portable, paying a premium for outside talent rarely delivers the expected return.
Research summary
Companies and sports teams both pay premiums to acquire outside talent. NHL free agents. NBA supermax candidates. External executive hires. Lateral hires on Wall Street. The question is the same in every setting. Does the premium deliver the expected performance?
The Mallory Group has now published research on this question across three sports and four studies. This site connects those findings to the peer-reviewed business literature on talent acquisition.
The short version: the buyer side of the talent market consistently overpays, and the conditions under which paying for outside talent works are narrow and identifiable.
The business claim is supported by peer-reviewed research in business settings. The sports data illustrates the same pattern; it does not carry the argument.
Pages on this site
- Key Findings: Plain-language summary of the four TMG sports studies, the business research, and the synthesis.
- Business Research: Each of the six peer-reviewed mapped sources and one industry source, mapped onto the sports findings.
- Implications: What this means for hiring, managing stars, and structuring work.
- Citations: Full bibliography with links to every source.
- Audit: What this synthesis can and cannot claim. Verify any claim yourself.
- GitHub: The repository for this site, including markdown source content and audit feedback issues.
This piece synthesizes The Mallory Group's behavioral economics research series across three sports. The underlying studies are NHL Free Agency Research, NBA Analysis, NFL Analysis, and NHL Play for Contract.