This dissertation aims to further our understanding of organizational reference groups and examines the antecedents, consequences, and dynamic processes of organizational reference groups. Specifically, it consists of two empirical essays that focus on the 1) role of firm status as an antecedent to reference group, and 2) consequences of reference group characteristics on strategic change, and a conclusion that outlines future research directions.The first chapter of this dissertation aims to address the neglected area of research on specification of reference groups by focusing on the role of organizational status. Drawing on features of status, I theorize and find that high firm status increases the level of status of firms in reference groups, decreases reference group size, increases the use of non-conforming reference groups and the number of mentions as referents by other firms. I investigate the causal effect of status on the process of organization’s selection of reference groups empirically by utilizing Fortune 500 rankings and applying a sharp regression discontinuity design (RDD) approach. Overall, this study offers a better understanding for how organizations form reference groups, contributing to the literatures on behavioral theory of the firm, organizational learning, and status. The second essay focuses on the consequences of reference group characteristics for firm decision making and examines how responses to performance feedback from social aspirations may vary for same level of performance, contingent on the variance of performance of peers and reference group size. This essay theorizes that variance in performance of firms within a reference group and reference group size reduces firm’s responsiveness to underperformance as it creates opportunity for decision makers to self-enhance by enabling them to focus on underperforming firms within the reference group. Furthermore, I also argue that firms can change their reference group composition when experiencing underperformance relative to peers, as an alternative to increasing levels of strategic change. Results suggest that variance in peer performance decreases firm responsiveness to performance below social aspirations, and that the effect of reference group size is conditional on the level of variance in peer performance such that larger reference group size weakens the effect of negative social performance feedback on strategic change only when variance in performance of peers is high. I also find that firms with low levels of strategic change are more likely to change their reference group composition when experiencing low performance relative to peers. In the final chapter, potential research ideas and directions for future research on the area of organizational reference groups are discussed. This dissertation contributes to the behavioral theory of the firm and organizational learning literatures by highlighting whom organizations learn from, complementing the existing focus on what is learned from other organizations.