Choices and Consequences: Impact of Mobility on Research-Career Capital and Promotion in Business Schools

Abstract

We focus on the role that domestic and international mobility play in achieving a business academic's career outcomes. We seek to advance existing research by taking a morenuanced approach to the study of mobility. Using a sample of 376 tenured faculty members from 20 highly research-visible European business schools in 10 countries, we explore different patterns of mobility and highlight their link to research-career capital and the speed of academic promotion. Our findings show that mobility has a positive impact on research-career capital, but multiple moves delay academic promotion. In making decisions about international mobility, it is important to know that moving internationally for one's first post-PhD job undermines research productivity. However, moving internationally between year 2 and year 7 post-PhD is better than moving later on. The ability to move between countries is deeply rooted in gender, with female faculty less likely to access international mobility. Female academics also take longer to be promoted to a tenured rank and to full professorship. Our findings have implications for academic researchers who consider domestic and international mobility, and for PhD supervisors whose duty it is to prepare their students for successful careers in academia. 186

Mapping career patterns in research: A sequence analysis of career histories of ERC applicants

“…publications) [10] or mobility events (i.e. international moves) [11]. Following Abbott, we view the career pattern itself as an outcome [12].…”

The many facets of academic mobility and its impact on scholars' career

“…However, Bozeman and Gaughan (2011) found no evidence that men or women adopt a "nationalist" strategy (wishing collaborators from one's own nation or shared language) in collaboration. Prior studies have shown that women are less likely to have international mobility (El-Ouahi et al, 2021;Jöns, 2011;Leemann, 2010;Ryazanova & McNamara, 2019). This varies by many factors such as discipline, career stage and country of origin.…”

“…However, Bauder (2020) reports that mobility can lead to the loss of national social capital that negatively affects early-career researchers in particular. Furthermore, the results of a study by Ryazanova and McNamara (2019) indicate a negative effect of international mobility at the first postdoctoral researcher (postdoc) job on research productivity, however they found that an international movement between year 2 and 7 of a postdoc is better than later.…”

“…For that, mobility of researchers is important, since it fosters communication, collaboration and knowledge transfer between researchersall factors which are considered crucial for scientific progress as well as for success and performance of researchers. However, research has shown that extent and distribution of mobility is genderdependent (El-Ouahi et al, 2021;Jöns, 2011;Leemann, 2010;Ryazanova & McNamara, 2019). For example, although participation in science of researchers that have been identified as females has seen a significant advancement during the last years (Carr et al, 2015;Ovseiko et al, 2017), the vast majority of female researchers are not mobile (Jöns, 2011).…”

Ageing academics do not retire - they just give up their administration and fly away: a study of continuing employment of older academic international business travellers

“…We also note that amongst the current cohort of business school academics, women tend to be less globally mobile than their male counterparts. It has been suggested that this is for reasons related to personal life (caring responsibilities) rather than lack of awareness about the professional benefits of mobility, and, even when women have moved internationally previously, they may be reluctant to do so again because of unsettling their families (Ryazanova & McNamara, 2019). Table 1 includes a summary of biodata for the interviewees.…”