Career Paths of German Business Administration Academics

Abstract

The question of how the career path for professors should be structured is a central issue in the current debate on reforming higher education in Germany. In order to substantiate current discussions on promotion and faculty development this study presents empirical data on the biographies of 699 professors of business administration at German universities. The internet-based data collection provides descriptive analyses on the pathways to the professiorate, including age, sex, educational background, mobility and social networks of business professors. The results suggest that career opportunities for academics in business administration vary widely across different age cohorts. Business professors in Germany show a high mobility, and the ability to accumulate social capital differs significantly between male and female professors. The implications for policy makers and young academics are discussed.

Non-tenured post-doctoral researchers’ job mobility and research output: An analysis of the role of research discipline, department size, and coauthors

“…More precisely, depending on the elapsed time and the researcher's context, human and social capital can be both positively and negatively affected by a change of affiliation. In the long run, a change of affiliation provides the opportunity to increase both human and social capital through access to new knowledge (see Morano-Foadi, 2005;Röbken, 2009;Scellato et al, 2012) and colleagues (Bidwell, 2011;Cañibano et al, 2008;Scellato et al, 2012). However, in the short run, which will be the focus of this study, a change of affiliation could have negative effects on career success if it is associated with a loss of human and/or social capital.…”

“…By changing affiliation, a researcher stands to gain human capital because at the new institution the researcher encounters different perspectives and approaches to research, and new research methods, topics, and ideas (see Ackers, 2005;Barbezat and Hughes, 2001;Bidwell, 2011;Bozeman et al, 2001;Horta, 2013;Morano-Foadi, 2005;Röbken, 2009;see Scellato et al, 2012 for the increase of human and social capital as one reason of researchers to be internationally mobile). However, acquiring this human capital takes time, i.e.…”

“…2). When changing the affiliation, the researcher can-in the long run-enlarge his or her social network by including new colleagues (see Bidwell, 2011;Burris, 2004;Franzoni et al, 2012;Röbken, 2009;Scellato et al, 2012), who in turn bring along their social contacts. These additional contacts will result in more usable resources resulting from those ties, i.e.…”

“…Musselin, 2004). Obtaining the doctorate at an affiliation that maintains ties to many other institutions may make it easier to move afterwards because one knows about more vacant positions (Röbken, 2009).…”

A Comparative Study Examining Academic Cohorts with Transnational Migratory Intentions Towards Canada and Australia

“…Mobility in the academic profession is widely regarded as a positive practice (Musselin, ; Edwards et al ., ) that promotes diversity in the academy (Maher and Thompson‐Tetreault, ), helps establish global knowledge nodes and networks (Jöns, ), improves the competitiveness of the individuals involved (Balasooriya et al ., ) and advocates the notion that researchers who have experienced high levels of mobility having been exposed to different schools of thought, making them more likely to identify and pursue new and unexplored research topics (Robken, ). Kim () even suggests that academic mobility illustrates a pursuit of excellence, with the reputation of leading institutions strongly influencing the decision to move overseas to join leading institutions.…”