Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/284736 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Citation: 
[Journal:] European Management Review [ISSN:] 1740-4762 [Volume:] 18 [Issue:] 4 [Year:] 2021 [Pages:] 476-499
Publisher: 
Wiley, Hoboken, NJ
Abstract: 
The present paper brings novel insights to career literature, in particular to the field of top managers' careers: first, by relying on the boundaryless career approach, we investigate how those managers who reach the top differ in terms of career variety before being appointed to the board. Second, by combining the boundaryless career approach with human capital theory, we analyze the association between top managers' career variety and the time it takes them to reach a board level position. For our empirical study, we use a sample of top managers from German DAX‐30 firms. Our results reveal four distinct clusters of top managers, indicating that, before reaching the management board, no uniform career path exists. We also demonstrate that more career variety does not shorten an individual's way up to upper echelons; rather, it extends the time it takes to ascend to the top.
Subjects: 
Boundaryless career
career pattern
career variety
executive careers
time to the top
top managers
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc-nd Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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