Doctoral Degree Prestige and the Academic Marketplace: A Study of Career Mobility Within the Management Discipline

Using data collected from a national sample of 171 PhD holders, who were awarded terminal degrees in management between 1977 and 1987, we tested four hypotheses concerning career mobility within the management discipline. We found (1) doctoral origin prestige had a direct effect on the prestige of a graduate’s initial academic appointment, (2) doctoral origin prestige interacted with perceived quality of publications such that, early in their careers, graduates of more prestigious doctoral programs obtained greater job placement benefits (in terms of more prestigious initial academic appointments) from the perceived quality of their publications than did graduates of less prestigious doctoral programs, (3) later in their careers, individuals who secured more prestigious initial academic appointments held more prestigious academic appointments than individuals with less prestigious initial academic appointments, and (4) at a later career stage, initial appointment prestige interacted with perceived quality of publications, such that individuals with more prestigious initial academic appointments obtained greater job placement benefits from the perceived quality of their publications than did individuals with less prestigious initial academic appointments. Our results suggest that recruitment patterns in the management discipline reflect an inherent academic stratification system and that doctoral origin prestige is an important determinant of early and later career opportunities. ........................................................................................................................................................................