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The career path once promised to good managers was an uninterrupted, upward climb on a corporate ladder. When environmental forces caused organizations to downsize and restructure, the promise was broken. A protean path emerged, one that was self‐directed rather than company‐directed, and involved changes in employment. The study assesses whether managers have achieved the promised path and whether demographic and career factors differ for those on promised versus protean paths. Longitudinal data from MBAs surveyed three times over a 13‐year period demonstrated that the promised career path still exists for one‐third of the MBAs. Managers on promised paths were somewhat older and worked in larger companies. However, they did not have greater income, managerial level, career satisfaction, company loyalty, or job security than those on protean paths. Women followed both paths but career advancement was more accessible on protean paths. This study makes a unique contribution as the longitudinal data, controlled educational background, and controlled time period enhance understanding of managerial career paths.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which project preferences and social capital constrain mobility in project‐based careers.

The paper analyzes the careers of 352 individuals who entered the motion picture industry between 1988 and 1990. It uses motion picture credit histories to generate role sequence paths. The paper quantifies differences between paths using optimal matching techniques and cluster analysis to classify paths into clusters. It validates the classification by testing hypotheses about differences between path clusters.

In addition to a large group of individuals who exit the industry after the initial credit, the paper identifies three distinct clusters of career paths that exhibit differences in the sex of individuals on them, in the persistence of relationships with employers, in employer characteristics, and in the nature of subsequent projects.

Because the paper is exploratory, general hypotheses are tested. Motion picture production may be an extreme example of project‐based production, which would limit generalizability.

Managers, individuals and career experts should recognize that mobility can be constrained and channeled by preferences in project type and by social capital. Employer celebrity appears to play no role in the careers of assistants, but control over many projects plays a significant role.

The paper demonstrates non‐organizational constraints on mobility in project‐based, apparently boundaryless, self‐managed careers.

This paper aims to explain and resolve the paradoxical situation in China regarding how it is difficult to get an offer of employment in China while people are unwilling to pursue or embark on a career in the Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) industry. Therefore, the MICE industry career path should be carefully explored.

The paper used semi-structured interviews with more than 30 representative managers from key MICE companies, a social community perspective and conceptions of the social world combined with the traditional career-ladder model.

The study’s key findings are: a general career path exists in the MICE industry in China; there are three main types of career paths and two different kinds of promotion mechanisms, which vary according to the type of ownership, scale or other characteristics of companies; and a feedback mechanism, linking social-world events and social community characteristics, affects individual employees and their career paths in the MICE industry, leading to promotion in or retreat from the industry. Typically, the mechanism fits high-level employees better than the freshmen, which leads to high turnover in the MICE labor market.

This paper provides a better understanding of MICE industry and facilitates people’s employment choices.

This paper provide a new social community perspective for exploring the MICE career path; there are also significant practical implications for MICE elites, which present a new framework for future research and industry applications.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors that influence accounting students’ preference toward career paths. Career path refers to the choices of jobs and occupational positions an individual may choose to hold. Accounting students may choose to advance their career into one of the following areas: financial accounting, management accounting, taxation, auditing, finance, etc. According to past literature, choices of career path are influenced by intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, third parties, and career exposure.

A self-administered survey was used to collect data from students in a reputable private university in Malaysia. This university recruits a huge number of accounting students annually for its accounting program. A total of 306 questionnaires were collected for data analysis using statistical analysis system.

The findings of the study suggest that undergraduate accounting students are more influenced by intrinsic motivation and career exposure in selecting their career paths, whereas third parties and extrinsic motivation are less likely to influence undergraduate accounting students’ career choices.

The results, however, could not be generalized to all accounting students in Malaysia since the study was collected from only one private university in Malaysia and non-probability sampling technique was applied. The theoretical contribution of this study is the inclusion of new variables in the model.

Professional accounting bodies may benefit from the findings of this study as it may provide a basis in designing member recruitment strategies.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how shortage of certain career path for accounting students could be resolved.

This paper employs human resources (HR) analytics to investigate the pathways through which high-potential managers ascend to C-suite positions, and how different developmental paths influence turnover among executives.

By combining job analysis and competency assessment with sequence analysis, the authors utilize HR analytics to analyze the work experiences of 53 general managers spanning 57 years (n = 2,742), encompassing various roles, job requirements, and 20 executive competencies attached to over 1,000 positions.

This study's findings reveal three distinct developmental paths that lead to the C-suite, characterized by differences in the content, context, timing, and complexity of work experience. Furthermore, the authors identify that a more complex developmental path tends to reinforce executives' competency in self-awareness while inhibiting their development of technical competency, ultimately resulting in reduced executive turnover.

By employing HR analytics to analyze empirical data embedded in job and organizational contexts, this study sheds light on the critical role of timing and complexity of work experiences in executive development. It also offers practical implications for firms seeking to optimize their leadership pipeline and reduce executive turnover by leveraging HR analytics effectively.

The purpose of this research is to find out the influence of the roles of Research and Development (R&D) laboratories of Multinational Corporations (MNCs); and of employee‐related characteristics on future career preferences of knowledge professionals in these laboratories. Career preferences include managerial, technical, project‐based and entrepreneurial paths.

This study draws on a large scale study of 921 professionals employed in 70 R&D units of MNC subsidiaries operating in Greece. Four ordered probit regression models were run with employee career preferences forming the dependent variables.

Two R&D laboratory roles (Support Laboratory and Locally Independent Laboratory); and age and education of the employee stand out as predictors of career preferences of examined professionals.

Notwithstanding that this is a study that took place in a country with an advancing economy, it is seemingly the first that incorporates the roles of R&D laboratories as potential predictors of career paths. Moreover, the idiosyncrasies of the Greek national context are provided as possible explanations that justify why some hypotheses based on prior literature were not supported.

MNC knowledge professionals employed in R&D units are a special group of employees whose career paths may be different from those of other groups. Thus, MNC management should tailor‐make career preferences for them.

This research is one of the few empirical studies providing evidence on career paths of employees in MNC R&D units; and suggests possible predictors that have not been put forward hitherto.

This study aims to investigate how new graduates in Nigeria can simultaneously pursue entrepreneurial and professional careers. Specifically, this study tested the contextual (socioeconomic status [SES]), person-based (an open personality) and cognitive-person (self-efficacy and outcome expectations) predictors of entrepreneurship, professionalism and leadership.

The study design is cross-sectional. Data were collected from 363 new graduates from Nigerian tertiary institutions. Hypotheses were generated from social cognitive career self-management (CSM) variables. Research instruments were also revalidated for the Nigerian context, and regression path analysis was used to analyze the data.

This study’s key findings showed that SES and an open personality are predictors of entrepreneurship, professionalism and leadership (EPL) self-efficacy and intentions, entrepreneurial and job outcome expectations. Second, EPL self-efficacy predicted both entrepreneurial and job outcome expectations and served as a mediating variable for SES and an open personality. Third, entrepreneurial outcome expectations related to EPL intentions, whereas job outcome expectations did not. These results suggest that SES and openness personality trait are crucial for developing a versatile career mindset.

This study demonstrated that individuals’ characteristics (i.e. cognitive and personality) and economic resources are crucial determinants of CSM. As this study is cross-sectional, future research could use a longitudinal approach to determine the cause-effect relationship.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first research to examine how new graduates can simultaneously explore entrepreneurial and professional careers in a developing country like Nigeria using the CSM theory.

The purpose of this paper was to study the career paths of leaders with a career background as a dentist from basic degree to chief or executive leadership positions and individual factors that influenced their decisions.

Semi-structured interview and a questionnaire were used to study 13 leaders using the structure of Edgar Schein’s career anchor interview and career orientation inventory questionnaire. Theory-driven content analysis was used to analyze the data according to themes which included career paths, factors associated with job and career changes and thoughts about future careers.

Three different career path types were identified: Progressives (Type A), By chance (Type B), and Enthusiasts (Type C). The main motives were: the Progressives’ goal orientation to proceed to higher leadership positions, the By chance group’s job and even career changing by taking a chance on an interesting possibility that comes their way and the Enthusiasts’ willingness to make a difference and search for possibilities to change things. The most important career anchor was “pure challenge” among the Progressives and By chance groups and “general managerial competence” among the Enthusiasts.

Studies on personal factors associating with career paths in health care are scarce and similarly leaders with a dentist background are less studied, even though leadership could be an excellent career choice for a dentist. Different individuals can have varied motives and career paths toward executive positions. Because of the multi-professional functions in health care, organizations could benefit from having leaders with different expertise backgrounds.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and self-perceived employability (SPE) affect students' choice of an entrepreneurial career path.

A survey approach was used to gather data from 274 final year undergraduate students at a South African university. The study made use of partial least squares (PLS) structural equation model (SEM) analyses to test the hypothesized associations.

ESE was positively associated with the intention to engage in both a full-time and a hybrid entrepreneurial career path. Also, SPE was positively associated with the intention to engage in hybrid entrepreneurship but negatively associated with engaging in full-time entrepreneurship. Additionally, the effect of ESE on the intention to engage in hybrid entrepreneurship was significantly moderated by SPE, such that the effect was more pronounced for students with a high SPE.

Data were gathered only from one South African university and as such there is a need for similar studies to improve the generalizability of the findings. Also, the measures for ESE and SPE used in the present study are not the only ones available. Thus, future studies are encouraged to use alternative measures to further assess the robustness of the proposed associations.

The arguments and the subsequent findings of this study indicate a new line of convergence for the popular but disjointed literature on ESE and SPE.

The purpose of this research paper is to examine managers' careers, describe and compare career paths between the two most important business sectors in Finland: ICT industry and paper industry. The main research question of this study is: how do the managers construct their careers in ICT and the paper business sectors? Attempts to find out if there exists some regularity in how their careers unfold in these different working environments. What are the main factors in manager's life that direct their careers? Do they differ depending on the business sector? These questions are approached with the help of metaphors, career anchors and career ladders.

The primary research data were gathered in 2002 by interviews in Finnish ICT and paper companies where 30 managers were interviewed. The interviews were held in three companies from ICT sector and three companies from paper industry. Every interview used also a short questionnaire concerning career anchors.

According to the research data there can be noticed three types of career paths. These paths are path of a general manager, specialist and project manager. The career in both sectors begins in a position of specialist then directs towards one of these three paths. When comparing eight career anchors between ICT and paper sectors it was surprising that the greatest difference between the sectors existed concerning the security/stability anchor. Secure employment and compensation were more important to ICT managers than to paper managers. Security and stability matters seemed to be more self‐evident for the paper managers.

The research group consisted of only 30 managers and, therefore, no generalizations to a more extensive group of managers can be made. This paper concerned only two business sectors. The results of this paper cannot be transferred directly to other business sectors.

This approach can be useful in the area of career research. For example, it has already benefited a career research concerning women ICT professionals. This paper can also benefit managers in ICT and paper sectors.

This paper cover enlighten career researchers about the importance of the business sector.