Tournaments Versus Sponsored Mobility as Determinants of Job Search Success

Abstract

A large but dated literature indicates that academia does not reward individuals for contributions to science, instead applying sponsored mobility norms, whereby individuals are rewarded when they are sponsored by established academics. The reported study examined whether contemporary universities' hiring decisions are better described by tournament or sponsored mobility. Departing from the findings of past research, the authors' longitudinal data indicated that management departments currently employ tournament-based criteria when distributing jobs.