Matthew Bidwell

Shinjinee Chattopadhyay, Shinjae Won, Matthew Bidwell (2026), Dynamic Demands versus Durable Skills: Career Dilemmas in Pharmaceutical R&D, Academy of Management Journal (forthcoming).

Abstract: Skill demands evolve over the course of individuals’ careers, as new roles demand different kinds of skills from previous jobs. Yet skill portfolios can be slow to change. We posit that this tension between dynamic job demands and durable skills creates career dilemmas for building the right portfolio of skills for long-term success. Studying a group of scientists in the pharmaceuticals industry, we argue and find that while specialization helps scientists advance faster initially, it holds scientists back once they reach managerial ranks where coordination skills are required. Within managerial ranks, scientists with broader experience will advance faster since their broad experience will develop broader knowledge and more diverse social capital, which in turn will help them build coordination skills. While we find some evidence that employees try to adapt to these changing needs over their careers, such efforts to adapt are insufficient. Instead, we find that the level of specialization acquired while working as a scientist continues to influence promotion rates after people are promoted into management. We thus show that a skill portfolio built to help advancement at one stage of the career may hold employees back at subsequent career stages.

Shun Yiu, Matthew Bidwell, JR Keller (2026), Pipelines and Sprinkler Systems: Documenting the Speed-Flexibility Tradeoff in How Jobs Shape Promotion, Academy of Management Journal (forthcoming).

Abstract: We draw on theories of internal labor markets and human capital pipelines to examine promotion patterns within large organizations. We introduce the idea of pipeline orientation to describe the way different jobs shape advancement. Specifically, we compare “pipeline” jobs that foster advancement into a highly circumscribed set of jobs with “sprinkler” jobs from which people are promoted into many different higher-level jobs. We first explain the factors shaping a job’s pipeline orientation, then examine its implications for career advancement within internal labor markets. We argue that whether employees occupy pipeline or sprinkler jobs plays an important role in determining whether people make typical versus atypical moves as they are promoted. We further suggest that pipeline and sprinkler jobs engender a speed/flexibility tradeoff, as workers within pipeline jobs have less flexibility in where they could move next but are promoted more rapidly. We test these ideas with internal personnel data from a large corporation.

Federica De Stefano and Matthew Bidwell (2026), Building Careers in Project-Based Organizations: Breadth, Fit, and the Path to Advancement, Management Science (forthcoming).

Abstract: Project-based organizations allow employees in ostensibly similar roles to acquire very different experiences by working on different kinds of projects. We study how people build careers in these contexts, examining when employees choose to diversify their experience—both in terms of project content and collaborators—and how the resulting diversification affects their career advancement. Using longitudinal project data from a services organization, our results suggest that employees initially explore different kinds of work by moving across project types, but then go on to find their fit in a particular area. This process is quicker for high-performing employees and for those with longer tenure and more diverse collaborator networks. We also find that promotion rates and compensation are lower for employees who worked on a broader portfolio of content types and collaborators in the most recent year, but higher for employees who had worked on broader project portfolios in prior years.

Matthew Bidwell and JR Keller (2025), Stepping Sideways to Step Up: Stepping Sideways to Step up: Lateral Mobility and Career Advancement Inside Organizations, Management Science, 71 (1), pp. 240-261.

Abstract: Although internal labor market theory emphasizes promotions as the main form of mobility within organizations, many internal job moves take people sideways into jobs that are at the same hierarchical level as the one that was left. Despite the prevalence of these lateral moves, however, we have little evidence on what role they play in workers’ careers. We argue that lateral mobility can facilitate subsequent career advancement by allowing for the development and demonstration of new skills and can, therefore, help those who would struggle to be promoted from their current job to develop their careers further. We establish empirical evidence on the implications of lateral mobility using eight years of personnel data from a large U.S. healthcare company. Our analyses show that those employees who move laterally are more likely to be subsequently promoted and achieve substantially higher pay growth than a matched sample of employees. We also find that lateral moves are more likely to be undertaken by those who have spent longer in the job but have lower performance than those who are promoted. This pattern of results suggests that lateral mobility provides an important avenue for career growth as people who step sideways in organizations are more likely to subsequently step up.

Giovanna Capponi, Matthew Bidwell, Isabel Fernandez-Mateo, Martine Haas (2024), Global Careers and Compensation: From Initial Penalties to a Superglobal Premium, Academy of Management Discoveries, 10 (1), pp. 122-149.

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between international mobility and financial compensation for knowledge workers pursuing business careers. While some theoretical arguments suggest that international mobility may lead to higher pay, others suggest that it may lead to performance problems and lack of recognition, which could reduce financial rewards. Empirical research on the topic is limited, with cross-sectional data providing little insight into the relationship between international mobility and compensation over time. Our study overcomes this challenge by using a panel dataset on the career histories of 1,322 MBA graduates. The results reveal a curvilinear relationship between international mobility and compensation over time. Making one or two international moves can have substantial negative effects on pay. However, further moves are associated with pay growth, and there is some evidence that those who move countries multiple times (“superglobals”) obtain substantially higher pay. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on international mobility and business careers.

Martine Haas, Isabel Fernandez-Mateo, Matthew Bidwell, Giovanna Capponi (2023), Is Moving Internationally for a Job a Smart Move?, Harvard Business Review (digital article).

Shinjae Won and Matthew Bidwell (2023), Finding The Right Path to The Top: How Past Interorganizational Moves Impact Executive Selection Outcomes, Strategic Management Journal, 44 (10), pp. 2341-2376.

Abstract: Research summary Executives are a critical strategic resource but often build careers across multiple organizations. We explore how firms value that interorganizational mobility by studying executive selection. We suggest that hiring firms will value the diverse experience and adaptability that past mobility across organizations fosters, but that prior mobility can also signal a higher retention risk or lack of competency. Using data from an executive search firm, we employ search-fixed effects model and structural equation models to estimate candidates’ probabilities of receiving a job offer. We find that candidates’ prior mobility indirectly increases their chances of being hired by increasing their functional diversity and reducing their tenure with their employer below ten years. Net of these effects, prior mobility has a negative effect on hiring. Managerial summary Executives are increasingly building their careers across organizations. How do prospective employers evaluate their records of past moves when they are considered as external hires? We propose that by moving firms, individuals can accumulate diverse experience and become more adaptable, but employers may be concerned about retention or performance issues for those with records of frequent moves. Using executive search data, we find that prior mobility is valuable to the extent that it builds diverse functional experience; once it is accounted for, we find that prior mobility decreases the likelihood of receiving an offer. Further, staying at the same employer for ten years or longer is unfavorable due to employers’ concerns about adaptability and firm-specific skills. Our survey of fifty-four CHROs resonates with these findings.

Federica De Stefano, Matthew Bidwell, Arnaldo Camuffo (2022), Do Managers Capture the Value that They Create? Drivers of Managers’ Value Capture in a Large Retail Chain, Strategic Management Journal , 43 (10), pp. 1983-2011.

Abstract: Research Summary We investigate the relationship between value creation and value capture among frontline managers. Using longitudinal data from a restaurant chain, we find that those managers who persistently create more value for the firm capture just 0.5 percent of that extra value through their pay. We explore the reasons for this limited managerial value capture using an abductive approach. We find some evidence that value capture may be limited by lack of alternative employment opportunities. More extensive evidence suggests that the employer often struggled to identify individual contributions to value creation, limiting managerial rewards. We discuss the theoretical implications of such limited managerial value capture for the strategic human capital literature. Managerial Summary Frontline managers can differ in how much they contribute to firm profitability. Do those managers who contribute the most to firm performance also capture those benefits back through higher pay? In a study of restaurant managers, we find that managers differ substantially in the profits that they create, but that the most profitable managers only capture 0.5 percent of the extra profits they create. We also find evidence that the firm often fails to identify which managers are the most persistently profitable, potentially reducing the rewards paid to those managers. By demonstrating that differences in performance are not balanced by differences in pay, we show how high-performing managers can be an important strategic resource for organizations.

Matthew Bidwell, Kira Choi, Isabel Fernandez-Mateo (2022), Brokered Careers: The Role of Search Firms in Managerial Career Mobility, Industrial and Labor Relations Review.

Abstract: We explore how career paths are shaped by the involvement of search firms in hiring. Drawing on theories of market intermediation, we argue that search firms constrain horizontal moves across functions and industries by favoring workers from within the same function and industry as the role being filled. Using survey data on 1,342 job moves undertaken by 816 MBA alumni, we find that individuals who move jobs through a search firm experience lower horizontal mobility than those who move through other means. Our findings also suggest that these results are not driven by firms’ decisions to use a search firm to fill the job. In supplementary analyses, we find no evidence that the job matches that are formed using search firms result in a better fit between workers and employers. Overall, the findings point to the significant institutional role that search firms play in managerial careers.

JR Keller, Rebecca Kehoe, Matthew Bidwell, David Collings, Adam Myer (2021), In with the Old? Examining When Boomerang Employees Outperform New Hires, Academy of Management Journal.

Abstract: As most careers now span across organizations, former employees represent a growing source of potential hires for many organizations. Yet, we know little about whether and when firms benefit by rehiring former employees. To answer these questions, we adopt a knowledge-based view of hiring to develop new theory about how returning former employees’ (“boomerangs”) post-hire performance might differ from that of external hires who have no previous experience with the firm (“new hires”). We theorize that, relative to new hires, boomerangs’ familiarity with the organization’s social system will allow them to more effectively engage in coordination and overcome internal resistance from organizational incumbents. As a consequence, boomerangs should have a particular advantage in roles that require a higher degree of coordination and in units that are likely to be more resistant to outsiders. Comparing the post-hire performance of 2,053 boomerangs and 10,858 new hires over an eight-year period in a large health care organization, we find that, upon being (re)hired into the organization, boomerangs outperform new hires in their initial job spell and that this performance advantage is larger in jobs requiring greater internal coordination and in contexts characterized by greater internal resistance to external hires.