The individual makes the difference: How mobile personnel affects organizational status of hiring firms

Abstract

This article examines how executive mobility shapes organizational status. We propose that the status perception of market observers is not only shaped through the lens of status distance between the source and destination firms but also influenced by a novel lens: the mobile individuals’ career characteristics. By testing our hypotheses with a sample of US accounting, consulting, and law firms between 2012 and 2018, we find that hiring from a higher-status firm has a stronger positive effect on the perception of observers when hired individuals have long tenure and interlocking directorships. Looking through the lens of career characteristics, we explain differences in the credibility perception of mobility events and contribute to a better understanding of the mobility–status relationship.