International work experience: Is it really accelerating the way to the management board of MNCs?

- This paper focusses on the impact of international work experience on top managers' careers.
- The study investigates not only the duration, but also the location of international work experience on reaching a top management position.
- The empirical results are based on a unique data-set and comprise those top managers who reached the management board in German MNCs.
- We find that staying abroad too long and being in countries with high distance slows down the ascent to the top.

International work experience is often claimed to be a prerequisite for managers in an MNC. This paper investigates how international work experience affects those managers who reach upper echelons. Drawing on both human capital theory and elite theory, we argue that stays abroad not only have beneficial, but also adverse effects on managers' ascent to the top. By analysing the careers of 212 management board members from Germany, we find that once a certain threshold of international work experience is exceeded, being away from home impedes managers' long-term career advancement. However, it is not only longer stays abroad that show a negative time effect; we are also able to reveal that being in countries with high geographic and cultural distance to the home country significantly decelerates managers' speed of being appointed to the management board. Our findings demonstrate that conflicting interests exist between MNCs and high potentials who consider an international career. We stress that these conflicts call for being solved in managerial practice.