Applicants’ likelihood to apply for jobs at professional service firms: The role of different career models

Against the backdrop of only a few empirical studies on the topic of up‐or‐out career models in professional service firms (PSFs), we highlight the importance of an explicit applicant perspective on the topic of up‐or‐out and develop a quantitative approach to analyze the perception and effects of up‐or‐out models in practice. Our empirical study is based on an online practitioner survey as well as on a two‐by‐two between‐subjects‐experiment with law and management students. The practitioner sample shows that the interviewed classic PSFs (law firms and accounting firms) have predominantly implemented alternative career positions in favor of up‐or‐out models while the interviewed Neo‐PSFs (management consulting firms) show a more balanced implementation of up‐or‐out models and extended career models. However, results of our experimental applicant study reveal that the potential employee groups have different preferences: Law students (and hence potential applicants of classic PSFs in the future) show a higher likelihood to apply in connection with the up‐or‐out‐model, whereas management students (and hence potential applicants of Neo‐PSFs in the future) show a higher likelihood to apply in connection with the alternative career model.