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Article

Impact of Gender and Expatriation Choice on Career Paths in Supply Chain Management: Evidence from Master of Science Graduates

Salomée Ruel 1 and Anicia Jaegler 2,*

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Citation: Ruel, S.; Jaegler, A. Impact

of Gender and Expatriation Choice on

Career Paths in Supply Chain

Management: Evidence from Master

of Science Graduates. Sustainability

2021, 13, 6907. https://doi.org/

10.3390/su13126907

Academic Editors: João Carlos de

Oliveira Matias and Paolo Renna

Received: 7 May 2021

Accepted: 16 June 2021

Published: 18 June 2021

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Copyright: © 2021 by the authors.

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

This article is an open access article

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Attribution (CC BY) license (https://

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4.0/).

1 MOSI-Sustainability Excellence Center, KEDGE Business School, 13009 Marseille, France; [email protected]

2 MOSI-Sustainability Excellence Center, KEDGE Business School, 75012 Paris, France * Correspondence: [email protected]

Abstract: Zinn et al. (2018) and Esper et al. (2020) call for more research on gender diversity in Supply Chain Management, and our study responds to that call. We analyze the career path of 1081 international graduates from a higher degree program in Supply Chain Management from 2000 to 2017 to assess the impact of gender and expatriation choice on hierarchical progression. We explore two variables that may affect graduates’ career paths, namely, their gender and their expatriation choices, and compare their relative importance. Our analysis shows that there were, on average, 33.5% women recruited in the MSc and that this has not significantly changed over the years. It also shows that gender significantly influences the number of years spent at each level in the career hierarchy and the level reached. Regarding expatriation choice, this variable has some significant impacts on career progression. Finally, statistics indicate that gender has a far greater influence on career progression than expatriation choice. Overall, this study proves the difficulties for women in enjoying the same career progression as men in the field of Supply Chain Management.

Keywords: gender diversity; expatriation; supply chain management; career paths

1. Introduction

McKinsey & Company (Paris, France) has worked since 2007 on a program entitled Women Matter, and this has generated several reports. The 2010 report [1] addresses the proportion of women in decision-making bodies and boards of managers worldwide. In the manufacturing industry, women made up 6% of the boards of directors and 10% of decision-making bodies, while in the transport sector, they made up 9% in both categories.

Over ten years later, the global situation is not very different. If we look at the Supply Chain Management (SCM) function, particularly in the production and transport sectors, recent data still show the need to include more women. In fact, the SCM function is known by professionals as one of the least feminized company management functions.

Many recent reports from consulting firms highlight this gender gap. For example, the World Economic Forum [2] highlights that in retail most shop floor workers are women—a situation that cannot be observed at the upper levels of the hierarchy. McKinsey & Company also points out this gender gap. In 2010, the consulting firm highlighted the necessity of actively supporting women’s inclusion in Supply Chain (SC) opportunities: “The more skilled women there are, the more quality employees a company has to choose from, and the more entrepreneurs there are to participate in a company’s value or supply chain” [1] (p. 15). In a 2018 report, the company [3] notes the importance of empowering women wherever they live, since diversity has a positive relationship with a company’s financial outperformance. A report by Deloitte [4] focuses on the talent gap in the Operations field and treats diversity as a way to engage new talents.

In the same line, the World Economic Forum [5] (p. 38) recently stated that “some professions are constrained by the availability of relevant talent, while others could effec-

Sustainability 2021, 13, 6907. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126907 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability

Sustainability 2021, 13, 6907 2 of 16

tively expand gender parity by embracing greater diversity in hiring and more inclusive managerial practices.” Indeed, the SCM function is typically one in which there is a scarcity of talented individuals and a shortage of (wo)manpower (https://www.elementum.com/ chain-reaction/4-reasons-for-the-supply-chain-talent-shortage (accessed on 17 June 2021)). Gartner’s Women in Supply Chain Survey [6] (p. 2) stresses that “Women are underutilized resources in the so-called “war for talent” and that women are not consistently making it through the career pipeline as executive leaders (top managers); women make up 17% of executives and 39% of the entire SC workforce. The percentage of women in executive lead- ership falls to 13% in the industrial sectors where respondents prefer a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) degree for senior hires; these higher education streams are well-known for their lack of gender parity”.

Even if we move from an international view to a narrow focus on Western countries (where there are active debates on the place of women in the workplace and society), recent statistics indicate a low presence of women in the SCM function. For example, according to [7], in Germany, women represent 28.2% of employees in the transport and logistics sector (excluding drivers). Another example comes from Sweden, where, in 2018, women represented 22% of managers in purchasing, logistics, and transport functions and 15% of production managers [8].

In the research to date, few studies have looked at the topic of gender diversity in the field of SCM (e.g., [9–11]). It has been studied in other management fields, such as corporate social responsibility (e.g., [12–14]), corporate governance (e.g., [15–17]), and human resources management (e.g., [18,19]). Moreover, SCM is a global function [20], and no study has been conducted on the impact of expatriation on the career path. The authors of [21] (p. 85) call for more research in the SCM research field: “we encourage scholars to take up this call to action to address the critical gap in talent and particularly among underrepresented populations, such as women and minorities.” According to a 2019 World Bank report, women represent no less than 49.584% of the global population and yet are often treated as minorities in social inclusion programs (https://www.worldbank.org/en/ topic/social-inclusion (accessed on 17 June 2021)). This research aims to illustrate the issue of the “glass ceiling” in SCM by studying the career paths of ISLI (Institut Supérieur de Logistique Industrielle) Master of Science graduates and statistically proving the impact of gender and expatriation choice on hierarchical progression.

We begin by reviewing Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) and Social Role Theory (SRT) and the few academic articles linked to our research objective. We examined the profiles of ISLI Specialized Master’s graduates (KEDGE Business School, France) from the class of 2000 to the class of 2017 to study their career progression and build a database. This database is tested on IBM SPSS and the hypotheses derived from our conceptual model. It is interesting to look at the profiles of ISLI program graduates because it is recognized as one of the best SCM Master’s programs worldwide (https://www.best-masters.com/ ranking-master-supply-chain-and-logistics.html (accessed on 17 June 2021)); it currently recruits nearly 200 students each year, and, having been founded in 1984, is considered a pioneer in the field.

The primary contributions of this research are twofold. First, this article contributes to addressing gender diversity issues in the SCM field. Closing the gender gap is a crucial element of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). SDG no. 5, “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, (https://www.un.org/ sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/ (accessed on 17 June 2021)) stresses the need for women’s full and equal participation in decision-making. However, from an SC perspective, this goal has only been met to a limited extent. Second, the combination of SCCT and SRT in this research attests to their relevance in explaining the relative impact of gender and expatriation choices on graduates’ career paths in SCM functions, which are generally seen as masculine. Consequently, this study provides a perspective seldom highlighted in the current literature on SCM, gender diversity, and career progress.

Sustainability 2021, 13, 6907 3 of 16

The paper is structured as follows. In the next section, we present the framework drawn from SCCT and SRT and review the relevant academic literature on gender diversity in the SCM field and on expatriation choices. This section allows us to build the research model and state our hypotheses. Following this, the methodology is described in detail. Next, the main findings are depicted. Finally, we discuss the results, conclude, and present research perspectives.

2. Theoretical Background 2.1. Social Cognitive Career Theory and Social Role Theory

SCCT [22] is based on the general social cognitive theory [23]. SCCT highlights a set of three personal cognitive factors that affect vocational outcomes: (1) self-efficacy (the extent of a person’s belief that they can successfully plan and execute performance depending on the task [24]), (2) outcome expectations (the consequences that people anticipate experiencing when they perform in a given domain [25]), and (3) personal goals which are behavioral intentions to act in ways that elicit desired outcomes [26]. These can be divided into two categories: choice goals (career selection) and performance goals (as individual objectives). The most recent goals affect the way people manage their careers [22,27]. Additionally, SCCT integrates environmental and individual variables that shape the three personal cognitive factors and may explain people’s behavior when making career choices [27]. More precisely, the SCCT offers several models, including the SCCT–CSM model. In this model, a large set of antecedents shapes self-efficacy and outcome expectations, such as personal inputs like gender [28] or any other background contextual affordances (such as discrimination in hiring or the glass ceiling [29]). Thus, personal inputs (e.g., work–family aspects, Refs. [30,31]) and background affordances influence the way people manage their careers [27]. Additionally, Ref. [32] (p. 44) point out that “gender and gender-based social roles are the personal inputs that have garnered the most research attention to date.” One of those social roles is related to the traditional role of women in the family [33]. However, to our knowledge, this theoretical perspective has never before been mobilized in SCM research, even in the rare cases of research on gender diversity in SCM.

According to [29], SCCT treats gender from a social constructivist position. This means that gender is not simply an inherited biological property but also a social construction [34]. This point is strengthened in [29] (p. 268): “we believe [its] relevance to career development stems largely from the reactions they evoke from the social-cultural environment and from their relation to the structure of opportunity within which career behavior transpires.” Consequently, the SCCT encourages a consideration of how the combination of gender, context, and cognitive processes contribute to both talent development and shaping ca- reer management [24]. Expatriation can be treated as a “context” given that (1) SCM is a globalized activity, and (2) expatriation may change how a recruiter looks at an appli- cant’s résumé (many professional websites highlight this idea, including: https://www. expatnetwork.com/5-reasons-why-working-abroad-is-the-ultimate-cv-booster/ (accessed on 17 June 2021)). On this approach, the earliest research studies aiming to extend social cognitive theory to career behavior show that because of the education they receive, young girls lack opportunities to observe and practice certain activities [35]. Their self-efficacy is more likely to develop to favor so-called “feminine” activities [23]. These findings suggest that these self-limiting effects can restrict women’s career paths. This also means that socially constructed external barriers may be internalized and become biased self-efficacy beliefs [29], especially in STEM-related fields [36] such as SCM.

Given that the SCCT encourages looking at the joint contributions of gender, context, and cognitive processes, SRT clearly complements the contributions of the SCCT. SRT was formulated [37] to explain the behavior of women and men as well as the stereotypes (which are consensual beliefs [38] that change over time [39]), attitudes, and ideologies that are relevant to gender. Nowadays, SRT is seen as a significant gender theory [40,41]. According to SRT, gender stereotypes greatly influence daily and professional life, including in the

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SCM function [42]. More precisely, Ref. [43] point out the gender stereotype that women are not suited to leadership roles because of the expectation that they are communal and that leaders are agentic and thus male. The barriers faced by women in masculine environments (and vice versa) are based on such social-role stereotypes. More precisely, the glass-ceiling phenomenon is a set of artificial barriers created by behavioral or organizational prejudices that prevent qualified individuals from advancing in their organization. This implies that women subject to this phenomenon are also subject to discriminatory behaviors [30,31,44]. Finally, gender stereotypes are background affordances according to SCCT [45]. Therefore, the combination of both SCCT and SRT is valuable in analyzing career progression in the SCM function. While the SCCT has not been mobilized in SCM research, a few articles do refer to SRT [9,10,46].

2.2. Gender Diversity in Supply Chain Management Careers

There has been a call for additional research [21,47] about the understudied issues of gender diversity in SCM. However, the place of women in this function has been men- tioned in the professional and academic literature since the 1990s. Looking at professional magazines, Ref. [11] point out that in publications such as Logistics Management or Motor Transport, women have a low statistical presence (from 5% to less than 20% depending on studies) and it is necessary to recruit more women to fill the talent gap [48].

On the research side, the careers of women in SCM have also attracted the attention of some academics. The perceptions of men and women regarding their careers are compared in [47], which introduces important results. First, Ref. [49] shows that women feel like they cannot progress as rapidly as men. Second, this study points out that men’s perceptions toward women’s career opportunities were less negative, meaning that men were more likely than women to feel that women could advance in an SCM career. Finally, the analysis show that the older the men, the less negative they were in their perceptions of women’s career opportunities. This research is the basis for several other studies that extend the results on career-related perspectives of women in SCM. For instance, Refs. [50,51] show that a glass ceiling exists in the SCM function, that there is discrimination against women, and that there was a need for women to be educated in logistics and SCM to empower them and support their successful careers. Another study highlights that in SCM, classical gender inequities can be identified, such as sexual harassment and the trade-off between work and family [52]. Even though women sometimes have to deal with a hostile environment in SCM, Refs. [52,53] found that women embracing such a career are mostly satisfied with their jobs. This is the case even if they are aware of and regret being subjected to a form of discrimination against their gender that slows down their hierarchical progression. Other research studies [54,55] focus on the transportation industry and report the same issues on a larger scale.

Lately, research has focused less on women’s careers in SCM, despite studies indicating that it is common for women to make up a small share of those working in the male- dominated realm of SCM [56,57]. This observation is notably made in an 18-year long-term study entitled Career Patterns of Women in Logistics in the USA [58,59]. The study points out that women hold less than 20% of senior positions in SCM. In a function strongly related to SCM, that of purchasing, a qualitative study by [41] (p. 304) suggests that women’s advancement is affected by “inadequate work design, male-dominated cultures, negative stereotypes, high levels of travel and an aggressive ethos.” The male domination in the SCM function is one of the major causes of career dissatisfaction for women, who perceive that they may have difficulty overcoming this barrier [60]. The barriers to career progression that were denounced in the research of the 1990s remain [61]. These are, for example, work–life balance, difficulty participating in professional networks, and gender unconscious bias resulting in women asking for career promotion less frequently and men in leadership promoting them less because they perceive a female leader will be preoccupied with her family life.

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Nevertheless, in addition to solving the shortage of talent in SCM, attracting more women and thus having more gender diversity is an excellent way to improve SC per- formance. For example, compared to men, women SC managers provide new ways to select suppliers based on safety criteria [46], and women are better at spotting contract violations in the field of SC auditing [62]. The need to attract more women in the talent war has been recognized, along with the fact that greater gender diversity will improve operational performance, increase customer value, and foster innovation [61]. A recent study of mixed-gender pairings in the SCM field finds (1) women are more collaborative than men in the roles of both buying and supply agents, (2) both genders are more collabo- rative when paired with women than when paired with men, and (3) all-women SC pairs outperform all other gender pairings in SC efficiency [10]. This study contributes to the field of SCM research by showing that having more women in the SC function is not only a question of diversity and inclusiveness, or in a more trivial sense of “making room for women in a so-called masculine function”, but also a question of SC efficiency. Finally, the authors of a recent study provide food for thought on the contributions of greater gender diversity to the sustainable management of SC [11].

Given the numerous studies highlighting the issue of the SCM glass ceiling, that gender is the main personal input shaping self-efficacy and outcome expectations in SCCT [28], and that a hierarchy is often based on employees (referred to here as “Level 0”) being managed by middle managers (“Level 1”), who are managed by top managers (“Level 2”), we propose the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1 (H1): In the SCM function, there is a difference in the number of years spent at each hierarchical level (H1a. Level 0, H1b. Level 1, H1c. Level 2) according to gender.

Hypothesis 2 (H2): In the SCM function, there is a difference in the level of promotion reached according to gender.

2.3. Expatriation Impact on Careers

There are very few studies on the linkage between expatriation and career paths [63]. Furthermore, to our knowledge, there is no specific literature associated with expatriation in the field of SCM.

Reviewing the limited relevant studies, we find that [64] shows the impact of ex- patriation on the career path is very low, which contradicts the usual encouragement in professional environments to expatriate as a career booster. However, self-initiated expa- triation is a game-changer in studies on expatriation [65,66]. For [67], self-expatriation is more likely to be initiated by women than by men. At the same time, even if women are willing to expatriate, as soon as they have a family, women are less active in seeking out an international job [68].

Furthermore, Ref. [69] highlight that younger generations are more mobile. They indicate that whatever the generation and the mobility patterns, mobility generates an upward career path. Indeed, mobility builds new skills, and this, in turn, assists in promotion. This trend is even stronger when mobility is external to the company [70]. Consequently, being less mobile has more impact for the younger than for the older generation.

For expatriation to have a positive effect, the expatriate must live in a place and have more than a brief expatriation experience [64]. This requires a particular level of remu- neration and acculturation. Moreover, Ref. [71] speaks of a dark side of expatriation. For instance, expatriation to countries under terrorist threats affects job-turnover intentions [72]. Another example is provided by [73], who finds that expatriated females experience more workplace gender harassment than expatriated males. That is particularly the case in countries with institutionalized gender discrimination. The difficulty of achieving work– life balance during expatriation is addressed by [72,74] finds that expatriation reinforces gender stereotypes.

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Indeed, Ref. [75] identifies the different barriers to expatriation for women as the limited female network, family, and work–life balance. Although there is more and more research on female expatriation, this phenomenon is not well understood due to a lack of comparable samples and longitudinal studies [76]. As [77] confirm, most research focuses on Western women who are single or in dual-career relationships in multinational companies. The authors call for new research avenues focused on diversity. For example, in the existing literature, Ref. [78] evoke a second glass ceiling for women in the form of an expatriation glass ceiling. According to [79], women are underrepresented in the international missions, and [80] endorse and underline the responsibility of firms to mentor women for international assignments.

Taking into account that the SCM function is international in nature and considering the studies above, we suggest the following hypotheses:

Hypotheis 3 (H3): In the SCM function, the expatriation choice differs according to gender.

Hypothesis 4 (H4): In the SCM function, there is a difference in the number of years spent at each hierarchical level (H4a. Level 0, H4b. Level 1, H4c. Level 2) depending on the expatriation choice.

Hypothesis 5 (H5): In the SCM function, there is a difference in the level of promotion reached according to the choice of expatriation.

The aforementioned hypotheses lead to the following theoretical model.

3. Research Objectives and Method

This research aims to illustrate the glass ceiling issue in SCM by studying the career paths of ISLI Master of Science graduates from KEDGE Business School (France) and statistically prove the impact of gender on hierarchical progression. For this, we carried out a quantitative study based on a dataset of graduates from 2000 to 2017. Classes before 2000 were not considered because the data in the information systems were known to be incomplete and quite inaccurate. Classes after 2017 were not considered either because, compared to 2021, the graduates’ professional careers have been too short to be analyzed. Analyzing the careers of ISLI graduates is relevant for several reasons: (1) this Master of Science in SCM, established in 1984, is the oldest in the world; (2) the number of graduates since its creation now number about 4000 SCM professionals; (3) it holds the fifth position in the 2019 Best Masters and MBA Ranking Worldwide in Global Supply Chain Management; and (4) its quality is recognized in the form of many international educational accreditations from the AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA, and CIPS, which specialize in SCM.

This dataset was built first upon the identity of graduates (name + surname + class year + gender) provided from the internal information systems of KEDGE Business School. We then researched each graduate on LinkedIn (as in [81,82]), scanning each of their profiles one by one to complete the dataset. ISLI Master’s students have been following LinkedIn training for a few years. From this, we were able to determine if the person had already experienced a professional expatriation in their career, what level of promotion was reached (beginning with none = 0, first management level = 1, and second management level = 2), and how many years they spent at each promotion level.

This database was tested using IBM Statistics SPSS v.27 and the hypotheses derived from our conceptual model (Figure 1). It contains a sample of 1081 completed graduate profiles from a population of 1382; the sample represents 78.22% of the entire population of graduates from 2000 to 2017.

Depending on the nature of each of the variables (categorical or continuous), we have selected the relevant statistical tests required to test our hypotheses. Chi-square tests were mobilized because they are relevant to test hypotheses about categorical data [83,84]. Mann– Whitney U tests, as non-parametric tests, were also used to look for differences between two independent samples (e.g., men/women and choice of expatriation yes/no) [85,86].

Sustainability 2021, 13, 6907 7 of 16

The latter choice was motivated by the results of the Shapiro–Wilk test, which evaluates the distribution normality [87].

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promotion was reached (beginning with none = 0, first management level = 1, and second management level = 2), and how many years they spent at each promotion level.

This database was tested using IBM Statistics SPSS v.27 and the hypotheses derived from our conceptual model (Figure 1). It contains a sample of 1081 completed graduate profiles from a population of 1382; the sample represents 78.22% of the entire population of graduates from 2000 to 2017.

Figure 1. Conceptual model.

Depending on the nature of each of the variables (categorical or continuous), we have selected the relevant statistical tests required to test our hypotheses. Chi-square tests were mobilized because they are relevant to test hypotheses about categorical data [83,84]. Mann–Whitney U tests, as non-parametric tests, were also used to look for differences between two independent samples (e.g., men/women and choice of expatriation yes/no) [85,86]. The latter choice was motivated by the results of the Shapiro–Wilk test, which evaluates the distribution normality [

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