Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder: Toward a Contextual Understanding of Compensation of Information Technology Professionals Within and Across Geographies

Jonathan Whitaker (), Sunil Mithas () and Che-Wei Liu ()
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Jonathan Whitaker: Robins School of Business, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia 23173
Sunil Mithas: Muma College of Business, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
Che-Wei Liu: Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405

Information Systems Research, 2019, vol. 30, issue 3, 892-911

Abstract: How do multinational corporations (MNCs) and domestic firms compensate technical and managerial skills of knowledge workers within and across geographies? This paper answers this question by examining how developed economy MNCs and emerging economy firms value master of business administration (MBA) education and firm-specific information technology (IT) experience of IT professionals in India and how developed economy MNCs value MBA education and firm-specific IT experience differently across India and the United States. Our analyses of archival data on more than 20,000 IT professionals reveal two important findings. First, for IT professionals in India, the marginal effect of firm-specific IT experience on compensation is greater for developed economy MNCs than for emerging economy firms, and the marginal effect of MBA education is greater for emerging economy firms than for developed economy MNCs. Second, when we compare compensation of IT professionals employed by MNCs across India and the United States, we find a greater marginal effect of firm-specific IT experience in India but a greater marginal effect of MBA education in the United States. These findings suggest that the manner in which MNCs and emerging economy firms value and compensate IT professionals across geographies is consistent with their firm-level strategies and capabilities. The findings provide important insights on compensation of IT professionals within and across geographies based on firm national origin. These contributions are important to understand the broader context of compensation of IT professionals across firm national origin and geographies.

Keywords: MNC; multinational; global human capital; information technology (IT); IT experience; MBA; education; professional compensation; emerging economy; developed economy; arbitrage; knowledge work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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