EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Peer Influence and IT Career Choice

Nishtha Langer () and Tarun Jain
Additional contact information
Nishtha Langer: Lally School of Management, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180

Information Systems Research, 2024, vol. 35, issue 2, 642-656

Abstract: The productivity of the information technology (IT) industry depends on the supply of high-quality human capital, especially of managers who contribute to operational, finance, sales and marketing, and leadership roles. This study examines the influence of peers on the choice a management student makes to pursue a career in the IT industry. Such a choice may be informed and driven not only by the student’s own motivation and ability but also by information gained through peers. Specifically, we analyze data on student networks at a leading business school in India, where students are exogenously assigned to peer groups, and link these to students’ choices regarding postprogram careers in the IT industry. We find that being part of a group that includes peers who have worked in IT reduces the likelihood of receiving and accepting an offer in the IT industry. If a student has had no IT experience, however, having IT peers ameliorates this effect to a certain degree. We also find differential peer effects for male and female students. Our findings are consistent with the notion that IT peers provide (largely discouraging) information about the IT industry to non-IT peers.

Keywords: IT human capital; IT services industry; social influence; peer learning; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.2019.0416 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:orisre:v:35:y:2024:i:2:p:642-656

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Information Systems Research from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:35:y:2024:i:2:p:642-656