Title: The predictive power of university pedigree on the graduate's performance in global virtual teams

Authors: Vas Taras; Marjaana Gunkel; Alexander Assouad; Ernesto Tavoletti; Justin Kraemer; Alfredo Jiménez; Anna Svirina; Weng Si Lei; Grishma Shah

Addresses: Bryan School of Business & Economics, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA ' Faculty of Economics and Management, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy ' Massey College of Business, Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA ' Department of Political Science, Communication and International Relations, University of Macerata, Macerata, Italy ' School of Management, Mae Fah Luang University, Tha Sut, Chiang Rai 57100, Thailand ' Department of Management, Kedge Business School, Talence, Bordeaux, France ' Engineering Economics and Entrepreneurship Institute, Kazan National Research Technical University, Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia ' Macao Institute for Tourism Studies, Colina de Mong Ha, Macau, China ' The O'Malley School of Business, Manhattan College, Riverdale, New York, USA

Abstract: The university rank is commonly used as a predictor of the performance of graduates. Unfortunately, prior research has primarily focused on the effect of university rank on graduates' pay level, which is not the same as performance. We tested both the positive and negative effects of the academic pedigree on the different aspects of actual performance. Using a sample of 28,339 students from 294 universities in 79 countries who completed a business consulting project, we tested if and how the performance of students from higher-ranked universities differed from that of students from lower-ranked universities. The results show that graduates from higher-ranked universities generally perform slightly better. However, a more prestigious academic pedigree can also be associated with arrogance, excessive focus on tasks at the expense of relationships, and envy of co-workers, which could undermine the performance potential of graduates from higher-ranked universities.

Keywords: global virtual teams; international business students; performance; talent identification; university rank.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2021.118582

European Journal of International Management, 2021 Vol.16 No.4, pp.555 - 584

Received: 17 Sep 2019
Accepted: 09 Apr 2020
Published online: 29 Oct 2021 *

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