Where Are the Revolving Doors in Brussels? Sector Switching and Career Progression in EU Business–Government Affairs

• Published date: 01 January 2020
• DOI: 10.1177/0275074019861360
• Author: David Coen,Matia Vannoni
• Date: 01 January 2020
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074019861360

American Review of Public Administration

2020, Vol. 50(1) 3 –17

© The Author(s) 2019

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DOI: 10.1177/0275074019861360

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Article

Introduction

The literature on public management pays great attention to

sector switching (Bozeman & Ponomariov, 2009; Su &

Bozeman, 2009) and its effects on career progression

(Bozeman & Ponomariov, 2009). By building on the

assumption that only highly qualified and motivated indi-

viduals switch sectors (Bozeman & Ponomariov, 2009;

Feeney & Boardman, 2011), recent research shows that pub-

lic managers with work experience in the private sector are

more likely to advance in their careers and receive more

responsibility. In other words, a private sector premium is in

place in the public sector (Bozeman & Ponomariov, 2009).

The public management literature also finds that this private

sector premium is stronger when the work experience in the

private sector is in the earlier stages of the manager’s career.

The reason is that time is needed for the manager to adapt

his or her skills to the public sector (Bozeman & Ponomariov,

2009). For its part, the private management literature looks

more generally at job mobility, finding that external mobil-

ity, namely having work experience outside the current

company, positively affects managers’ careers in private

companies (Lam, Ng, & Feldman, 2012). Close in spirit to

the public management strand, Lam et al. (2012) also find

that mobility has positive effects only when it takes place at

early career stages.

By applying event history analysis to a sample of more

than 300 government affairs managers working for compa-

nies active in the European Union (EU), this article investi-

gates whether managers with work experience in the public

or nonprofit sector are more likely to progress in their career

in their current company and whether career progression

depends on when that experience takes place. Not only does

this sample allow us to control for factors such as the type of

job (as the analysis focuses on individuals with similar roles),

but it also represents a particularly interesting case to study

the interaction between the public and the private sector.

Indeed, government affairs managers represent a “most

likely case” in which to test the public sector premium

hypothesis: If work experience in the public sector does not

have positive career consequences for government affairs

managers, who work in the intersection between the public

and the private sector, it is unlikely that a public sector pre-

mium can be found for other jobs. Moreover, the EU itself is

861360ARPXXX10.1177/0275074019861360The American Review of Public AdministrationCoen and Vannoni

research-article2019

1University College London, UK

2King’s College London, UK

Corresponding Author:

Matia Vannoni, Department of Political Economy, King’s College London,

Bush House, North East Wing, 30 Aldwych, WC2B 4BG, London, UK.

Email: matia.vannoni@kcl.ac.uk

Where Are the Revolving Doors in

Brussels? Sector Switching and Career

Progression in EU Business–Government

Affairs

David Coen1 and Matia Vannoni2

Abstract

By applying event history analysis to a unique large sample of more than 300 government affairs managers working for

companies active in the European Union (EU), this article investigates whether managers with work experience in the public

or nonprofit sector are more likely to progress in their career in their current company and whether career progression

depends on when that experience takes place. The findings suggest that managers with experience in the public and nonprofit

sector are less likely to progress in their careers. This effect becomes stronger when the stage of the career at which the

manager had experience in the public sector is taken into consideration. These findings are contrary to the expectations

from the public and private management literature and suggest that we should see less revolving door activity in Brussels. We

propose that these findings are driven by the distinct EU public policy process and the variance in individual and organizational

incentives in the EU public sector.

Keywords

career, government affairs, European Union, lobbying