Purpose While luck and chance are frequently acknowledged in career narratives, they remain under-theorised within dominant career success models that privilege individual agency and rational planning. This study aims to examine how luck operated in career success within the Indian corporate context, with particular attention to how unpredictable events interact with individual agency and organisational structures over the career life span. Design/methodology/approach Adopting an explorative design, the study draws on in-depth semi-structured interviews with 31 senior Indian origin executives across multiple industries. A hybrid inductive–deductive thematic analysis was used to examine how participants experienced, interpreted and navigated chance occurrences in their career trajectories. Findings The analysis reveals four interrelated themes: (1) chance events as career inflection points shaped by timing and opportunity structures; (2) individual preparedness and sustained effort as mechanisms enabling people to capitalise on chance; (3) strategic decision-making and risk-taking and judgement through which agency is exercised under uncertainty; and (4) organisational and relational contexts that amplify or suppress the effects of chance. A key analytical contribution is a control-based classification of luck-related factors – uncontrollable, partially controllable and controllable. While luck – often described as being at the right place at the right time – served as a significant enabler, its impact was contingent on individual’s readiness, resilience and ability to act decisively. In addition, structural elements such as managerial support, institutional culture and perception biases played important roles in mediating outcomes. Originality/value Rather than treating luck as residual randomness, this study conceptualises it as a culturally interpreted and organisationally mediated dimension of career development. By situating career success within the Indian socio-economic and institutional context, the paper extends existing career theories by illustrating how agency, structure and contingency dynamically interact in non-Western settings. The findings offer a context sensitive framework that advances theorisation of career success beyond universalist, Western-centric models.
Chandy et al. (Thu,) studied this question.