Integrated reporting and cost of capital: The moderating role of cultural dimensions

Since its introduction, integrated reporting (IR) has triggered a rich debate covering several aspects, from the structure and the features of a document to the effects of its publication. Very recently, scholars have examined the negative relationship between IR and the cost of capital for firms, completely missing the opportunity to understand whether this fact is contingent on the cultural context that adopting companies operate in. We fill this gap by resorting to a panel sample of 211 adopters from 31 countries over the period spanning 2009–2017, counting 1,455 observations. Our evidence confirms that adopters, on average, benefit from a 1.4% decrease in the cost of capital. Yet, more importantly, IR effectiveness is exalted in countries with low power distance, strong collectivism values, and high level of masculinity, while uncertainty avoidance, long‐term orientation, and indulgence do not seem to play any moderating role.     

Social capital and career outcomes: a study of Chinese employees

This study examines the impacts of social capital on employees’ career outcomes in the Chinese context. Access to information and access to resources are hypothesized as the mediators in the relationships. A new measure of individual social capital is developed and used as the key predictor of the outcome variables. Data were collected from a survey administered to 184 employees in a state-owned enterprise. The results of regression analysis showed that individual social capital enhanced both career satisfaction and career achievement among Chinese employees. Further, access to information and access to resources were found to mediate the above relationships. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Career capital during international work experiences: contrasting self-initiated expatriate experiences and assigned expatriation

This article explores the career capital of expatriates, differentiating between self-initiated expatriates (SEs) and company assigned expatriates (AEs). Previous research has considered issues such as individual background variables, employer and task variables, motives, compensation, and repatriation. The present study adds new perspectives related to the development of career capital. The article uses a survey of more than 200 Finnish expatriates to explore these concepts in relation to international work experiences; finding considerable similarities and some differences in the development of career capital of those sent on an expatriate assignment by an organization, and those having a self-initiated expatriate experience.     

The impact of international experience on objective and subjective career success in early careers

There is an ongoing debate in the literature on the long-term impact of international work experience on future career success. In this longitudinal study based on university graduates, we compare expatriates (n = 159), repatriates (n = 395) and domestic employees (n = 2697) with regard to their objective and subjective career success during the first five years of their careers. Results from propensity score matching and ordinary least-squares regressions show that expatriates and repatriates have a higher objective career success in terms of monthly wages. We further find a higher subjective career success for expatriates and male repatriates.     

Career capital development of self-initiated expatriates in Qatar: cosmopolitan globetrotters,experts and outsiders

This paper explores career capital development of self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) in the Middle East, reporting on data gathered in Qatar from 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews. The findings challenge the notion that self-initiated expatriation always leads to career capital accumulation, arguing instead that contextual features impact individuals' agentic efforts towards career capital accumulation and lead them to experience ‘career capital stagnation’. Qatarisation is the overarching influence on the status of SIEs in the country and places structural constraints that translate into limited organisational opportunities and support for SIEs. Individually, SIEs reside rhetorically within complex dualities characterised by feelings of cosmopolitanism and isolation. Whilst individuals narrate the context in utilitarian terms as a means to a broader aim of global experience, everyday practicalities of their work and life are problematised. Narratives of career capital development are organised in three themes: SIEs as cosmopolitan globetrotters (micro-individual level), SIEs as experts (meso-organisational level) and SIEs as outsiders (macro-country level). The paper contributes to broadening the discussion on the relationship between self-initiated expatriation and context, and its implications on careers. Empirically, it adds to our understanding of SIEs, in particular their experiences of career capital development in the highly regulated context of the Middle East.     

The components of career capital for knowledge workers in the global economy

The impact of globalization, demographic changes and technological advancements among other factors, have been driving new forms of organization, new ways of working and new characteristics in individuals and employees (Ohmae 2001). The purpose and direction of a knowledge worker's career is no longer confined to a single employer boundary and is seen to be the responsibility of the employee. Therein lies the opportunity for individuals to understand, manage and leverage this dynamic context for career progression and growth through the accumulation and implementation of relevant and valued career capital. This research investigated empirically the components, formation, differentiating features and interplay between the components of career capital. A de facto model of career capital emerged from the research that represents an integrated view of the components of career capital that are recognized in the new global economy, thereby validating the literature review and contributing new insight. The outcome of this research could facilitate knowledge workers in enhancing their career capital and could provide a platform for the management of knowledge workers.     

Advancement along a career path: the influence of human capital and performance

Following the path metaphor of careers along with signalling and human capital theories, we examine important factors that predict individuals' advancement in a career. With a unique sample of American football players, we tested the influence of individuals' human capital on their performance, value and advancement along a career path. Our findings indicate that individuals' human capital assessed in the first stage of the career path is positively related to individuals' performance in the second stage of the career path and the value placed on individuals in the third stage of the career path. We also found that performance in the second stage mediated the relationship between human capital assessed in the first stage and the value placed on individuals in the third stage of the career path.     

The career competencies of self-initiated and assigned expatriates: assessing the development of career capital over time

Abstract

Building on a modern careers approach, we assess the effects of working abroad on individuals’ career capital. Given the dearth of longitudinal studies, we return to a sample of economics graduates in Finland eight years later. We measure changes in three dimensions of career capital; ‘knowing how’, ‘knowing whom’, ‘knowing why’ and find that company assigned expatriates learn more than self-initiated expatriates. All three career capital areas benefit from international experience and all are increasingly valued over time. Based on our findings, we conclude that a dynamic notion of career capital acquisition and use is needed. Managerial implications include the need for a wider view of talent management for international businesses.     

The Effect of International Work Experience on the Career Success of Expatriates: A Comparison of Assigned and Self‐Initiated Expatriates

This article is one of the first to examine the long‐term effect of expatriation on careers, comparing the impact of international work experience on the career success of assigned and self‐initiated expatriates. Our sample consists of employees who were working abroad in 2004, and we examine their subjective and objective career success eight years later. Despite the “dark side of international careers” arguments associated with the repatriation literature, we find that the long‐term impacts of international work experience on career success are generally positive and mainly unrelated to whether the work experience was acquired as an assigned or self‐initiated expatriate. Companies recruit employees with international experience externally but are much more likely to offer further internal jobs to assigned expatriates. This reinforces the need for further research and for companies to see all those with international experience as important elements of the workforce. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Lost in time and space: temporal and spatial challenges facing older workers in a global economy from a career capital perspective

This paper develops a conceptual framework to enhance our understanding of the career challenges facing older workers in a global economy. A distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low’ career capital of older workers is made. This distinction is then used to highlight potential temporal and spatial challenges for older workers in their later life careers. We draw on empirical evidence from existing studies of older workers and their careers. The contribution of this paper to human resource management debates is threefold. Firstly, we contribute to debates in the HRM(Human Resource Management) literature about intelligent careers and career capital by distinguishing between high and low career capital to explain the polarisation of older workers’ careers. Secondly, we synthesise career capital issues with spatial and temporal aspects of international labour markets to conceptualise the key issues and challenges which create potential boundaries for older workers when navigating later life careers thereby contributing to ‘boundary-focused scholarship’ (Inkson, K., Gunz, H., Ganesh, S., & Roper, J. (2012). Boundaryless careers; Bringing back boundaries, Organization Studies, 33, 323–340). Finally, we develop a series of propositions to provide a basis for further research into the issues of space and time relevant to older ‘high’ and ‘low’ career capital workers, their careers and HRM.     

Chinese professional immigrants in Australia: a gendered pattern in (re)building their careers

Few studies have investigated contemporary professional migrant women from mainland China to developed economies like Australia to understand their motives of migration and the strategy they may adopt to advance their careers. This paper fills part of this important research gap by investigating the career rebuilding experience of Chinese professional immigrants in Australia. It examines the motives of their migration, their career aspirations, the strategies they adopt to rebuild their career and the types of career they are rebuilding. It explores how the compounded effect of gender, race, immigration and family commitment may be articulated in the family and social relations, and how these factors affect women's career aspirations and outcomes. This paper concludes that whilst social capital is important for Chinese migrant women professionals who already possess a high level of human capital, to restart their post-migration career, cultural capital is crucial for their managerial career advancement.     

Assessing cross-cultural skills: validation of a new measure of cross-cultural psychological capital

In light of increasing workplace diversification, today's organizations are in need of employees who can work effectively within cross-cultural settings. To assess and develop generalizable skills enabling employees to successfully interact with members of many different cultures, a new measure of cross-cultural psychological capital (PsyCap) was validated in two studies. This measure captures a state-like higher-order construct consisting of four components: self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience with regard to cross-cultural interactions. In study 1, a diverse sample of 361 participants responded to a survey and results confirmed the hypothesized higher-order factor structure of the newly developed cross-cultural PsyCap scale. In study 2, an additional 134 participants completed multiple surveys to assess the convergent, discriminant and predictive validity of cross-cultural PsyCap as it relates to cultural intelligence, openness to experience, ethnocentrism and cross-cultural adjustment. The majority of the study hypotheses were supported, which provides evidence for the measure's construct validity in assessing cross-cultural skills and also demonstrates its unique value in predicting cross-cultural effectiveness. This measure of cross-cultural PsyCap has important implications for assessment of employees who work internationally or within a diverse workplace.     

Short-term cross-cultural study tours: impact on cultural intelligence

This paper examines whether short-term cross-cultural study tours enhance the four factors of cultural intelligence (CQ): metacognition, cognition, motivation and behavior. CQ has exhibited high correlations between higher levels of CQ and positive attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. As a capability, CQ appears malleable and, thus, open to change and improvement. Data were collected from working professionals in an MBA program both before and after participating in an experientially oriented 11- or 12-day short-term cross-cultural study tour. Results supported three of the four hypotheses, suggesting that short-term cross-cultural study tours exhibited a significant relationship with enhanced metacognitive CQ, cognitive CQ and motivational CQ. The results did not reveal a significant relationship between the study tours and behavioral CQ.     

“城市文化资本”与经济增长关系的实证研究

在低碳经济兴起和城市发展模式转型的背景下,“城市文化资本”运作成为寻求城市可持续发展动力机制的创新。在借鉴现有研究基础上,本文构建了“城市文化资本”估算体系并以江苏省为例测算了2010年各地级市的文化资本存量,研究发现江苏省城际“城市文化资本”存在显著差异。其特点表现为：一是沿江地区、沿海地区、内陆地区依次递减,二是苏南地区、苏中地区、苏北地区依次递减。在此基础上,运用修正的C—D函数模型对“城市文化资本”与经济增长关系作了回归分析,结果显示,虽然“城市文化资本”未能充分转换为经济资本,但也具有明显的促进经济增长作用。最后,就“城市文化资本”运作提出建议。     

The relationship of mentoring and network resources with career success in the Chinese organizational environment

The relationship of mentoring and network resources, the two components of social capital, with career success was investigated in a sample of 113 Chinese white-collar workers. The findings suggested that the prevalence of mentoring in the Chinese workplace is substantially higher than in the Anglo-Saxon workplace, and that Chinese employees do not distinguish their network ties or Guanxi into expressive and instrumental. These results were in line with the presumption that mentoring is an integral part of the Chinese culture and with the view that network ties or Guanxi in the Chinese society cannot exist in a purely instrumental form. In contrast to hypotheses, however, the findings suggest a limited relationship between social capital and career success. In particular, the amount of mentoring, participants reported they had received, was related to their intrinsic career success but not to their extrinsic career success; and the amount of network resources or Guanxi was related neither to extrinsic nor to intrinsic career success. These results were largely at odds with the accumulated knowledge on the benefits of social capital for career success. The findings are discussed with respect to the changing nature of the Chinese business and organizational environment, and their implications for human resource practices.     

Don't ask me where I'm from: thoughts of immigrants to Catalonia on social integration and cultural capital

Once you get here, you realize that thinking Foucault was writing for you was terribly na?ve, since in reality I did not exist as a subject for anyone like Foucault, or if I did it was only as an object of study’, recalls one of the protagonists in this essay, a collage of fragments of interviews with foreign immigrants from impoverished countries who have settled in Barcelona and other Catalan towns in recent years. Widespread prejudice in the host society dictates that these people are generalized as being on a lower cultural level, anonymous members of the growing mass of immigrants prepared to work at any price. The prejudice seems to be confirmed by the fact that the great majority of them do low-skilled or unskilled work in sectors such as the building trade, hotels and restaurants and domestic service. The reality, however, is very different. The average level of formal education of these immigrants is similar to that of the host population. It is the precariousness of their legal status or the often insurmountable barriers preventing recognition of their academic and/or professional qualifications, or simply cultural prejudice, that condemn them to accept jobs well below their personal potential. Thus, the host society wastes social and cultural capital of the first order, and lays foundations for a permanent division between ‘us’ and ‘them’. This essay offers a modest but revealing sample of the quality and diversity of the ideas and viewpoints of the immigrants themselves, an asset we continue to at best underestimate or more often ignore altogether.     

Career capital in global Kaleidoscope Careers: the role of HRM

The results of this qualitative study of international talent show that although the acquisition of career capital through international assignments is perceived to be desirable both from an individual and organisational perspective, the global mobility needs and preferences of these two parties rarely coincide. This is due to the fact that individual mobility requirements come in cycles aligned to life cycle stages whereas organisational mobility needs ebb and flow like waves in response to perceived threats and opportunities. This presents opportunities and challenges for individuals in the acquisition and utilisation of career capital to balance work- and non-work-related demands in their global Kaleidoscope Careers. The role of human resource management (HRM) is to facilitate this process through mentoring, networking and other opportunities to engage in storying, enabling employees to accommodate their changing needs at different life cycle stages. Failure to offer such support can manifest itself in demotivation, business performance issues as well as difficulties in terms of diversity and inclusion. Thus this paper offers a contribution to academic literature in the field of career theory as well as international HRM professional practice.     

Entrepreneurial versus cooperative social capital: The impact on operational performance

Research has extensively focused on how firms can become more competitive, by discovering new knowledge domains while exploiting current ones. Prior research has shown the positive impact of social capital on performance; however, there have been no empirical studies that distinguished between the architectures of social capital and how they impact the operational performance dimensions. Building upon the knowledge-based theory, we propose a model to examine the effects of the two architectures of social capital (entrepreneurial and cooperative) on individual dimensions of operational performance (quality, delivery, flexibility and cost). The hypotheses are tested using structural equation modelling and data collected from 182 companies in Ireland. The results show that the cooperative social capital archetype supports the operational performance dimensions, while the entrepreneurial social capital archetype only impacts the cost dimension. The findings extend the current understanding about the complex relationships among the architectures of social capital and provide guidance for managers on how to leverage their investments in social capital to enhance specific operational performance dimensions.     

Services cultural alignment in offshoring: The impact of cultural dimensions on offshoring location choices

Empirical research on the growing wave of services offshoring has examined the impact of several key factors such as wages and personnel quality on firm choices of offshore locations. However, examinations of culture in services offshoring to date have largely been confined to the relatively coarse concept of aggregate cultural differences between the home and host countries. We propose that specific cultural attributes are more closely aligned with successful service provision. We empirically examine our theoretical development of service cultural alignment and investigate the impact of cultural dimensions on the location of service offshoring projects. In addition, we examine whether Western and Asian firms have different cultural preferences in terms of the location of services offshoring projects. We find that host countries with lower levels of Hofstede's uncertainty avoidance as well as higher levels of individualism and power distance are able to attract greater numbers of service offshoring projects, even after controlling for macroeconomic, linguistic, and risk-related factors. We did not find that Western and Asian firms have different cultural preferences in this regard. We discuss implications of the findings with respect to theory, managerial practice, and governmental policy.     

The influence of international human capital on global initiatives and financial performance

The major aim of this study is to investigate the relationships among international human capital (input-based international human capital, transformational, output-based, and competency of top management team), global initiatives (global learning and global marketing) and financial performance. The open systems view is introduced to develop a comprehensive measurement of international human capital, the human capital that enables a firm to compete globally. The structural equation modelling technique is then employed to investigate the proposed relationships. The results support our expectation that international human capital is positively associated with a firm's global initiatives and financial performance. The importance of the role of top management team competency is identified because it is positively associated with the other three international human capital components. It also indirectly fosters a firm's financial performance and global initiatives through its positive association with input-based, transformational, and output-based international human capital.