The expatriate myth: Cross-cultural perceptions of expatriate managers

Expatriate managers work alongside increasingly sophisticated and experienced local managers in many parts of the world, yet few researchers have examined the dynamics of the relationship between expatriates and local managers, or the attitude of local staff to their expatriate colleagues. This article seeks to redress this by reviewing existing research, and by drawing on the perceptions of Singaporean managers, highlights the tensions between local and expatriate managers and reflects some of the issues faced by multinationals who continue to employ expatriates in countries where there is sufficient indigenous management talent.     

Interculturality as a source of organisational positivity in expatriate work teams: An exploratory study

This study explored the issues related to interculturality and organisational positivity in culturally diverse teams (CDTs). The findings showed that interculturality in the expatriate settings of the Arabian Gulf is linked to organisational positivity, the manifestations of which include enjoyment, relationship building through concerted efforts to learn about others, and family‐like work environments. Interculturality‐driven organisational positivity is posited to encourage humanistic management, the attributes of which are sensitivity to human suffering, open‐mindedness, fairness, and respect. Organisational positivity is also theorised to improve CDT performance and stimulate professional and personal learning. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

The evolution of interorganizational relationships in emerging ventures: An ethnographic study within the new product development process

Emerging ventures rarely have the resources they need, which often force them to reach beyond their boundaries to access these resources. While the field has acknowledged how critical external relationships are in the emergence process, we lack an understanding of how these relationships evolve. Drawing on fourteen longitudinal case studies, this article begins to fill that gap by examining how emerging ventures use interorganizational relationships to discover, develop, and commercialize new products. We found that emerging ventures tended to establish outsourcing relationships early and that many outsourcing relationships progressed into alliances. This suggests that these early relationships are dynamic, evolve through the emergence process, and may be critical to the successful emergence of a venture. We also discovered that many entrepreneurs developed strong socioemotional bonds with their alliance partners. Unexpectedly, our study revealed that in many cases these socioemotional bonds clouded the entrepreneur's judgment of the partner's abilities and led to problems that threatened the venture's survival.     

American and European expatriate managers: An empirical investigation

This article compares American and European expatriate managers' backgrounds, job satisfaction, and perception of local work and cultural environment in Turkey in reference to their adaptation to the host country and their job performance. It reports that the sample managers demonstrate differences in all these dimensions. Therefore multinational companies are recommended to develop human resources policies in choosing expatriate managers most likely to adapt to work and host country environments by paying attention to managerial qualifications and local conditions. They should also train and prepare both expatriate and local managers to ensure smooth relationships between two groups. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The view from the field: A case study of the expatriate boundary-spanning role

Research suggests growing interest in the boundary-spanning role played by expatriates in supporting organizational learning and adaptation in uncertain environments. However, efforts to examine this role have relied on conceptual frameworks that have not been empirically grounded. This exploratory case study of 79 expatriates in the field applies a qualitative methodology to elaborate and extend current conceptualizations of the boundary role to the work of the expatriate. Findings suggest that interpersonal relationships may be the cornerstones of the role and the enablers of other cross-boundary resource exchanges.     

The impact of expatriate personality traits on cross-cultural adjustment: A study with expatriates in Japan

While regarded as among the most important factors affecting expatriate cross-cultural adjustment, little focused research with a broad array of personality traits has been conducted. This study draws from the cultural fit hypothesis and the socio-analytic theory to examine the impact of expatriate personality traits through the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire on the general-, interaction-, and work-related facets of cross-cultural adjustment among 181 expatriates in Japan. The results show positive relationships between the personality traits of Open Mindedness and interaction adjustment, Emotional Stability and Cultural Empathy and general adjustment, and Social Initiative and work adjustment.     

An empirical study on Chinese adolescents' fashion involvement

Chinese adolescents are growing up with China's rapid economic growth and they represent the up and coming group of China's fashionistas. The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of consumer socialization on Chinese adolescents' fashion involvement. Using the data collected from 169 Chinese adolescents, the research provides empirical results about the impacts of different consumer socialization agents on Chinese adolescents' fashion involvement. The study results reveal the positive and significant impacts of fashion magazines, fashion websites and peers on Chinese adolescents' fashion involvement, but a negative and significant impact of Internet on adolescents' fashion involvement. In addition, parents and TV were found to have no significant impact on Chinese adolescents' fashion involvement. Such empirical research not only deepens our understanding of the nature and strength of the relationships between the consumer socialization agents and Chinese adolescents' fashion consumer behaviour, but also makes a meaningful contribution to improving the consumer socialization framework. We believe these findings will be useful to update current consumer socialization frameworks and make it more relevant and useful for studying the new generation of consumers in the emerging market context.     

An alternative approach to expatriate allowances: An “international citizen”

Competitive advantages for an organization that may be realized through the use of expatriates often are diminished due to excessive compensation and the costs associated with expatriate failure. This article addresses an approach for determining expatriate allowances that uses a worldwide standard as the basis for establishing such allowances. It also provides the philosophy and rationale behind such an approach and differentiates it from traditional “balance sheet” or parent-country equivalency approaches. The relative merits of this approach are systematically assessed using a set of objectives for international compensation. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Facilitating expatriate adjustment: The role of advice-seeking from host country nationals

The expatriation literature consistently suggests that expatriates on assignment require a great deal of support to adjust to their new environment. This study examines the potential of host country national (HCN) coworkers as an important yet often overlooked source of support for expatriates. Analysis of survey data collected from 350 expatriates working in the U.S. indicated that expatriates who sought advice from HCN coworkers reported higher levels of work and interaction adjustment. This study also found that expatriates were more likely to seek advice from HCN coworkers they perceived as being credible and likable. Implications for research and managerial relevance are offered.     

The hypercompetitive global marketplace: the importance of intuition and creativity in expatriate managers

The value of expatriate managers has always been predicated to a degree on the nature of complexity of the overseas assignment and the external environment. There are two emerging and interrelated processes of environmental change occurring that could have a direct impact on the selection of expatriate managers, those being, the globalization of businesses and the resulting hypercompetitive nature of global markets. Due to the rapid rate of globalization, organizations have recognized that the global managers need different skills than their predecessors who manned multinational corporations. In addition, the hypercompetitiveness of the marketplace has placed managers under a new time perspective that tends to overshadow other managerial constraints. Therefore, two additional dimensions (i.e., intuition and creativity) are examined as being useful in the selection of expatriate managers in global organizations. This paper assesses the value of examining potential expatriate candidates on the creative and intuitional intelligences, in that it is anticipated that these two abilities will become of inordinate importance in the global hypercompetitive marketplace.     

Career interrupted? The case of the self-directed expatriate

This paper examines the role of individual agency and the perceived value of international experience for self-directed expatriation as an increasingly common career choice. Drawing on a study of British expatriate academics, it reports that themes relating to both agency and structure come into play. Although individual desire for adventure, life change and family concerns were key incentives to expatriate, participants believed that their subsequent international experience would provide a distinct advantage in the academic marketplace. The internationalization of higher education was a key theme in these perceptions. The paper also presents practical recommendations regarding expatriate academics and other self-directed expatriates.     

Combining interpretivism and positivism in international business research: The example of the expatriate role

We illustrated how multi-paradigm research that combines the phenomenological interpretive and the positivist paradigms in sequential studies helps problematize questionable assumptions in international business research. While observing the phenomenological principle of epoché (i.e., suspension of researchers’ pre-conceived categories), we interpreted accounts of their lived experience amongst expatriates working in foreign subsidiaries. A follow-up positivist study further led us to conclude that, unlike Edström and Galbraith's (1977) reasons for an international assignment, expatriates hardly see themselves as headquarters’ control agents, but as dual agents in charge of balancing both headquarters and subsidiary's interests.     

Sustainability marketing at the farmers’ market: An ethnographic analysis of ambiguous communication

Farmers’ markets have grown rapidly in recent decades. One explanation for this growth relates to consumers’ view that farmers’ market products are more sustainable. While many have analyzed customer preferences at farmers’ markets, few have examined farmers’ message strategies in this space. Little has been done to analyze the ways farmers use sustainability as a marketing approach. This ethnographic research is based on 100 hr of observation and in‐depth interviews with 36 participants and analyzes the ways farmers position their products as sustainable to customers. The findings indicate that sustainability is not a primary topic of conversation during customerfarmer interaction. However, related concepts such as environment, local, organic, and chemical serve as the proxies for sustainability, even though these messages are presented ambiguously.     

The effect of ethnic diversity on expatriate managers in their host country

Expatriate managers often encounter considerable obstacles in their overseas workplaces. While there is significant research on expatriate management and adjustment, relying on social identity and acculturation theories, little research addresses the expatriate experience of ethnic diversity in the host country. To address this gap, the aim of this study is to explore how Australian expatriate managers interpret their experience of working in a new and ethnically diverse workplace in Malaysia. The qualitative analysis suggests that the key to performing in such a context lies in the individual's ability to change and adapt beyond culture and language skills. The key managerial implication is that cross-cultural training can assist with the development of personal attributes by expatriate managers involved in ethnically diverse workplaces. Implications for future research are provided.     

An ethical argument for host country workforce training and development in the expatriate management assignment

This paper seeks to establish the ethical foundation of MNCs' responsibility for providing host country workforce (HCW) preparation and training attendant to the new expatriate management assignment. It argues that such moral responsibility arises from a set of correlative duties which MNCs acquire as business institutions. They include duties involving the expatriate manager, the HCW, and the host nation to (1) assist all employees, including the expatriate manager, in the successful execution of their assignments; (2) avoid the semblance of discriminatory treatment; (3) encourage full status integration into a global economy; (4) foster personal enlightenment and self-enrichment; (5) help individuals develop useful, marketable skills; (6) contribute to the development of a greater and more functional national labor skill base; and (7) encourage a long-term focus on creating enduring value for a maximum number of stakeholders, rather than upon short-term and shortsighted profit for only a few. Some important cautions and considerations related to HCW training implementation are then discussed.Charles M. Vance, associate professor of management at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, has both a domestic and international focus on human resource management and learning system design to enhance organizational performance. He has several publications, and his new book,Mastering Management Education (Sage Publications), is to be published in 1993.Eduardo S. Paderon is the Associate Dean of the Hagan School of Business of Iona College in New Rochelle, New York. He teaches graduate courses on Business Policy and Business and Society. His writings and other scholarly activities, including presentations at national and international conferences, focus on business ethics and cross-cultural value studies.     

Just doing it: A visual ethnographic study of spectacular consumption behavior at Nike Town

This paper uses visual ethnographic methods, specifically participant observation and photography supplemented with interviews, in its investigation of the consumption of spectacle at Nike Town, Chicago. Spectacular consumption behavior was participative in nature, involved explicit knowledge of its production, and entailed the consumption of space, cultural meanings and products in this hybrid combination of store and museum. Central aspects of spectacular consumption processes were consumers’ movement through the interspatial architectural design and interactions with intertexual displays of celebrities, products, and corporate narratives. As consumers moved through the site, its design and displays placed them in altered referential positions with images of celebrity athletes and with artifacts. The trajectories of visual fields consumers’ movement formed and animated played a key role in producing cultural meanings of competition, exceptional performance, style and recreation. This research contributes to our theoretical understanding of experiential and spatial dimensions of consumption. Methodological contributions map out the propriety and limitations of visual methods in consumer research.     

An empirical study on the influencing factors of supplier involvement in new product development

This research identifies six driving factors and twelve enabling factors for supplier involvement in new product development (SINPD) in China via a meta-analysis of the extant literature and a survey of over 100 Chinese manufacturing enterprises. Results show that most suppliers of Chinese manufacturing enterprises engage in new product development at middle or later phase, and the degree of involvement is usually high. Moreover, there are differences in the implementation of SINPD in enterprises of different sizes, types, and industries. The impact of different driving factors and enabling factors on SINPD implementation also varies with enterprise types.     

Developing career capital for global careers: The role of international assignments

Creating organizational processes which nurture global careers is a key task for global companies. International assignments are normally viewed as positive by both individuals and organizations for the development of global career competencies. This paper reports a qualitative study into the effects of international assignments on global careers. The research takes account of the dual dependency within global careers by contrasting individual and organizational perspectives. It highlights the importance of informal norms and develops a more nuanced picture of the impact of an international assignment on the career capital of individuals within one global organization.