Subsidiary knowledge flow strategies and purpose of expatriate assignments

Although a general association between the role of international assignees and knowledge transfer has been noted in the international human resource literature, very little is known on how subsidiary knowledge flow strategies influence the purpose of expatriate assignments. Building specifically on Gupta and Govindarajan’s typology of subsidiary knowledge flow strategies and Hocking’s expatriate assignment purpose, we examine the link between subsidiary knowledge flow and the purpose of expatriate assignments using a mixed method approach. Combining survey data and qualitative interviews from 156 subsidiaries in the service and manufacturing sector in Malaysia and Singapore, we find that subsidiaries with divergent strategic roles have different knowledge flow strategies, thus leading to different purposes of expatriate assignments.     

Attitudes toward foreign assignments among Danish economists

This article addresses attitudinal issues toward foreign assignments and reports on data collected from a distinct sample of respondents—Danish economists. One of the much‐debated questions is whether foreign assignments are becoming less attractive, in particular among the younger employees, who tend to follow more narrow self‐interests and stay home. This is supposed to be reinforced by deteriorating corporate policies (i.e., offers being less attractive). The present study provides the basis for rather significant findings. The economists tend to look quite positively on expatriation (across age, gender, seniority, former foreign assignment, and unemployment), and this finding is supported by the fact that about 25% of the respondents already had experiences with foreign assignment. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The selection of managers for foreign assignments: A planning perspective

The selection of managers for international assignments has frequently been based on an inventory of personal characteristics and technical competence of the manager. Unfortunately, many of these managers have not been successful during their expatriation assignments. To more effectively select overseas managers international human resource managers in MNCs must examine their corporate goals, varying pools of potential candidates, and the personal characteristics of each candidate. This paper develops a planning format which identifies policy, strategic and tactical dimensions which can be used in the selection of managers for international assignments.     

Knowledge transfer between self-initiated expatriates and their organizations: Research propositions for managing SIEs

Knowledge management is increasingly recognized as a key aspect of international business and management. This paper offers research avenues for investigating knowledge transfer between self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) and their employer organizations. Building on the existing literature on expatriation and knowledge transfer, it offers a series of research propositions. It illustrates the knowledge transfer process in three phases: opportunity seeking, knowledge sharing, and knowledge application. We suggest that different characteristics of SIEs and their organizations can influence the knowledge transfer process. Furthermore, we advance that SIEs may be a source of sustained competitive advantage to their companies. Several implications for future empirical research are also discussed and the paper concludes with practical implications for SIE talent management.     

International assignments and global careers

Expatriate assignees represent a critical node in most international organizations' networks, and exploring and documenting the experiences of these assignees is important from both the organizational and individual perspective. Subsumed under the theme “International Assignments and Global Careers,” this special issue of Thunderbird International Business Review brings together a complement of selected papers originally presented at the Seventh Conference on International Human Resource Management hosted at the University of Limerick in June 2003. This introduction briefly explores the contemporary context and rationale for the international assignment in order to frame and position the subsequent contributions, which deal with, among other things, knowledge transfer, recruitment, staffing, competencies, and structural specificities in international assignments and global careers. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Knowledge translation through expatriates in international knowledge transfer

Studies of international knowledge transfer usually focus on the transfer of knowledge without loss between organizational units. However, this research has frequently been inconclusive because of the tacit nature of knowledge and the difficulties of measuring the results of knowledge transfer. Therefore, we suggest a paradigmatic shift of research from knowledge transfer without loss, to knowledge translation as a matter of modification of knowledge when transferred from one context to an other. According to this perspective, the knowledge transfer between the MNE HQ and foreign subsidiaries is a socio-cultural process in which expatriates can be expected to play an important role.In this paper, we study the impact of expatriates in knowledge translation from MNE HQ to foreign subsidiaries. Through an empirical analysis, we examine how the characteristics of expatriates influence the usefulness of knowledge transferred internationally. An important result of the study is that the expatriation experience and, in particular, the relationship development capability has significant positive effects on the international knowledge translation process. However, we did not find any statistical evidence that an expatriate's experience of the particular industry or the particular country has a significant effect.     

Knowledge transfer and the management of expatriation

This is a theory‐building article that uses the example of an international organization from the Spanish financial sector to explore the way in which the characteristics of knowledge influence expatriation policies. A preliminary conceptual framework is offered, and a case study is used to develop a set of theoretical hypotheses reflecting the relationship between knowledge characteristics and expatriation policies as a contribution towards a theory of international assignments. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Expatriate return on investment in the Asia Pacific: An empirical study of individual ROI versus corporate ROI

The return on investment (ROI) from international assignments is a crucial aspect of expatriate management. The literature has taken a mostly organizational perspective of this important phenomenon, with little attention to the ‘individual ROI’ expatriates gain when undertaking an assignment. Especially lacking is research on expatriate ROI in the Asia Pacific region. Based on interviews with 31 long-term expatriates in 10 Asian countries, we use psychological contract theory to examine (1) how ‘individual ROI’ acts as a key driver of ‘corporate ROI’ and (2) the challenges and opportunities that expatriation in the Asia Pacific presents to individuals and organizations.     

Development of career capital through international assignments and its transferability to new contexts

Individuals working in a dynamic international operating environment need flexibility and related competencies that can be transferred to different contexts. Understanding the development and transferability of these competencies is therefore important for both individuals and firms. This article examines and contrasts the development of expatriates' career capital during their first two international assignments, and its transferability to new contexts. Based on interviews with Finnish expatriates, the results show that each assignment has different developmental influences and that all types of career capital acquired are transferable, but not equally or in the same way. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Women’s Self-Initiated Expatriation as a Career Option and Its Ethical Issues

Women are underrepresented in managerial positions and company international assignments, in part due to gender discrimination. There is a lack of fair and just treatment of women in selection, assignment and promotion processes, as well as a lack of virtue shown by business leaders in not upholding the principle of assigning comparable women and men equally to positions in management and postings abroad. Female professionals, however, initiate their own expatriation more often than they are assigned abroad by their company, and usually as often as men self-expatriate. What causes women to self-initiate expatriation? Women’s proactivity, in part an attempt to redress the disadvantage they face in managerial career advancement, appears influential, as are career and family motivations. Indeed, during expatriation, women fare well in their career and they repatriate only at the same rate as men. Compared with men, however, women repatriate less often for career than for family reasons. On their return, despite their international experience, women do not gain as much of a financial return on their investment in self-expatriation as do men, suggesting that women may suffer unfair, non-meritorious treatment at home. Overall, self-initiated expatriation provides a new, gendered, social context for researching women’s career advancement. The ethical issues associated with women’s self-expatriation – a lack of fairness and justice in selection, assignment and promotion decisions, and a lack of virtue shown by business leaders in upholding fair and just human resource decisions by gender – suggest practical avenues to resolve these issues.     

Changing patterns of global staffing in the multinational enterprise: Challenges to the conventional expatriate assignment and emerging alternatives

We argue that many MNCs continue to underestimate the complexities involved in global staffing and that organisations and academics must take a more strategic view of staffing arrangements in an international context. We suggest that the context for the management and handling of the international assignment has altered significantly, leading in some quarters to a fundamental reassessment of the contribution of, and prospects for, the international assignment as conventionally understood. We explore a variety of supply side issues, cost issues, demand side issues and career issues as triggers to this reassessment. Alongside the conventional expatriate assignment, we point to the emergence of a portfolio of alternatives to the traditional international assignment including short-term assignments, commuter assignments, international business travel and virtual assignments. In the context of these developments, we argue that a standardised approach to international assignments is untenable and that it is essential to develop HR policies and procedures that reflect differences in the various forms of emerging alternative international assignments and their associated complexities. Here recruitment and selection, training, reward, and occupational health and safety issues and implications are all explored.     

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.     

Of bears, bumble-bees, and spiders: the role of expatriates in controlling foreign subsidiaries

This article investigates the role of expatriate managers in multinational companies. We discuss three key organizational functions of expatriation: position filling, management development, and organization development. In the last function, organization development, international transfers are used as an informal coordination and control strategy through socialization and the building of informal communication networks. The article explores this role of international transfers in greater detail, but also discusses a more formal way in which expatriates can control subsidiaries. The following metaphors for these different control functions of expatriation are introduced: “bear” (formal direct control), “bumble-bee” (socialization), and “spider” (informal communication). A large-scale mail survey offers empirical evidence for the bear, bumble-bee and spider roles and shows under which circumstances they are most effective. Being aware of the different control functions of expatriation and the circumstances under which they are most effective can help managers to use expatriate assignments as a more strategic tool.     

Subsidiary managers’ knowledge mobilizations: Unpacking emergent knowledge flows

Knowledge flows are a key source of advantage for multinational corporations (MNCs); however the nuances of knowledge flow practices and their micro-foundations require further theoretical development. Using qualitative data on 40 cases of subsidiary managers’ knowledge mobilizations, this paper unravels micro-level practices of knowledge flows in MNCs. We find that subsidiary managers’ knowledge mobilizations initiate a complex pattern of subsidiary knowledge inflows, pinpointing the significance of lateral and bottom up exchanges (locally as well as internationally). We use these insights to distinguish between two types of subsidiary knowledge flows: deliberate and emergent, and discuss how their differences have profound implications for the investigation of MNC knowledge flows and their micro-foundations.     

Managing cross-border knowledge transfer for innovation: An introduction to the special issue

This introduction to the special issue maps the extant research on managing crossborder knowledge for innovation and classifies it into four clusters: knowledge spillovers and location, international alliances and R&D networks, knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity, and learning organization and capabilities. The eleven articles that compose the special issue are introduced, and a future agenda for international business research is proposed.     

Repatriate knowledge transfer: Antecedents and boundary conditions of a dyadic process

In this study, we build on the ability-motivation-opportunity framework to test whether both repatriates’ disseminative capacity and domestic employees’ absorptive capacity as well as their opportunities for interaction affect repatriate knowledge transfer. Further, we examine the moderating effects of two distinctive factors associated with repatriate knowledge transfer: repatriate knowledge characteristics and characteristics of international assignments. Using multi-source time-lagged data from 101 dyads, we find support for most of our hypotheses. Our study contributes to theory and practice by providing an integrated analysis of antecedents and boundary conditions of repatriate knowledge transfer and by highlighting its dyadic nature.     

HRM practices affecting extrinsic and intrinsic motivation of knowledge receivers and their effect on intra-MNC knowledge transfer

This paper explores why and how human resource management (HRM) matters for knowledge transfer within multinational corporations. It is built on the premise that there are certain HRM practices influencing extrinsic and intrinsic motivation of knowledge receivers. It is found that complementarity among HRM practices exists but does not always have a positive effect on knowledge transfer. Three hypotheses derived from these arguments are tested on data from 92 subsidiaries of Danish multinational corporations located in 11 countries.     

Knowledge embeddedness and the transfer mechanisms in multinational corporations

This paper reports a qualitative study conducted at four Japanese subsidiaries in China and Vietnam about their process of international knowledge transfer. Building on the literatures concerning the diverse types and characteristics of knowledge in multinational corporations (MNCs), we explore the broad mechanisms adopted and locally generated by the host country subsidiaries for transferring the foreign knowledge and putting the locally embedded knowledge into practical use at the local settings. The findings indicated (1) the limitations of applying a standardized and universal set of knowledge transfer mechanisms without considering local idiosyncrasies and (2) the contributions of local agents and institutions throughout the process of local knowledge adaptation and development.     

Relevant knowledge and recipient ownership: Chinese MNCS’ knowledge transfer in Africa

This paper examines emerging market multinational corporations’ (EMNCs’) knowledge transfer (KT) in emerging markets using case studies of Chinese MNCs (CMNCs) in Africa. CMNCs are found to transfer “relevant knowledge”, existing knowledge reconfigured so that recipients can apply it more effectively with less effort in the new context. Relevance is ensured through recipients exerting ownership of the KT process, influencing what knowledge is transferred and how it is transferred. We summarise EMNCs’ KT process in a “relevant knowledge recipient ownership model”. The model contributes to KT theory by refining and empirically testing a new type of knowledge – relevant knowledge – and a new transfer model – recipient ownership – associated with EMNCs. It leads to a “relevance-based view” in which EMNCs’ competitive advantage in emerging markets is significantly enhanced by knowledge relevance rather than superiority. This contributes to a better understanding of EMNCs’ competitiveness in emerging markets as created from distinct characteristics of their relevant knowledge (applicability, assimilability, affordability) and recipient-driven transfer (selection, scrutiny and synthesis).     

Expatriation: Traditional criticisms and international careers: Introducing the special issue

In this introduction to our special issue, we will first seek to discuss the extent to which recent expatriation research and literature is still subject to earlier criticisms. Second, we will discuss the future research needs concerning the theme of this special issue, international careers, briefly reviewing the dominating research theme within the international career context (i.e., the career impacts of international assignment) and suggesting some future research areas. After that, we will offer a particularly promising new avenue for future research: the new forms of international work. We will conclude by summarizing the articles for this special issue and illustrate how they fit within this new avenue. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.