| Abstract: | In most foreign subsidiaries, expatriate top managers are routinely exchanged after a certain period of time. The handing over procedure between the expatriate predecessor manager and his successor has attracted very little academic research. A proper succession ensures continuity and the accumulation of experience in the foreign operation. Our sample includes expatriate business managers employed by companies from Australia, Germany, Holland and Italy assigned to Hong Kong. A mail questionnaire is used to collect the information, and this investigation is a direct extension of a previous exploratory study undertaken by one of the authors. The main issue in this paper is to investigate the duration of the overlap period at the foreign subsidiary. This dependent variable is related to three sets of independent variables: personal, corporate and subsidiary characteristics.Dr Jan Selmer is Reader and Head, Department of Management, and Mrs Vivienne Luk is Senior Lecturer and BBA (Hons.) Degree Course Leader, both at the School of Business, Hong Kong Baptist University. The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments and suggestions of two anonymous reviewers as well as the Chief Editor on earlier versions of this paper. The research was supported by a Faculty Research Grant from Hong Kong Baptist University. |
