Effect of outgroup social categorization by host-country nationals on expatriate premature return intention and buffering effect of mentoring

Jie Shen, Syed Wajeeh-ul-Husnain, Haiying Kang and Quan Jin

Journal of International Management, 2021, vol. 27, issue 2

Abstract: Outgroup social categorization by host-country nationals (HCNs) is a common challenge for expatriates and it has received inadequate scholarly attention in expatriate research. This study explores how outgroup social categorization affects expatriate intention to terminate international assignments prematurely and how this adversity can be lessened through organizational mentoring interventions. We theorize that outgroup social categorization by HCNs results in social isolation for expatriates, which triggers expatriates' early return intentions, and mentoring mitigates this indirect effect. The hypotheses were supported by the analyses of multisource data collected from expatriates and their local co-workers in multinational enterprises operating in China. Theoretical and practical implications of the research findings are discussed.

Keywords: Expatriate premature return intention; Mentoring; Multinational enterprise; Social categorization; Social isolation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1075425321000351
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:intman:v:27:y:2021:i:2:s1075425321000351

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/601266/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 601266/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.intman.2021.100855

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of International Management is currently edited by M. Kotabe

More articles in Journal of International Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().