Expatriates’ Embeddedness and Host Country Withdrawal Intention: A Social Exchange Perspective

Miikka J. Lehtonen, Alexei Koveshnikov and Heidi Wechtler

Management and Organization Review, 2023, vol. 19, issue 4, 655-684

Abstract: In this study, we conceptualize the thus far little explored relationship between expatriate and host country as a form of social exchange governed by the norm of reciprocity. Drawing from social exchange theory and our analysis of 451 self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) living and working in the United Arab Emirates, we examine whether the degree of SIEs’ career and community embeddedness explains their host country withdrawal intention via enhanced perceived institutional trust and a more tolerant attitude toward workplace discrimination. Our results provide general support for our theoretical model and most of our hypotheses. In this way, our article makes three contributions. First, it suggests a novel way to conceptualize the relationship between SIEs and host country as a form of social exchange. Second, it differentiates between two dimensions of embeddedness and explicates how the two contribute to SIEs’ intentions to stay in the host country. Finally, the analysis theorizes and empirically tests two previously little explored mechanisms of enhanced institutional trust and a more tolerant attitude toward workplace discrimination through which SIEs’ host country embeddedness influences their host country withdrawal intentions. 在本研究中，我们论述为什么驻外人员和东道国之间存在一种以回报为原则的社会交换关系。我们基于社会交换理论，假设驻外人员在职场和社区的嵌入程度可以解释他们从东道国的撤离意向，因为嵌入程度越高，越可能增进他们对当地体制的信任以及对职场歧视的容忍。我们对451位自愿从国外来到阿拉伯联合酋长国居住和生活的人员进行了调查和分析，结果支持了以上假设。

Date: 2023
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