Expatriates as influencers in global work arrangements: Their impact on foreign-subsidiary employees’ ESOP participation

Carolin Ahrens, Jana Oehmichen and Michael Wolff

Journal of World Business, 2018, vol. 53, issue 4, 452-462

Abstract: Employee stock-ownership plans (ESOPs) offered by multinational enterprises (MNEs) present an attractive investment for employees. Puzzlingly, participation rates are often low, raising the question what drives ESOP participation on a global scale. Grounded in the knowledge-based view of expatriate research, we build on the notion of expatriates as implicit knowledge transferors within MNEs. We hypothesize a positive effect of expatriate ESOP participation on subsidiary-employee ESOP participation, which is even higher when a subsidiary-employee’s distance toward the program and the firm is greater. Empirical results confirm our hypotheses suggesting that expatriates can be a mechanism to bridge the distance within MNEs.

Keywords: Employee stock-ownership plans; Expatriates; Distance; Subsidiaries; Knowledge-based view (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:worbus:v:53:y:2018:i:4:p:452-462

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DOI: 10.1016/j.jwb.2018.01.002

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