Expatriate time to proficiency: individual antecedents and the moderating effect of home country

Marie-France Waxin, Chris Brewster () and Nicolas Ashill

Journal of Global Mobility, 2019, vol. 7, issue 3, 300-318

Abstract: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct impact of individual variables (cultural openness, social orientation, willingness to communicate, confidence in own technical abilities, active stress resistance, prior international experience) on expatriate time to proficiency (TTP); and the moderating effects of the home country on the relationships between these individual variables and expatriate TTP. Design/methodology/approach - The authors use a quantitative, self-administered questionnaire to gather data from assigned expatriates from different countries in India, analysed through partial least squares. Findings - The findings show that, first, four individual variables, i.e. social orientation, willingness to communicate, confidence in technical abilities and active stress resistance reduce expatriate TTP in the global sample. Second, the individual antecedents of expatriate TTP vary significantly across home countries. Research limitations/implications - The results confirm the importance of individual antecedents in explaining expatriate TTP and the importance of context in the study of expatriates’ cross-cultural effectiveness. The authors also propose new, shorter measures for the individual antecedents. Practical implications - The practical implications for HRM professionals relate mainly to selection and cross-cultural training. Expatriates may also get a better understanding of the individual and contextual variables that impact their TTP. Originality/value - The authors show that individual antecedents interact with context, here home country, to predict expatriate TTP in an under-researched host country, India.

Keywords: Antecedents; Context; International experience; Individual; Culture; Expatriation; Adjustment; Time to proficiency; Home country (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

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:eme:jgmpps:jgm-12-2018-0060

DOI: 10.1108/JGM-12-2018-0060

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Global Mobility is currently edited by Professor Jan Selmer

More articles in Journal of Global Mobility from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().