What Makes Repatriates More Likely to Transfer Knowledge upon Their Return?

In a recent post I wrote about the research my colleagues and I conducted on inpatriation and knowledge transfer. Based on the research data we concluded that inpatriates contribute considerably to knowledge transfer and subsidiary development, leading us to recommend multinational corporations (MNCs) to view inpatriation from a more strategic perspective.  As a follow-up on […]

Returning Back Home: Losing All the Magic?

Alongside the topic of cross-cultural adjustment upon relocation, the topic of repatriation back home is also receiving increasing attention. Multinational organizations are concerned with the turnover of repatriated expats, the population of international workers and students are made aware of reverse culture shock, and travel bloggers write about feeling misplaced and having the insatiable travel […]

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Returning Home after Living Abroad? Not as Easy as Expected!

Undoubtedly, expat life can be very exciting. The experiences and challenges of life abroad develop one as a person, teach new skills and enhance capabilities, create new meanings in life, and generally translate into valuable memories, which are worth remembering for many years ahead. Nowadays, the young generation gets involved with a globally mobile lifestyle […]

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Spotlight Engagement: The Case of Expatriates

Generally speaking, expatriates share similar engagement drivers to non-expatriates. However, there are also some unique elements of expatriate engagement, which stem from the nature of their employment type. Specifically, expatriates seem to pay more attention to all factors related to a company’s future and actions of senior leadership, as well as their engagement tends to be more driven by one’s individual outlook and future prospects compared to non-expats.

International Itinerants: a New Breed of Expatriates?

Traditional expatriate classifications apply to a conventional framework of employment where the individual’s career is meant to be fixed with one, or very few, employers. However, in the past few decades the traditional career path has been changing, and by now one’s successful career is a matter of personal responsibility, initiative, and is quite likely to go beyond one organization. A new breed of expatriates, the so called ‘international itinerants’, has emerged.