Benefits of Social Capital upon Repatriation: Managerial Implications

There is increasing evidence that a person’s “social capital” plays a crucial role for benefits from an international assignment to materialize – and my recent study entitled ‘Knowledge Benefits of Social Capital upon Repatriation: A Longitudinal Study of International Assignees’ (2012) shows that this not only applies during the assignment but also upon repatriation. Focused on inpatriates, my study suggests that the social capital that assignees develop during their posting at the host unit relates to their access to and transfer of host-unit knowledge upon return.