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The COVID-19 pandemic has forced global organizations to adopt technology-driven virtual solutions involving faster, less costly and more effective ways to work worldwide even after the pandemic. One potential outcome may be through virtual global mobility (VGM), defined as the replacement of personal physical international interactions for work purposes with electronic personal online interactions. The purpose of this article is to establish VGM as a theoretical concept and explore to what extent it can replace or complement physical global work assignments.

This perspectives article first explores advantages and disadvantages of global virtual work and then discusses the implementation of VGM and analyses to what extent and how VGM can replace and complement physical global mobility.

Representing a change of trend, long-term corporate expatriates could become necessary core players in VGM activities while the increase of the number of global travelers may be halted or reversed. VGM activities will grow and further develop due to a continued rapid development of communication and coordination technologies. Consequently, VGM is here to stay!

The authors have witnessed a massive trend of increasing physical global mobility where individuals have crossed international borders to conduct work. The authors are now observing the emergence of a counter-trend: instead of moving people to their work the authors often see organizations moving work to people. This article has explored some of the advantages, disadvantages, facilitators and barriers of such global virtual work. Given the various purposes of global work the authors chart the suitability of VGM to fulfill these organizational objectives.

The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into international career motives, repatriation and career success of Indian women in Science and Technology.

In total, 30 semi-structured interviews were conducted with (upper) middle-class Indian women in Science and Technology in Bangalore and New Delhi, India.

Thematic analysis resulted in four themes – International career motives, Theme 1: cross-cultural and scientific exposure; Repatriation reasons and experiences, Theme 2: family reunion, career prospects and readjustment; Career success, Theme 3: international experience; and career growth, Theme 4: social responsibility. Motives for international career mobility of Indian women were: exposure to foreign cultures, international collaboration in science and personal and professional development. Family formation and reunion and career prospects were reasons for repatriation and positively influenced repatriation experiences of Indian women. Readjustment to people and conditions in India impacted their repatriation experiences negatively. The meaning women attribute to career success is grounded in recognition from peers in science, career growth, satisfaction and contribution to science and Indian society.

The sample of Indian female scientists may limit generalization of the findings to global career professionals in other professions from other countries with different socio-cultural and economic contexts.

HR policies that foster international careers of women scientists as well as women's networks in science to share and apply knowledge, and their contribution to the Indian economy and society will enhance global career success of women and strengthen the sustainable competitive position of organizations.

The study provides new insights into motivation for international career mobility and repatriation of women professionals from a developing country and their career success in the home country, and contributes to the development of theoretical frameworks on international career mobility and career success.

Although research has shown differences between self-initiated experiences and expatriation, this differentiation has rarely been made when it comes to more long-term global careers. The purpose of this paper is to identify similarities and differences between repeat expatriates and international itinerants in their career paths, subjective experiences, and narratives of how they relate to their context.

A narrative approach was used and interviews were conducted with ten repeat expatriates and ten international itinerants. The career paths of the 20 Swedish global careerists and how they narrate their careers are analyzed, and the two types of global careerists are compared.

Results show that the repeat expatriates and international itinerants differ in their subjective experiences of global careers, and how they narrate them. Three broad domains are identified that integrate a range of issues that are important for global careerists. These domains are the organization and career domain, the country and culture domain, and the family, communities, and networks domain. The repeat expatriates and international itinerants differ in how they relate to these and what is important to them.

The differences found have implications for organizations in terms of recruitment, management, and retention of a global talent pool.

This research contributes to the understanding of subjective experiences of global careers and integrates a range of aspects in the context of global careerists that are important to them. Moreover, it contributes to the understanding of global careers by differentiating between those with intra- and inter-organizational global careers.

The purpose of this paper is to first, synthesize employee characteristics that have been shown to help expatriate adjustment into best practices that can aid in expatriate selection. Second, the authors aim to identify training design variables that can be implemented to not only increase learning and expatriate adjustment, but also to maximize the benefits of employee characteristics. Finally, the authors point out environmental factors that are often overlooked, but yet important influencing forces of expatriate adjustment.

PsychINFO was searched using variations of the following terms: expatriate selection and expatriate training. For the selection criteria, the authors selected articles in which cross-cultural adjustment, expatriate performance, or learning was the dependent variable. Reference sections of these articles were then cross-referenced for additional support. Authors then double-coded every article independently to record variables, study methodology, and research results.

The authors have identified cultural intelligence, learning orientation, technical KSAO's, and language skills to be the most significant antecedents of expatriate adjustment. Furthermore, the authors have found environmental factors (i.e. organizational, family, and interpersonal support) to play a crucial role in the adjustment process. The authors have also identified training factors (i.e. content, process, and elements) to be crucial, and the authors propose how these design variables further facilitate learning and adjustment.

This manuscript contributes to the extant expatriate adjustment literature by providing a new, integrative framework. While the individual variables explored within the paper have been examined in past research, this manuscript is the first to offer a framework which integrates them to shape future research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the under-researched phenomenon of women, who of their own volition, are choosing to live and work in another country, as self-initiated expatriates (SIEs).

Drawing from a career constructivist position, the qualitative framework relied on primary data gathering through semi-structured interviews with 25 western professional SIE women living and working in Beijing.

The findings suggest that the SIE women's motivations for mobility and their career types and patterns are complex and varied. As an initial and tentative step towards developing a framework of female SIEs’ careers the authors introduce a typology of four career patterns.

As an exploratory piece of research there is limited generalisability since the findings are presented from the perspective of a particular cohort of women's narratives.

There is a need to recognise the potential value of SIEs to MNCs particularly in light of the well-documented concerns regarding human capital. Companies risk losing this potentially valuable employee if the career opportunities, as well as compensation packages, benefits and support on offer, do not match the plans and expectations of the individuals concerned.

The study provides new insights into the nature and dynamics of the different career modes and configurations of SIE women. This is an important and appropriate research agenda for several reasons. First, there remains a paucity of research on female SIEs. Second, little is known about their career-related behaviours and expectations and the relationship between mobility and career. Thus, it is hoped that a study such as this will add to the emerging body of knowledge about an under researched yet growing number of the some of the most mobile human capital in the world.

The purpose of this paper is to provide clarity to the concept of innovation and its various definitions.

The article reviews the innovation literature and proposes that innovation has been conceptualized either from a process or from an outcome perspective. Also, the authors show that there is a substantive difference between innovation seen in the traditional innovation literature and innovation as conceived in the knowledge management literature.

The paper proposes a general framework to categorize the existing views of innovation and show that innovation as an outcome has not been clearly defined from a knowledge perspective. To address this gap, the authors develop a new definition of an innovation outcome based on knowledge elements.

The research lays the groundwork for more comprehensive methods of measuring innovation and innovativeness, which is particularly useful for the study of service innovation.

The framework and definition expand the ability of managers to measure and understand the key factors of innovation.

The research contributes to the literature by developing a comprehensive knowledge‐based, outcome‐oriented definition of innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how global managers from the generation born 1965 to 1980 (“Generation X”) manage demands of international business travel with desires for family involvement. A portrait evolves of how travel within a global career might be optimized for both business and family life.

A qualitative methodology was used as little research has focussed on alternative forms of global work or work-family issues in a global context. The author conducted in-depth interviews with 25 Gen X global managers in dual-career families (“Global Gen Xers”) pursuing global careers from the USA and Canada.

The author uncovered how Global Gen Xers experienced “work-life balance” through executing personal discretion over travel and substituting in technology. The construct of travel discretion reveals these approaches. Mutual flexibility on the part of global managers and organizations tamed the demanding nature of work spanning divergent locations and time zones.

The findings represent experiences from a self-select group of global Gen X managers interviewed at one point in their careers. The author did not obtain reflections from their families on work-family functioning.

The findings encourage companies to foster flexibility among their global managers around travel decisions. The author can consider how and when international travel can be replaced through technology in order to control costs and sustain global workforces.

This study provides one of the first examinations of work-life balance among younger global managers. It also highlights experiences of those not on expatriate assignments, but performing global work through international travel and technology.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate gender differences in organizational commitment (OC) and the relationship between OC and rewards among employees who work for Japanese manufacturing companies within China.

This study utilized hierarchical regression analysis to examine survey data obtained from 27,854 employees who worked for 64 Japanese manufacturing companies within China.

The results reveal that autonomy and role clarity had a stronger influence, and co-worker support had a weaker influence, on OC for male employees than for female employees. These differences may be because more male employees than female employees prefer working with higher autonomy and well-defined roles than with co-worker support. After all, male employees, who place a great emphasis on independence, competition, decision-making and challenges, rely on intrinsic rewards more than social rewards.

This study used data collected from Japanese manufacturing companies to understand the differences between OC and rewards in local male and female Chinese employees. We recommend that future research uses other national affiliates to clarify the characteristics of male and female Chinese workers more objectively and to test the validity of this research.

The results of this study support revising human resource management practices within multinational enterprises to enable female and male host-country workers to contribute to their companies on a long-term basis by taking into account the differences between the cultures of the home and host countries.

Although previous research has elucidated the OC–rewards relationship in particular countries, it has not met the requirements of foreign managers from different corporate cultures who face differences in the OC–rewards relationship between their male and female employees. In this sense, this research is the first attempt to tackle this theme and contribute to the literature.

This study aims to examine whether and why subsidiary-unit managers’ prior international work experiences across multinational enterprises’ (MNEs) home and host countries impact their subsidiary-unit performance, considering the mediating effect of their advice networks.

A survey on 222 subsidiary-unit managers (154 parent country nationals [PCNs] and 68 host country nationals [HCNs]) of a Korean MNE operating in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Hungary and Slovakia was conducted. The authors analyzed the data using partial least square structural equation modeling, multigroup analysis and bootstrapping techniques.

PCN subsidiary managers with more prior international work experience manage better-performing units due to the strength of the manager’s advice networks across local parties. However, for HCN subsidiary managers, this study did not find such mediating roles of the size and strength of their advice networks in the MNE home country.

This study provides novel insights and empirical evidence about the effect of the length of prior international work experience of subsidiary managers on their advice-seeking networks and subsidiary-unit performance. In addition, it draws on and add to social capital theory about how international work experience impacts dealing with local businesses and the relationship with corporate headquarters.