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The purpose of this paper is to explore the ethnically diverse workplace in Irish hospitals by examining the perspectives of foreign- and Irish-born professionals and their managers.

Semi-structured qualitative interviews with 30 health professionals (foreign- and Irish-born) and with hospital managers (Irish-born). All interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis.

The managers and professionals interviewed mostly perceived ethnically diverse workplaces as an asset. Health professionals also identified a number of challenges, including internal divisions based on ethnicity, language and communication problems and cultural differences. However, in general, discrimination on the basis of ethnicity was not highlighted by interviewees.

While the qualitative design of the study allowed for an in-depth exploration of experiences in ethnically diverse workplaces in selected Irish hospitals, the relatively small sample size poses some limitations. The study brings to light the need for larger-scale survey-based research on the ethnically diverse workplace in Irish hospitals, which includes Irish- and foreign-born health professionals in the sample.

The study includes a variety of perspectives on experiences in ethnically diverse workplaces in Irish hospitals, including foreign-born health professionals, their Irish-born colleagues and hospital managers.

The purpose of this paper is to understand knowledge grafting through localized professionals in the internationalization of the firm. Knowledge grafting refers to firms increasing their knowledge stock by acquiring new staff, and while the concept is not new in studies on firms’ internationalization, there is little understanding of the characteristics of the individuals carrying the knowledge, the types of knowledge grafted and how it contributes to a market entry process.

The authors conducted an explorative study with a multiple-case research design and purposely selected five localized Swedish managers working for Russian subsidiaries of Swedish firms. Face-to-face interviews were conducted. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed based on three types of knowledge: general foreign market knowledge, social network knowledge and professional knowledge. The authors also considered both private and professional ties.

The findings show that characteristics of the localized professional and the firm can influence the type of knowledge grafted and how it is used. The findings also highlight the key role of the individual as knowledge carrier and show an alternative way to obtain knowledge in firm internationalization.

This study comes with limitations. Only Swedish firms entering Russia with wholly owned subsidiaries have been considered. Further studies comparing knowledge grafting with firms in different entry mode, varying stage of market entry, as well as other countries of origin can further enrich our understanding. Future studies can also focus on localized professionals to shed light on the knowledge transfer between them and other individuals within the firms and the potential impact of their departure on knowledge grafting.

Internationalizing firms should pay attention to the opportunity of grafting knowledge by appointing localized professionals already living in the market. Governmental agencies in the host county can be a valuable source for identifying foreign nationals of the same origin as the firm.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to focus on the individual level of knowledge grafting and to examine how localized professionals acquire knowledge to support firms in internationalization.

How are city demographics correlated with the amount of venture capital they receive? This chapter uses a unique dataset of 58,000 venture deals from 2000 to 2014 from the CrunchBase dataset and census data from the same period. Place and the role of venture capital asserts venture capital’s spatial dependency and uses statistical software to find a strong positive correlation between the amount of venture capital funding and foreign, international, male professionals within a city, the gendering of venture capital, and the negative correlation of unskilled, foreign labor with funding.

As venture capital travels along social ties, this chapter suggests that foreign, international, and male professionals’ positive correlation may be due to these members having a wider and more diverse social network, allowing the ability to conjure funds. Moreover, the demographic may be a synonym for Sassen’s International Class, allowing the study to dovetail with a broader set of research. Finally, this chapter also provides a mechanism to classify cities based off their venture capital activity. The implications of this study are a better understanding of the trends correlated with venture capital, a classification system for cities, and a possible caveat to “virtuous cycle” theory. A supplement to the paper and to visualize implications for cities, we also created this D3 visualization visualizing the geographic positioning and relationships of those 58,000 deals, providing communicable and interactive research.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the self-perceived influence of short-term exchanges in schools abroad on future foreign language teacher’s professionalization, regarding professional values and pedagogy and practice. It grasps students’ changes in the perception of values attached to short-term exchanges in a professional setting.

In the scope of the European project SPIRAL, four prospective foreign language teachers attended a two-week internship at schools in another country. This paper explores, resorting to a combined content and discourse analysis, their letters of motivation (two months before the exchange), emails sent individually to the local coordinator (one week after the arrival) and a focus-group interview (two months after the arrival).

Future foreign language teachers change their focus when referring to the values attached to their experiences at schools abroad: from an initial focus on language skills improvement, they come to value the intercultural pedagogic experience they lived, focusing on differences and similarities between professional values and pedagogical practices across the contexts.

A generalized introduction of professional exchange programs, both in pre-service and continuing teacher education, could improve teachers’ perceptions of global structural, educational, political and curricular contexts and demands. It would also help the teachers decenter from educational practices and professional habitus taken for granted, and raise their awareness of what it means to be educated and professionalized in other contexts.

Few studies have focused on short-term exchanges and their impact on teachers’ professional development. The present paper highlights the pedagogical, intercultural and identity-building potential of short-term exchanges in foreign language teacher education.

The main objective of this paper is to examine the development of public accounting in China. While a brief review of the historical evolution of Chinese public accounting is presented in the first section, the paper focuses on the major progress of internationalization of public accounting in China in the most recent years, that is, improving qualification standards for professional accountants; unifying the professional associations of public practitioners; establishing Chinese Independent Auditing Standards; enforcing professional ethics and continuous education programs; reforming the administration of CPA firms; and opening the domestic accounting market up to foreign professionals. Both the motivation and impedance to those developments are analyzed. It is concluded that, to date, the gap between Chinese public accounting and the practices in the rest of the world has been narrowed down remarkably, which will benefit both Chinese and international business communities.

To assess changes over the past decade in the self‐reported levels of adjustment, job performance, and professional acceptance of western women professionals working in Japan.

Napier and Taylor's benchmark 1995 study of western women working in Japan is replicated ten years later on a similar sample group of women in Japan. Questionnaire responses to questions about cultural adjustment, job performance, and professional acceptance are compared for the original and new samples.

Despite increased westernization of business practices in Japan and a greater representation of Japanese women in management positions, no statistically significant change is found in the scores for the three measures examined over the ten year period. The incidence of formal training, preparation, and support provided by employers was higher for the more recent sample.

The sample size is relatively small and represents only women in the Tokyo area, which may limit the study's generalizability to women in less metropolitan areas of Japan.

Both for those women professionals who live and work in Japan and for HRM professionals responsible for expatriation and adjustment issues involving those women, provides evidence that adjustment challenges persist despite changes in Japan's sociocultural environment.

By carefully replicating the original study and sample characteristics as closely as possible, this paper provides a useful longitudinal perspective on the situation of foreign women professionals in Japan.

Purpose: The main objective of this study is to provide an overview of the extent of labor and skills shortages that exist in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector in Malta and gain insights into the dependency on foreign labor. Methodology: This study draws upon primary data generated from two research instruments, namely in-depth interviews and an online questionnaire. Various in-depth interviews were conducted with key institutional actors. In addition to the interviews, six locally based companies were requested to complete an online questionnaire. Secondary data from ICT surveys, official documents were consulted. Findings: Findings emerged from this study relate to each of the four seminal thematics, namely, demand and supply, rationale for employing foreign labor, wages, and challenges of foreign labor employment. Practical Implications: This study examined the current contribution of foreign labor in the ICT sector. Unsustainable growth in the ICT sector creates a demand for skilled labor which is currently not locally available. Significance: ICT is one of the most rapidly developing economic sectors in Malta. Labor shortages can slow down economic growth, if not addressed. The annual number of ICT graduates is insufficient. For this sector to continue to thrive and further consolidate itself within the Maltese economy, there will be a continued dependency on the importation of highly skilled foreign labor.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess the importance for nations of key institutional, economic, and societal factors for attracting skilled professionals from abroad. It examines the existing literature on international talent mobility and empirically tests the validity of nation branding as a strategy for attracting internationally mobile skilled professionals.

The authors use secondary data from the World Economic Forum, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Martin Prosperity Institute to test six hypotheses concerning factors that attract internationally mobile skilled professionals to a foreign country to live and work.

The study finds that conditions of employment, quality of life, good governance, and tolerance towards people of diverse backgrounds are key issues that need to be holistically emphasized in successful nation branding campaigns aimed at attracting highly skilled professionals from abroad.

The authors use strong secondary data to reduce common method bias in the results which show that “macro” factors sway internationally mobile skilled professionals to favor some countries over others. The authors contribute to the literature on international talent flows by conceptualizing nation branding as a framework through which a variety of push and pull factors can be examined to entice and attract internationally mobile skilled professionals to a particular host-country. The findings will apply to several different types of skilled professionals including self-initiated expatriates, self-initiated corporate expatriates, and third country nationals and local foreign hires.

Given the emerging importance of the chief financial officer’s (CFO) role, this study aims to probe into the prevalence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) assurance practices in China and to examine whether or not CFO foreign, professional or academic experience affects the likelihood of CSR assurance decision.

All A-share listed Chinese companies during the year 2008–2017 with 5,144 firm-year observations have been investigated for this study.

This study finds a positive effect of CFO foreign and professional experience on CSR assurance. No significant association has been found between the CFO’s academic experience and CSR assurance. Additional analysis for Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) sampled firms shows that the academic and professional experience of CFOs has a significant positive association with CSR assurance. However, the main findings are replicated in the case of firms under mandatory CSR reporting.

The limitations of this study are its generalizability, unidimensional measure of CSR assurance which is unable to capture its quality and explore the other traits of CFOs.

It provides assurance practitioners with valuable longitudinal data on China’s CSR reporting and assurance services. Also, firms should recognize the importance of having competent CFOs to improve the credibility of their CSR reporting. The cross-sectional variation analysis (GRI and mandatory CSR) will help firms to assess the value of each CFO attribute for their nonfinancial reporting and auditing choices while considering internal and external stakeholder demands.

This study not only updates the existing understanding of CSR assurance methods in China but also explains the significance of CFO-specific experience in enhancing the credibility of nonfinancial reporting.