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Globalization introduces new challenges related to increased levels of diversity and complexity that organizations cannot meet without capable global leaders. Such leaders are currently lacking, so a theory-based approach to global leader development is needed. A critical intermediary outcome that enables competent global leadership performance is global leader self-complexity, defined by the number of unique leader identities contained within a leader's self-concept (self-differentiation) and the extent to which the identities are integrated with the leader's sense of self (self-integration). This research aims to generate and test a theory of the development of global leader self-complexity through identity construction during international experiences. In Study 1, I gathered qualitative data through retrospectively interviewing 27 global leaders about identity-related changes following their international experiences. Using a grounded theory approach, I developed a theoretical model of global leader identity construction during international experiences, which I empirically tested using quantitative data in Study 2. Specifically, I tested the hypothesized relationships through structural equation modeling with cross-sectional survey data from a sample of 610 global leaders. Findings from both studies indicate global leader identity construction during international experiences primarily occurs through interacting with locals and local culture over a sustained period, motivated by appreciation of cultural differences and resulting in increased global leader self-complexity. These results advance understanding of the global leader self-complexity construct (i.e., what develops) and global leader development processes (i.e., how it develops). Additionally, the findings have practical implications for global leader development initiatives.

The purpose of this study is to examine the moderating effect of two types of external funds in terms of loan and government subsidy on the relationship between R&D investment and firms' innovation performance in emerging markets, as well as the contingent role of firm leader's international experience associated with the effects of loan and government subsidy.

The authors tested the hypotheses using a longitudinal dataset of 716 high-tech firms of Zhongguancun Science Park (ZSP) in China during 2008–2014, covering detailed information on the operations, financial situation and R&D activities, patents, etc. The authors finally identified an unbalanced panel of 2,430 firm-year observations. Considering the dependent variable is the countable data and non-negative values, the negative binomial regression with fixed effects was adopted to test the hypotheses.

The results show that the more loans or government subsidies the firm receives, the weaker the positive effect of R&D investment on firms' innovation performance in emerging markets. Furthermore, the findings reveal that firm leaders' international experience can mitigate the negative moderating effect of government subsidies, but strengthen the negative moderating effect of loans.

The study provides new insights into how loans and government subsidies as external funds influence the effectiveness of R&D in enhancing innovation performance, and the findings highlight the fact that more external funds can reduce firm R&D efficiency. Moreover, the authors also enrich the resource orchestration theory by revealing the critical role of firm leaders' international experience in the decision-making of resource configuration to mitigate the inefficiency of high subsidies in emerging markets.

The purpose of this paper is to test whether Top Management Team (TMT) international experience is positively associated to international information acquisition from managerial international contacts and whether international information partially mediates the positive relationship between TMT international experience and international strategic decision rationality.

Data were collected through a survey of small- and medium-sized of international Pakistani software firms.

This study reports that TMT international experience-international strategic decision rationality relationship to international information acquisition and that this information acquisition partially mediates the TMT international experience, i.e. international strategic decision rationality relationship.

When selecting the members of their TMT, international firms should pay careful attention to their international experience.

Previous research demonstrates that TMT international experience has a positive effect on international strategic decision rationality and that this effect is transferred to performance. This study shows that the positive effect of TMT international experience is derived from the personal international knowledge and the international information collected from managers’ international contacts. This ability to make rational international strategic decisions could have a positive effect on decision-making and firm performance.

The purpose of this study is to examine if the international experience of a family firm’s chairman, second-generation managers and other top managers all have impacts of different strengths using information about Chinese family firms’ international expansion.

Matching tactics and dynamic Heckman 2-stage analysis were applied to data on 766 publicly-listed Chinese family businesses covering 2008–2014.

The international experience of the chairman, second-generation family managers and other senior managers all were found to correlate with the proportion of a firm’s revenue earned abroad, as well as with the number of its cross-border mergers and acquisitions. The impact of a chairman’s international experience is stronger than the impact of the other two groups when internationalization is measured in terms of the proportion of revenue earned overseas. The second-generation managers’ international experience is the most influential when internationalization is measured in terms of the number of cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

This paper bridges agency theory with upper echelons theory in the context of the family business. The findings contribute to the scholarly understanding of family business by illuminating the mechanisms through which second-generation managers may influence family firms’ internationalization. They also enrich the knowledge of family firms in China.

The purpose of this paper is to test the relationship between board and top management team (TMT) members' international experience and CEO multinationality, with their firm's degree of internationalization. Through the lenses of upper echelon theory, on a sample of 108 European and US firms, the author tests the variables “international experience” and “CEO multinationality”, at the board and at the TMT levels.

A longitudinal research design is used to examine director's individual attributes in 2001 and firm's degree of internationalization in 2003‐2008. The sample comprised directors of the 108 largest European and US service and industrial firms by market capitalization, as listed in the Financial Times (FT) Global index of 2007.

A positive effect is found on internationalization for international experience of both boards and TMTs; also a positive relationship is found between CEO multinationality of TMTs and internationalization.

It is acknowledged that the use of a diversified set of large US and European public firms could add unnecessary variance due to the different contexts involved in a sample of just 108 firms. Most of the sampled firms are already international so the study does not argue for board and TMT composition as a triggering mechanism for firm internationalization but, instead, as a tool that can enhance an international expansion process. The fact that international experience is a binary variable also limits the validity of the results. Either a direct survey of directors or a continuous variable that measures the amount in years of international experience would have yielded richer data. Data availability constraints limited the scope of this variable. The chosen operationalization just measures the presence and not the depth of executive's international experience. Additionally, it is acknowledge that just eliminating supervisory board members that represent unions/workers does not completely homogenize boards from the different countries in the sample.

Practitioners could use these findings to improve their selection and training processes of both top managers and board members.

The paper extends upper echelons theory to the board of directors. The comparison of boards and TMTs will facilitate the differentiation of corporate elites. It also introduces a new study variable: CEO multinationality and finally, it uses a mixed geographical sample of large European and US firms.

This study presents a conceptual model of knowledge sharing in global organizations, examining the facilitating role of international experience through cognitive, relational and structural social capital perspectives.

This is a conceptual paper that applies multilevel thinking to the issue of knowledge sharing in global environments.

The presented conceptual model contributes to our understanding of the microfoundational role of international experience in facilitating knowledge sharing in global organizations by integrating individual, dyadic and group perspectives.

Managerial implications are discussed for how to strengthen individuals' propensities for knowledge sharing from international experience through strategic hiring, employee development, succession planning and expatriate mobility.

The presented framework explicitly considers the implications of individual heterogeneity in international experience for differences in organizational knowledge sharing capabilities, thereby contributing to the search for microfoundations of competitive advantage in global organizations.

The “adult third culture kid” (ATCK) is an individual who has spent significant periods of childhood living outside his or her parents’ culture(s). Research is needed to identify specific experiential variables responsible for the development of components of cross-cultural competencies (CC) in ATCKs. The goal of this study is to gain insight into these relationships and provide a foundation for continuing investigation by examining how early international experience and personality variables impact CC in ATCKs. Specifically, the study examines how four components of early international experience and two characteristics of stable CC impact three dynamic characteristics of CC.

Study participants (159) had spent their childhood years living in one or more foreign countries. In all, 54 percent of the sample was women, and the average age was 22 (SD=1.52). None of the subjects had any international work experience, allowing us to look at the impact of non-work experience without the confounding effect found in other research of this type. Data were collected at the beginning and end of a three-week period.

There are five important predictors of CC in ATCKs: variety of early international experience (number of different countries lived in), language diversity (the number of languages they speak), family diversity (the number of different ethnicities in their family's background), and the personality trait of openness to experience.

The generalizability of study findings is limited by the nature and size of the sample. In addition, the single source sample of this study is also a limitation, as single source samples are subject to common method bias. We reduced this potential bias by using a time lag (Podsakoff et al., 2003) to create a temporal separation between the measurement of the predictors and the dependent variables, a procedural remedy suggested by Podsakoff et al. (2003).

The practical uses for the findings of this study by human resource management (HRM) professionals are in the areas of hiring and assignment of expatriate managers. Study findings provide HRM professionals with an initial set of criteria to assist in the process of identification and training of expatriate managers. Global organizations have traditionally used training to increase the pool of effective global managers. This study provides initial evidence that identification of individuals with early international experiences should prove a useful addition to the process of selecting candidates for foreign assignment.

The practical uses for the findings of this study by HRM professionals are in the areas of hiring and assignment of expatriate managers. Study findings provide HRM professionals with an initial set of criteria to assist in the process of identification and training of expatriate managers. Global organizations have traditionally used training to increase the pool of effective global managers. This study provides initial evidence that identification of individuals with early international experiences should prove a useful addition to the process of selecting candidates for foreign assignment.

To the best of our knowledge this is one of the first studies to empirically examine ATCKs and provides a starting point for future researchers in this area. Obtaining a sample of ATCKs is extremely challenging.

The relationship between internationalization efforts of businesses and resulting performance has long been debated in the international marketing literature. Specially, under the environmental uncertainty, perception and experience of managers are important for internationalization performance.

This study proposes an integrated research framework and mechanism between perceived international risk and international marketing performance, adopting international experience as moderator variable and entry mode as mediating variable. Survey was conducted on 1,612 managers of 420 Chinese international enterprises by email and received 463 valid questionnaires.

The results show that there is a significant negative relationship between perceived international risk and international performance. Direct influence and perceived international risk have an indirect influence on international performance through entry mode; the influence on the international performance from perceived international risk is moderated by international experience, the regression coefficient between perceived international risk and international performance is the quadratic function of international experience.

Different from previous literature, this study found the complex relationship between risk and performance.

This study aims to investigate the impact of equity ownership structure (i.e. CEO ownership, board chair ownership and institutional ownership) on internationalization of firms. The moderating role of international experience of board chairs is also examined.

This study uses Compustat-Capital IQ data from Standard &Poor’s. The sample of this study includes 309 US multinational corporations representing different sectors. The parameters were estimated by using the ordinary least squares regression with the SPSS statistical package.

The finding of this study suggests that CEO ownership and board chair ownership have a significant, positive impact on the degree of internationalization of firms, whereas institutional ownership has a negative impact. The predicted moderating role of international experience of board chairs has found mixed results.

This study contributes to the literature by taking a holistic approach to examine the impact of equity ownership types (i.e. CEO ownership, board chair ownership and institutional ownership) on firms’ degree of internationalization. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is also the first to investigate the impact of independent board chairs’ equity ownership and international experience on internationalization.

Research on international experience notes its positive influence on subsequent international expansion by firms. We test this relationship in the context of the Indian software industry whose offerings, unlike many other services, are storable implying that delivery can be separated from production.

We analyzed the domestic expansion of a sample of publicly listed Indian software firms over the period 2000–2009 with help of Poisson regression.

We find that even internationally experienced Indian software firms might prefer to expand domestically because of limited financial and managerial resources and concerns about diluting their cost advantage. The storable and separable nature of software services will support this strategy of serving clients remotely. The domestic expansion of assets will, however, be slower for firms with the highest level of industry accreditation. It will also be slower if there are institutional pressures in the form of rivals locating development centers near clients in developed countries.

Our results demonstrate that international experience alone is not sufficient for firms to expand overseas.