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The purpose of this paper is to analyze repatriation as an active actor on his/her return and not just as a passive receiver of organizational human resource management practices. Traditionally, literature has been focused on investigating the impact of organizational practices and support on repatriation, but new studies suggest that this approach is insufficient. According to these studies, individual and contextual influences are also important on repatriation and new studies are needed to measure its impact.

This article is the base of future studies to analyze the impact of both approaches at once.

The paper departs from recent literature in the field, to develop a series of research propositions.

The implications of this study include to contribute to the knowledge and future research on the expatriation process, studying the adaptation, performance, etc. of the expatriate during the international mission and particularly the last part of the process, repatriation, which has not received so much attention.

This paper highlights that mismanagement of repatriation could lead to turnover of these valuable professionals or to a non-satisfactory reinstatement or even to inefficiency. On the other hand, the perception that repatriation is not well managed and that it does not lead to an advance for the employee could discourage future expatriates to accept international missions, which could even slow down the international progress of the company.

The integration of the traditional and the emerging perspectives of repatriation process.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of and interaction between (potential) repatriation supporters to develop understanding of how this affects the repatriate experience.

A (single) case study strategy was employed, using a multiple stakeholder approach, involving 21 in-depth interviews in a large UK-based institution with repatriates, home and host HR managers, international human resource (IHR) practitioners and line managers from both home and host locations.

Although line managers, senior managers, family members and third party providers (e.g. relocation agencies, tax advisors) are important for repatriation support, the case study evidence highlights that HR professionals are mainly responsible for the quality of the support delivered by other repatriation supporters. Inadequate support from the headquarters IHR department caused by a lack and unclear information about repatriation procedures and related responsibilities results in insufficient support for home and host HR managers. This negatively impacts repatriates line managers (perceptions of) HR support. Weaknesses in the support chain (headquarter IHR, home and host HR and line managers) are responsible for repatriates (perceived) limited or non-support.

The small size of our sample, the single case study design and the method precludes generalisation of the findings. However, the authors’ “look inside” increased the understanding of repatriation support and in particular the support quality. By linking this information to the knowledge of previous studies on organisational support and the devolution of human resource management, the authors are able to identify several topics future studies in the field of repatriation management.

IHRM policies have to reflect the role of multiple stakeholders including home and host line managers and HR professionals as well as third party providers and assign clear lines of responsibility to provide a transparent and consistent experience. Repatriates family has to be acknowledged as a stakeholder that has a major influence on repatriation success and failure. Excluding partners and children issues from international career policies has to be considered as a serious HR shortcoming. Second, ensuring timely information regarding return positions. Providing debriefing interviews upon repatriation can help to identify future roles within the organisation. Equally important is exit interviews to explore whether the person has completed an assignment within the previous 24 months and whether this experience has contributed to their decision to leave the organisation. Opportunities to ensure repatriates are being considered for positions as part of the talent pool is crucial. Finally, the authors emphasise the need to acknowledge that third party vendors are part of the repatriation process and must be considered in terms of (perceived) organisational support.

This is one of the first studies that highlights the role and interaction of (potential) repatriation supporters. Specifically, this study contributes to addressing three knowledge gaps: it identifies a lack of communication among HR professionals and between them and line managers as a potential source of insufficient organisational support; the findings highlight HR professionals responsibility for supporting line managers and other repatriation supporters in operational repatriation management; and finally, the results support the assumption that HR professionals and line managers own (non-)experience with working abroad might affect the quality of support policies and practices for repatriates.

The goals of this review are to identify key theories, constructs and themes in the international business travel (IBT) literature and to propose a model based on findings, theories and constructs drawn from adjacent research literature.

The authors reviewed the business travel (BT) literature to identify conceptual and empirical articles on IBT published from 1990 to 2022. Only 53 publications were suitable for review. The authors reviewed them using an open coding system.

The IBT literature is dispersed across several disciplines that use different methods, focus on different aspects of travel and emphasize different positive and negative outcomes that IBT engenders. The publications employed a diverse range of methods, including review and conceptual (11), quantitative (28) and qualitative methods (14). The samples were diverse in country, age, marital status and tenure. Many publications were descriptive and exploratory. The few that based their research on theory focused on two stress theories: Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory and conservation of resources (COR) theory.

Experimental and longitudinal designs are needed to reduce the causal ambiguity of this body of mostly correlational and cross-sectional research. The authors discuss the impact of emerging advances in virtual global communication technology on the future of IBT.

More research is needed on positive aspects of IBT. Human resource (HR) people should be aware of these issues and are encouraged to decrease the deleterious aspects of the international trips and increase the positive ones.

Increasing well-being of international business travelers is important for the travelers, their families and the organization.

This is the first IBT review focused on the theoretical underpinnings of research in the field. The authors offer a model for IBT and introduce adjustment and performance as important constructs in IBT research. The authors encompass crossover theory to add the reciprocal impact of travelers and spouses and label IBT a “double-edge sword” because it arouses both positive and negative outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate expatriates social networks and their role in delivering social support resources. Self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) and assigned expatriates (AEs) are compared in order to investigate similarities and differences between both groups.

Methodologically a mixed-methods study is conducted, using qualitative interviews and social network analysis (SNA) to investigate the structure of the respondent’s social support ego networks; and to gain an understanding of the use of those networks as well as the network embeddedness of the individuals.

The findings show that there are differences in structural terms as well as in the composition of the networks. While the networks of self-initiated individuals tend to be bigger in size, AEs networks tend to be denser. In terms of the composition traditional expatriates do have more ties with colleagues that are in the same company while the self-initiated group is more closely embedded within their occupation, with ties to colleagues worldwide.

This is one of the first studies to address social network embeddedness and social support systems of globally mobile employees by using SNA. As a mixed-methods design as well as psychological and sociological theories are applied, a contribution to linking disciplines as well as methodologies is undertaken.

In this chapter, we focus on expatriate CEOs who are assigned by the parent company to work in a subsidiary and compare them to those who themselves have initiated to work abroad as CEOs. Since we do not know much about these individuals, we direct our attention to: (1) who they are (demographics), (2) what they are like (personality), and (3) how they perform (job performance).

Data was sought from 93 assigned expatriate CEOs and 94 self-initiated expatriate CEOs in China.

Our findings demonstrate that in terms of demography, self-initiated CEOs were more experienced than assigned CEOs. With regard to personality, we found difference in self-control and dispositional anger: Assigned expatriate CEOs had more self-control and less angry temperament than their self-initiated counterparts. Finally, we found assigned expatriate CEOs to rate their job performance higher than self-initiated CEOs.

Although there may not always be immediate benefits, career consideration often plays a role when individuals choose whether to become an expatriate. For many years, organizations have used expatriation to develop talented managers for high-level positions in the home country. Recently, however, a new trend has emerged. Talented top managers are no longer expatriated only from within parent companies to subsidiaries. Self-initiated expatriates with no prior affiliation in the parent company are increasingly used to fill top management positions in subsidiaries.

This paper sheds light on an apparent paradox: managers continue to accept offers of international assignments even though they tend to view them as a risky career move. Based on a review of the literature and a survey of expatriate managers of 20 French and 30 German companies on assignment in 59 countries, the paper examines the nature of the expatriate career concept, the career development implications of international assignments, and the effectiveness of corporate expatriate career management and repatriation systems. Most of the research on the career implications of international assignments has been conducted using the US samples of expatriates. By exploring expatriate career issues in a cross‐national sample of French and German expatriates, this study seeks to yield new and significant insights into whether the emerging concept of boundaryless careers is beginning to take hold in countries other than the US, and whether there are cross‐national differences in the nature of the expatriate career concept. The findings show that many expatriates are frustrated with how their companies manage their international assignments, especially the long‐range planning of their repatriation. However, there are clear differences between the French and German expatriates in terms of repatriation concerns. Despite widespread dissatisfaction in both groups, the German expatriates seem relatively nonchalant regarding their repatriation. This finding can be explained by the fact that the German expatriates are more willing to leave their companies upon return than their French counterparts, thus showing strong evidence of a “boundaryless career” orientation. An important finding is that companies that fail to take an integrated approach to international assignments and do not have effective international career development and repatriation systems, tend to end up with highly dissatisfied managers who, depending on their nationalities, may be quite willing to leave their companies upon repatriation.

Using an international field study of 196 US executive expatriates from multiple industries on assignment in South Korea, Japan and the Netherlands, this study aimed to explore the relationship between three facets of cross‐cultural adjustment (work, interaction, and general) and expatriate attitudes (job satisfaction and non‐work satisfaction), and to examine the role of cross‐cultural adjustment in mediating the relationship between family adjustment and expatriate attitudes. The results demonstrate the influence of each facet of adjustment on expatriate attitudes, and provide evidence that the relationship between family adjustment and non‐work satisfaction is mediated by general adjustment. Future research directions and implications for practice are offered.