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The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors which influence individuals to take up international assignments in hostile environments (HEs). Using an intelligent careers (IC) perspective, an expanded framework of expatriation drivers to work in hostile contexts is developed that comprises individual, organizational and location-specific factors. In addition, the understanding of career capital acquisition and transfer is refined.

A “deviant” case study method to challenge the underlying assumptions of career capital maximization and transfer in global careers is used. To investigate the case, 25 individuals in an international development organization who had to decide whether to work in HEs were interviewed.

Five insights into decision drivers and career capital effects associated with postings to HEs are presented. These span all three levels of individual, organizational and location-specific decision factors.

Due to the case study approach, the usual limitations of qualitative case-based research with respect to generalizability apply. In the conclusions three theoretical implications for the IC framework with respect to career capital acquisition, utilization and temporal effects are outlined.

A range of practical implications in relation to the selection, talent management, performance and reward approaches as well as repatriation and family considerations in global mobility are explored.

The insights help organizations to design global mobility policies for HEs. In addition, individuals and their families benefit from greater clarity of global mobility drivers in the context of high risks.

The drivers of individuals to accept assignments to HEs are under-researched. This paper operationalizes and applies a holistic decision to work abroad framework, expands the literature on of the motivations of individuals and develops valuable insights to nuance the IC framework.

The purpose of this literature review is to critically analyze, synthesize and integrate the currently fragmented literature concerning the factors affecting the international transfer of individual career capital (CC).

This paper is a systematic literature review of the factors affecting the international transfer of individual CC from/for expatriates, repatriates and other employed highly skilled migrants and return migrants. The findings are classified based on the Social Chronology Framework (SCF) proposed by Gunz and Mayrhofer (2015).

This systematic literature review suggests that the international transfer of individual CC, which can be expressed both as (1) individual-level transfer across different organizations located in different countries as the direct use and application of CC and (2) individual knowing-how transfer to other individuals within organization, is affected by the individual, organizational and broader contextual-level factors that are bound by the aspect of time. The authors summarize the findings by presenting a model of the factors affecting the international transfer of individual CC.

The authors align the CC framework (Defillippi and Arthur, 1994) to the SCF (Gunz and Mayrhofer, 2018) by explaining the factors affecting the international transfer of individual CC that go beyond the qualities of CC, including the Being, Space and Time domains. Moreover, the authors critique the current focus on the international CC transfer in the present suggesting that future research should explore this phenomenon as a more dynamic process. Finally, the authors contribute to the literature on the global mobility of highly skilled employees' by highlighting gaps in the knowledge of the international transfer of CC and presenting a future research agenda.

This paper investigates whether career capital (CC) development abroad, expatriate type, career type and career stage affect expatriates' career success in terms of perceived marketability and the number of promotions.

The study presents findings from a 2020 follow-up study among 327 expatriates, including assigned expatriates (AEs) (n = 117) and self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) (n = 220), who worked abroad in 2015 and 2016. Among that group, 186 had continued their international career, while 141 had repatriated. Structural equation modeling with robust maximum likelihood estimation was used to test this study's hypotheses. MPlus 8.6 software supported the analysis.

The study outlines that CC developed abroad positively impacts perceived marketability and the number of promotions. Second, repatriates reported a greater degree of perceived marketability than those continuing an international career. Career type did not predict the number of promotions. The expatriate type did not influence any of the career success measures. Finally, expatriates in their late-career stage did not achieve a similar level of career success as those in other career stages.

All the expatriates were university-educated Finnish engineers and business professionals, and the career benefits of expatriation could differ for different sample groups. The study calls for more context-sensitive global careers research. The findings have positive implications for self-guided career actors considering working abroad. Organizations could focus more of their global talent attraction, management and career efforts on SIEs.

To analyze the impacts of these four antecedents on the career success of expatriates, the authors cooperated with two Finnish labor unions in 2020 to explore the careers of 327 expatriates, having surveyed the same group in 2015/2016. Such follow-up studies are not very common in expatriation research since it is difficult to keep track of expatriates who change locations and employers.

This study aims to present a framework relating to the organizational value of international assignments (IAs). This extends the existing framework by Lepak et al. (2007) and applies to other fields researching questions of value.

This is a conceptual paper that applies new thinking to the critical practical and theoretical issue of organizational value in global mobility (GM) and international business (IB) literature. The Lepak et al. (2007) framework is explained, used and extended to appraise the value of IAs to organizations.

The primary contribution is the establishment of a value framework within which future IA research can position itself, refining extant measures and thereby enabling greater cohesion in future studies. The secondary contribution, impacting beyond the field of GM, is the development of this framework, including the identification and discussion of value itself, the significance of organizational sub-levels, the extension of the definitions of isolating mechanisms and competition to explicate value capture, the importance of temporal analysis and the inclusion of value assessment.

The paper is limited by its application to IAs at the organizational level only. However, the relationship with other levels is also explored. Research within different contexts or focusing on the other levels of value will increase the understanding of value.

Definitions of the value of IAs are extended, and practitioner implications are discussed.

A new framework for evaluating the organizational value of IAs and new definitions to enable this value to be assessed are produced.

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.

There has been tremendous interest in the field of cultural adjustment in the past decades. The work of Black and his colleagues has inspired many researchers. However, critics have pointed out that their original conceptualization has limitations; most of the insights building on their model have probably been harvested. Therefore, it is appropriate to investigate alternative ways at understanding the challenges in international assignments. The purpose of this paper is to outline a model rooted in person-environment fit theory. The authors follow Dawis and Lofquist’s Theory of Work Adjustment, which has had only a small influence on expatriate research to date.

The paper develops a correspondence model of cross-cultural adjustment and explores the diverse factors and their interactions in-depth. The satisfaction of individual needs and corresponding environmental supplies (macro, micro, and organizational factors) as well as the satisfactoriness of individual abilities and corresponding environmental requirements (macro, micro, and organizational) is outlined.

Based on the literature and the model a large number of hypotheses in relation to cross-cultural adjustment are proposed which allow new avenues in adjustment research.

The contribution of this paper is to propose a model that addresses the main criticisms to the adjustment conceptualization of Black and his colleagues.

This study aims to investigate cultural intelligence (CQ) as an antecedent of adaptive selling behavior (ASB) and cultural distance and intrinsic motivation as moderators in this relationship.

This research builds on a survey to 310 US-based international sales executives (ISE) and multiple regression analysis to test the hypotheses.

The results show that CQ has a significant positive relationship with ASB, both as an aggregate construct and through its metacognitive, motivational and behavioral facets. Also, intrinsic motivation moderates such relationship, whereas cultural distance does not.

The study includes only a sample of US-based international salespeople in the B2B context, which limits the generalizability of the findings to salespeople from other countries or other contexts.

The findings of this research suggest that supplier companies involved in international selling should consider the cultural intelligence of their salespeople for selection, training and coaching.

This study makes an important contribution to the literature on both ASB and CQ by expanding the knowledge on how to manage international salespeople effectively, considering the conditions under which CQ effects are expected and how these vary in this context.

It is argued that a key step in becoming a “transnational” company is to implement transnational HRM (THRM). However, what is meant by THRM and how can it be assessed? The purpose of this paper is to develop the characteristics of THRM along two dimensions: standardisation and knowledge networking, in contrast to many existing studies which focus on IHRM strategies and structures. Standardisation and knowledge networking are to be examined at both the meta and operational levels.

The paper is based on two case studies of major German MNCs, both with significant operations in Spain and the UK. Data were collected by means of semi‐structured interviews with senior managers, HR managers and labour representatives.

The findings show that THRM can be operationalised using knowledge networking and standardisation on a meta level, in terms of principles, and at an operational level in terms of practices. The two firms show differences in the process and intensity of HR knowledge networking which have implications for the level of standardisation, local autonomy and innovation capabilities. The findings also suggests that THRM is more about processes than outcomes.

A limitation of this study is that the cases were only drawn from Western Europe. The patterns of THRM structures and processes may differ significantly in MNCs from other regions.

This paper extends existing research by exploring international HR beyond strategies and structures and focuses on communication and coordination processes. It advocates a refined view of the transnational firm.

Research neglects the role that specific locations play in the decision process to accept international work. This paper aims to explore the career drivers of individuals working as expatriates in London (UK) and to focus on the relationships with specific location attributes.

A total of 11 qualitative in‐depth interviews and 348 quantitative questionnaire responses are used to explore the importance of intelligent career considerations for working as an expatriate in London.

A range of location‐specific factors and intelligent career considerations is identified and quantitatively assessed. The study depicts the links of perceived career factors and location‐specific drivers.

Applying the intelligent careers framework, the research goes beyond the normally used broad national factors to explore career capital drivers that motivate individuals to go to a specific city location. In exploring the relatively neglected areas of knowing‐whom and knowing‐why it sheds light on international relocation decision making. These insights inform further academic research and help to shape expatriation policies and practices of organizations.