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The aim of this study is to develop a better understanding of how the transferability and recognition of host country professional experience and educational credentials impact the repatriation intentions of long-term self-initiated expatriates (SIEs). To that end, the study interviews a sample of American-educated French long-term SIEs in the United States (US) to assess how both their higher education and professional experience influence their social identity in their home country, France and their perceived repatriation opportunities.

This study applies social identity theory to the examination of the combined impact of higher education and work experience abroad on the repatriation expectations of long-term SIEs. The author interviewed twenty-one French SIEs who attended universities in the US and remained there afterward to begin their careers.

The findings of this study confirm that the repatriation intentions of long-term SIEs are strongly influenced by concerns about the ability to maintain their host country standard of living in their home country. It also finds that foreign educational credentials and professional experience can constrain the ability of long-term SIEs to repatriate easily and gain acceptance. To overcome this, long-term SIEs often feel that they must embrace alternative repatriation strategies to maintain the lifestyle that they enjoyed while abroad when returning back home.

This study examines a sample of long-term SIEs from one home country, France, who left to attend university in the same host country, the US. It assesses how the experiences of those who remained in the US afterward to start their careers impacted their repatriation intentions. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on the context of self-initiated expatriation by examining the influence of host-country educational credentials and work experience on the repatriation intentions of long-term SIEs.

This paper aims to integrate the perspectives of expatriation and repatriation not as two unrelated stages but rather as one integrated process.

A sample comprising 94 human resource (HR) representatives from large Taiwanese multinational corporations (MNCs) provided objective data on the organizational expatriate/repatriate practices.

The use of developmental assignments was positively related to organizational repatriate turnover, but such a positive relationship was significant only when MNCs used low levels of repatriation support practices. Organizational repatriate turnover was negatively related to employee willingness for expatriation and the use of developmental assignments increased employee willingness for expatriation. Organizational repatriate turnover was a competitive mediator between the use of developmental assignments and employee willingness for expatriation. Moreover, organizational repatriate turnover mediated the relationship when MNCs used low levels of repatriation support practices, but not when MNCs used high levels of repatriation support practices.

MNCs should ensure the use of development assignments is matched with high levels of repatriation support practices and treat expatriation and repatriation management as one integrated process.

As the world economy becomes more integrated, MNCs are increasingly challenged in their efforts to send employees abroad on expatriate assignments that are developmental by design, to reduce organizational repatriate turnover and to increase employee willingness for expatriation. However, there is a lack of understanding about how they are all linked.

The effect of tax policy on the repatriation of foreign earnings is a topic of ongoing discussion among policymakers, academics, and the popular press. It has become more salient due to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which permanently removed repatriation tax. This paper synthesizes the academic literature examining US multinational firms’ responses to the repatriation tax holiday initiated by the 2004 American Jobs Creation Act (AJCA), which temporarily reduced the tax on the repatriation of foreign earnings. By synthesizing firm responses to the temporary tax reduction, we identify similarities and differences in: (1) theories about why and when repatriation tax affects firms’ repatriation decisions; (2) empirical evidence of whether repatriation tax affects firms’ repatriation decisions; and (3) empirical evidence of whether repatriation tax affects firms’ investment decisions. The analyses provide insights into the effect of the permanent removal of repatriation tax under the TCJA and explore avenues for future research. This synthesis of the AJCA literature informs tax research and practice as well as policymaking.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of cultural identity change, organizational and social support and cultural distance on repatriation experiences of Indian international assignees.

Semi‐structured interviews were held with 19 Indians on international assignment in The Netherlands and 11 Indians repatriated from The Netherlands. Respondents were asked to reflect on their cultural identity changes and the effects of social support, organizational support and cultural distance between the host and the home country on their international assignment and repatriation experiences. Iterative thematic analyses revealed five central themes: cultural identity independence; knowledge utilization and organizational learning; social network support; global career prospects in the Indian economy; work‐life balance.

Cultural identity changes ranged from low adaptation to Dutch culture and happiness on return to India through to high cultural flexibility and readiness to move to another sojourn. The majority of respondents reported great appreciation by their supervisors and co‐workers and utilization of their knowledge gained in The Netherlands. These factors, in addition to good career prospects and social support from their informal networks, contributed positively to their repatriation experiences.

This study challenges the frequently reported negative repatriation experiences of sojourners from the West.

Aims to increase our understanding of the antecedents of repatriation adjustment. The data were collected through a questionnaire survey among Finnish repatriates in co‐operation with the Finnish union of qualified economics graduates. In the study four different facets of adjustment appeared instead of the three suggested in the literature (i.e. general, work, and interaction adjustment) since the work adjustment dimension appeared to consist of two separate dimensions, here named job adjustment and organisation adjustment. The included antecedent variables explained from 30 per cent to 50 per cent of the variance in the adjustment models related to different facets of adjustment. General adjustment was found to be related to the age of the respondent, the length of the assignment, the timing of role negotiations, expatriation adjustment problems, keeping up on events at home and role conflict. With regard to organisation adjustment three antecedent variables were found: timing of role decision, willingness to relocate internationally, and role conflict. Timing of role decision and role discretion appeared as positive correlates of job adjustment, and expatriation adjustment problems and role conflict as negative correlates of interaction adjustment.

This paper examines how informal knowledge transfer processes unfold during the repatriation of Malaysian executives. The goal is to develop a repatriate knowledge transfer process model, explaining the informal process through which repatriates make decisions about and transfer newly acquired knowledge.

Given the unexplored nature of the informal knowledge transfer process the study investigates, this research adopts an exploratory qualitative research approach using interview data from 10 Malaysian corporate executives over a period of 14 months, covering prerepatriation and postrepatriation stages.

The findings indicate that from the repatriates' perspectives, the process flows during repatriates' knowledge transfer depend on the ability and motivation of repatriates, as well as their opportunity to communicate the newly acquired knowledge to their home country organization. We likewise learned that the repatriates' ability to overcome repatriate adjustment and knowledge transfer challenges is crucial in order for them to proactively initiate informal knowledge transfer.

This research is significant as it will assist current and future expatriates to plan and prepare for repatriation and eventual knowledge transfer. The findings will also be useful to organizations that employ repatriates in preparing action plans for repatriation rather than solely focusing on expatriation.

Research and practice formally argue that expatriates are expected to transfer knowledge from the home country organization to the host country organization. While on assignment, expatriates become exposed to various types of new knowledge during the assignment, setting them up to disseminate this newly acquired knowledge to their home country organization upon repatriation – however, knowledge transfer upon repatriation is largely informal. This paper examines how this informal knowledge transfer process unfolds in the repatriation context over a period of 14 months by qualitatively tracing the experiences of 10 Malaysian corporate executives.

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.

With increasing interest in overseas business expansion, particularly in the Asia‐Pacific region, expatriate management, including repatriation readjustmenst, has become a critical international human resource development (HRD) issue for multinational enterprises (MNEs). This empirical study therefore aims to investigate the use of HRD interventions relating to training and development for effective readjustment of international managers on repatriation.

The data were collected through a field survey conducted on repatriation experience of international managers from more than five countries, who are working in Singapore.

The study provides valuable insights about repatriation training programmes, training contents, programme duration, delivery modes, and providers of effective training programmes.

HRD professionals and senior executives of MNEs will benefit from the findings of this study in making decisions on effective design and implementation of training and career development programmes.

The findings have significant implications for career development of managers involved in international business operations.

This paper discusses readjustment problems of the repatriating managers and suggests how realistic HRD programmes, mainly based on training, can be developed and implemented for retaining international managers. These findings from the dynamic region of Asia will also help in developing appropriate career development programmes.

The purpose of this conceptual paper is twofold. The first objective is to introduce a multi-stakeholder power perspective to the discourse on repatriate retention, which has, to date, treated issues of career agency without considering whether other stakeholders might be capable of responding constructively. The second objective of the paper is more prescriptive, conjecturing that social media, which has also been completely overlooked by the repatriation literature, has the potential to empower repatriation stakeholders.

Following a review of the literature on repatriate turnover, this paper uses Hardy and Leiba-O’Sullivan's (1998) framework on empowerment to examine the nature and significance of powerlessness on the part of key stakeholders in the repatriation process – repatriates, HQ managers, and HQ HR professionals. It uses the same framework to investigate how social media might help to empower these stakeholders.

The analysis finds that social media has the potential to empower repatriation stakeholders in four key ways: first, by triggering expatriates’ awareness of the need to proactively manage different aspects of their own impending repatriation; second, by providing access to supportive mentoring resources; third, by strengthening access to key HR and managerial decision-making arenas; and fourth, by enabling HQ managers and HR representatives to more judiciously direct potentially scarce organizational resources (including their own time) toward key repatriation supports.

Although this conceptual paper has no empirical data, it offers considerable value to the repatriation literature by introducing the topics of power and social media and explaining their relevance to repatriation (and indeed, to the field of international HRM).

Repatriate turnover is problematic, both for repatriates who would have liked to remain with the organization that sent them on assignment, and for the organizations that would like to have retained (and utilized) repatriates’ global competencies. Thus, the main practical implication of this paper is that it offers an innovative contemporary solution (e.g. the use of social media) to this problem of repatriate turnover.

The paper demonstrates that the topic of power has been completely neglected by the repatriation literature. Similarly, the topic of social media, has also been completely overlooked by the repatriation literature. This paper introduces these two topics to the repatriation literature, and, in so doing, broadens the understanding of constraints on repatriate agency as a means of repatriate retention, and offers innovative contemporary solutions (e.g. social media).