Abstract
As barriers to globalization have steadily diminished, the number of entrepreneurial and noncommercial expatriates have grown from a trickle to a torrent. Much of what we know about expatriatism may not apply to this new breed of expatriates. A four-quadrant typology of expatriates draws attention to important differences in expatriate types. I make use of the notions of comparative fit and normative fit from self-categorization theory to validate the typology. Examining the experiences of 160 expatriates demonstrates that the proposed typology represents real differences and is invoked by expatriates in the field. Scholars may apply this typology to explain inconsistent findings in extant studies and as a guide for the development of new research questions.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
(2006). Global Relocation Trends Survey Report: GMAC Global Relocation Services, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC).
(2004). The Global 1000, Business Week: 58–61: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Adler, N. J. (1991). International dimensions of organizational behavior. Boston: PWS-Kent.
Albaum, G., & Baker, K. (1976). The sampling problem in validation of multiple discriminant analysis. Journal of the Market Research Society, 18, 158–162.
Bailey, K. D. (1973). Monothetic and polythetic typologies and their relation to conceptualization, measurement, and scaling. American Sociological Review, 38, 18–33.
Bakke, E. W. (1959). Concept of the social organization. In M. Haire (Ed.), Modern organization theory (pp. 16–75). New York: Wiley.
Bell, B. S., & Kozlowski, S. W. J. (2002). A typology of virtual teams. Group and Organization Management, 27(1), 14–49.
Bhaskar-Shrinivas, P., Harrison, D. A., Shaffer, M. A., & Luk, D. M. (2004). What have I learned about expatriate adjustment? Answers accumulated from 23 years of research. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management, New Orleans.
Birley, S. (2001). Owner-manager attitudes to family business issues: a 16-country study. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 26(2), 63–76.
Black, J. S. (1988). Work role transitions: a study of American expatriate managers in Japan. Journal of International Business Studies, 19(2), 277–294.
Black, J. S., & Gregersen, H. B. (1990). Expectations, satisfaction, and intention to leave of American expatriates in Japan. International Journal of Intercultural Business, 14, 485–506.
Black, J. S., Mendenhall, M., & Oddou, G. (1991). Toward a comprehensive model of international adjustment: an integration of multiple theoretical perspectives. Academy of Management Review, 16, 291–318.
Bradley, R. A., & Terry, M. E. (1952). Rank analysis of incomplete block designs: the method of paired comparisons. Biometrika, 39, 324–345.
Brewster, C. (1997). International HRM: beyond expatriation. Human Resource Management Journal, 7, 31–32.
Bruner, J. S. (1957). On perceptual readiness. Psychological Review, 64, 123–152.
Caligiuri, P. (2006). Performance measurement in a cross-national context. In W. Bennett, C. E. Lance & D. J. Woehr (Eds.), Performance measurement: Current perspectives and future challenges (pp. 227–243). Mahwah: Erlbaum.
Caligiuri, P., Phillips, J., Lazarova, M., Tarique, I., & Bargi, P. (2001). The theory of met expectations applied to expatriate adjustment: the role of crosscultural training. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 12, 357–373.
Chandler, G. N., & Lyon, D. W. (2001). Issues of research design and construct measurement in entrepreneurship research: the past decade. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 25(4), 101–113.
Chang, W. W. (2005). Expatriate training in international nongovernmental organizations: a model for research. Human Resource Development Review, 4(4), 440–461.
Connelly, B., Hitt, M. A., DeNisi, A., & Ireland, R. D. (2007). Expatriates and corporate-level international strategy: governing with the knowledge contract. Management Decision, 45(3), 564–581.
Coyle-Shapiro, J., Morrow, P., & Kessler, I. (2006). Serving two organizations: exploring the employment relationship of contracted employees. Human Resource Management, 45(4), 561–583.
Costanza, M. C., & Afifi, A. A. (1979). Comparison of stopping rules in forward stepwise discriminant analysis. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 74, 777–785.
Daniels, M. R., & Darcy, R. (1983). Notes on the use and interpretation of discriminant analysis. American Journal of Political Science, 27, 359–382.
Goldberg, L. R. (1966). Reliability of peace corps selection boards: a study of inter-judge agreement before and after board discussions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 50, 400–409.
Green, A. O., & Hunton-Clarke, L. (2003). A typology of stakeholder participation for company environmental decision-making. Business Strategy and the Environment, 12(5), 292–299.
Haas, J. E., Hall, R. H., & Johnson, N. J. (1966). Toward an empirically derived taxonomy of organizations. In R. V. Bowers (Ed.), Studies on behavior in organizations (pp. 157–180). Athens: University of Georgia Press.
Haslam, S. A., Powel, C., & Turner, J. C. (2000). Social identity, self-categorization, and work motivation: Rethinking the contribution of the group to positive and sustainable organizational outcomes. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 49(3), 319–339.
Hitt, M. A., Tihanyi, L., Miller, T., & Connelly, B. (2006). International diversification: antecedents, outcomes, and moderators. Journal of Management, 32(6), 831–867.
Hodgetts, R. M., & Luthans, F. (2000). International management: Culture, strategy and behavior. Boston: Irwin/McGraw-Hill.
Holt, D. B. (1995). How consumers consume: a typology of consumption practices. Journal of Consumer Research, 22, 1–17.
Luce, R. D. (1959). Individual choice behavior. New York: Wiley.
Lueke, S. B. & Svyantek, D. J. (2000). Organizational socialization in the host country: the missing link in reducing expatriate turnover. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 380–401.
Malhotra, N. K. (2004). Marketing research: An applied orientation. Upper Saddle River: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Moore, L. F., Johns, G., & Pinder, C. C. (1980). Toward middle range theory: An overview and perspective. In C. C. Pinder & L. F. Moore (Eds.), Middle range theory and the study of organizations (pp. 1–16). Hingham: Martinus.
Oakes, P. J. (1987). The salience of social categories. In J. C. Turner, M. A. Hogg, P. J. Oakes, S. D. Reicher & M. S. Wetherell (Eds.), Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory (pp. 117–141). Oxford: Blackwell.
Oakes, P. J., Turner, J. C., & Haslam, S. A. (1991). Perceiving people as group members: the role of fit in the salience of social categorizations. British Journal of Social Psychology, 30, 125–144.
Oddou, G. R. (1991). Managing your expatriates: what the successful firms do. Human Resource Planning, 14, 301–309.
Oviatt, B. M., & McDougall, P. P. (2005). Toward a theory of international new ventures. Journal of International Business Studies, 36(1), 29–41.
Perlmutter, H. V. (1969). The tortuous evolution of the multinational corporation. Columbia Journal of World Business, 10(1), 9–18.
Perlmutter, H. V., & Heenan, D. A. (1974). How multinational should your top managers be? Harvard Business Review, 52, 121–133.
Portes, A., Guarnizo, L. E., & Haller, W. (2002). Transnational entrepreneurs: an alternative form of immigrant economic adaptation. American Sociological Review, 67(2), 278–298.
Rasmussen, J. L. (1988). Evaluating outlier identification tests: Mahalanobis D squared and Comrey Dk. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 23, 189–203.
Rich, P. (1992). The organizational taxonomy: definition and design. Academy of Management Review, 17, 758–782.
Rohm, A. J., & Swaminathan, V. (2004). A typology of online shoppers based on shopping motivations. Journal of Business Research, 57(7), 748–757.
Schuler, R. S., Fulkerson, J. R., & Dowling, P. J. (1991). Strategic performance measurement and management in multinational corporations. Human Resource Management, 30, 365–393.
Shaffer, M. A., & Harrison, D. A. (1998). Expatriates’ psychological withdrawal from international assignments: work, nonwork, and family influences. Personnel Psychology, 51, 87–118.
Suutari, V., & Brewster, C. (2000). Making their own way: international experience through self-initiated foreign assignments. Journal of World Business, 35, 417–436.
Suutari, V., & Brewster, C. (2003). Repatriation: empirical evidence from a longitudinal study of careers and expectations among Finnish expatriates. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 14, 1132–1152.
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2000). Using multivariate statistics. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Thompson, J. L. (2002). The world of the social entrepreneur. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 15, 412–433.
Thurstone, L. L. (1927). A law of comparative judgment. Psychological Review, 34, 273–286.
Trawinski, B. J., & David, H. A. (1963). Selection of the best treatment in a paired-comparison experiment. Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 34, 75–91.
Turner, J. C. (1985). Social categorization and the self-concept: A social cognitive theory of group behavior. In E. J. Lawler (Ed.), Advances in group processes (pp. 77–122). Greenwich: JAI.
Turner, J. C., Hogg, M. A., Oakes, P. J., Reicher, S. D., & Wetherell, M. S. (1987). Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
Vance, C. M. (2002). One size fits all in expatriate pre-departure training? Comparing the host country voices of Mexican, Indonesian, and U.S. workers. Journal of Management Development, 21(7), 557–571.
Vance, C. M. (2005). The personal quest for building global competence: a taxonomy of self-initiating career path strategies for gaining business experience abroad. Journal of World Business, 40, 374–385.
Vernon, R. (1966). International investment and international trade in the product cycle. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 190–207.
West, G. P., Bamford, C. E., & Marsden, J. W. (2008). Contrasting entrepreneurial economic development in emerging Latin American economies: applications and extensions of resource-based theory. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 32(1), 15–36.
Wortman, M. S. (1987). Entrepreneurship: an integrating typology and evaluation of empirical research in the field. Journal of Management, 13(2), 259–279.
Yeung, H. W. C. (2002). Entrepreneurship in international business: an institutional perspective. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 19, 29–61.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Connelly, B.L. Transnational entrepreneurs, worldchanging entrepreneurs, and ambassadors: a typology of the new breed of expatriates. Int Entrep Manag J 6, 39–53 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-009-0116-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-009-0116-5