Do identity and status matter? A social identity theory perspective on the adaptability of low‐status expatriates

Abstract

The study aims to investigate the effect of identify and status in the field of global mobility and expatriate management. It conceptualizes perceived prejudice towards low‐status expatriates (LSE) though the social identity theory (SIT) lens and examines the effect it has on two state self‐esteem domains, that is, performance self‐esteem and social self‐esteem. The study also highlights that the moderation roles education level and age of expatriates play towards their adaptability. In doing so, it seeks to expand the expatriate management domain by investigating the negative side associated with expatriation. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to analyze responses from 373 LSE working in China. The results provide evidence indicating the significance attached to status and identity, thus indicating that perceived prejudice significantly affects expatriate's self‐esteem negatively and that age and education level mitigate these effects by moderating the relationship. Age and education level attained by the expatriates are found to be significant moderators in this relationship. The study therefore proposes the use of SIT as a powerful theoretical lens for understanding LSE.

The influence of host country education and professional experience on repatriation intentions: an examination of French long-term self-initiated expatriates in the United States

“…To that end, this study applies social identity theory (SIT) to the examination of the impact of host-country work experience, earned degree or education on the repatriation expectations of long-term SIEs (Tajfel and Turner, 1986). Prior studies have used SIT extensively to examine challenges associated with expatriation and global mobility, but SIT has only been used to study SIEs a small number of times (Olsen and Martins, 2009;Bonache et al, 2016;Sunguh et al, 2019;Guo et al, 2021;Singh et al, 2021). Through the lens of SIT, this study specifically examines the ways in which perceived acceptance threats, perceived categorization threats, and perceived in-group favoritism in home countries may influence the repatriation expectations of long-term SIEs.…”

“…Prior studies have used SIT extensively to examine challenges associated with expatriation and global mobility, but SIT has only been used to study SIEs a small number of times (Olsen and Martins, 2009; Bonache et al. , 2016; Sunguh et al. , 2019; Guo et al.…”

Expatriação, Retenção de Conhecimentos e Identidade Profissional: Um Estudo Bibliométrico

“…Inicialmente, serão comentados os estudos voltados aos temas identidade e expatriação. Analisando os dados obtidos neste estudo, identifica-se que foram publicados seis artigos que associaram os temas identidade e expatriação, explorando os seguintes aspectos: a) Os efeitos da expatriação sobre a identidade e ajustes comportamentais na perspectiva da identidade (Gonzalez & Oliveira, 2011); b) expatriação, transformações e ajustes na identidade (Coelho, 2017;Peltokorpi & Zhang, 2020); c) efeitos sobre a identidade na repatriação (Kraimer & Harrison, 2012); d) efeito do preconceito nas identidades e desempenho de expatriados (Sunguh et al, 2019); e) relação entre ajustamento na repatriação e imersão no trabalho, o papel mediador da identidade profissional de repatriados (Andrianto et al, 2018).…”

Can we have trust in host government? Self-esteem, work attitudes and prejudice of low-status expatriates living in China

“…Previous research has established that, when latent variables are used in an empirical study, the Cronbach's 𝛼, Composite Reliability (CR) and Average Variance Extracted (AVE) of each variable are essential indices for testing validity of the data. The threshold values for each are 0.7, 0.7 and 0.5, respectively (Sunguh, Abbas, Olabode, & Xuehe, 2019). The set of values generated for the variables used in this study are presented in Table 2.…”