Expatriate Management of Emerging Market Multinational Enterprises: A Multiple Case Study Approach

Abstract

Expatriate management has evolved through the practices of developed economy multinational enterprises (DMNEs), with the aim of improving expatriate adaptability, cross-cultural adjustment, and performance. However, most of these studies focus on expatriates from developed countries and try to help DMNEs instead of emerging market MNEs (EMNEs). In a turbulent global economy, how EMNEs manage their expatriates when conducting business through their outward foreign direct investment (FDI) is understudied. This empirical study aims to address this research gap by utilising a qualitative approach and a multiple case study. It has conducted semi-structured interviews with expatriates, executives, and middle managers of Chinese MNEs in 2014. It contributes as one of the few to systematically examine expatriate related issues in the context of EMNEs with first-hand empirical evidence. The findings show that EMNEs are leapfrogging with their internationalisation and hence their expatriate policies are often ad hoc without systematic planning. Moreover, this study has contributed to practice, especially to EMNEs, regarding the way they need to improve their expatriate policies and practices.

Home Countries Matter for the Internationalisation of Emerging Market Multinational Enterprises

“…An in-depth understanding of environmental factors enables EMNEs to formulate the most appropriate strategy according to needs and objective conditions and choose the most competitive entry mode. Zhong et al (2021a) emphasize how the institutional environments of EMNEs' home country and host country affect their expatriate strategy. Given that EMNEs with springboard motives are rapidly expanding their footprints across different host countries, their expatriate management tends to be ad hoc and lacks systematic planning.…”

“…The first article by Zhong et al (2021a) (Expatriate Management of Emerging Market Multinational Enterprises: A Multiple Case Study Approach) discusses how EMNEs manage expatriates when conducting business through outward FDI in a volatile global environment. Conventional research on expatriate management focuses on DMNEs rather than EMNEs.…”

COVID-19 related stressors and mental health outcomes of expatriates in international construction

“…Taking Chinese contractors as an example, a total of 119,000 people was dispatched to overseas project contracting work in 2021, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (14). In addition to adapting to common cultural differences (15,16), expatriates also need to adapt to the differences in epidemic prevention in the post-epidemic period. The Chinese government's defense policy against COVID-19 is "dynamic clearing, " which is different from "coexisting with the virus" in many countries in the world.…”

Relationship between social support and repatriation intention of expatriates in international construction projects

“…With the development of globalization, some scholars have studied the expatriates of multinational enterprises (Egbe et al, 2018;Zhong et al, 2021;DeNisi et al, 2021). In general, expatriation costs are high, especially during the pandemic, when international construction companies need additional quarantine fees and increased airfares.…”