Repatriate Knowledge Transfer: Towards the Development of a New Measurement Instrument

Abstract

To date, no reliable and valid instrument exists that measures repatriate knowledge transfer.Therefore, this paper demonstrates the initial steps of the item and scale development process of a new instrument measuring repatriate knowledge transfer. The original item pool was reduced and four scales were developed based on the following selection criteria: individual item performance (M, SD, skewness, kurtosis), the reliabilities of the scales (inter-item correlation, item-total correlation, Cronbach's alpha) and the factor structures of the scales (factor loadings, scree test, Eigenvalues, % variance explained). The four scales measure (a) the type of repatriate knowledge transferred, both (b) the ability and (c) the motivation of repatriates to transfer their newly acquired knowledge, as well as (d) the success of repatriate knowledge transfer into the domestic work unit. The next steps in the scale validation process, implications for practitioners and future research opportunities are discussed.