National culture and expatriate deployment
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National culture and expatriate deployment David M Brock1, Oded Shenkar2, Amir Shoham3,4 and Ilene C Siscovick5 1
Department of Business Administration, Guilford Glazer School of Business and Management, Ben-Gurion University, Israel; 2 Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA; 3School of Business Administration, College of Management, Rishon Le Zion, Israel; 4Sapir Academic College, Sderot, Israel; 5Mercer Human Resource Consulting
Abstract We hypothesize that expatriate deployment is a control function predicted by home country culture dimensions with transaction cost and agency repercussions (rather than culture in the aggregate). This departure from the traditional conceptualization and measurement of cultural impact also yields a hypothesized asymmetrical effect, which is tested for a multi-country sample of 236 multinational subsidiaries. Using multiple measures of national culture, hypotheses are supported, with assertiveness and power distance confirmed as prime predictors of expatriate deployment. Journal of International Business Studies (2008) 39, 1293–1309. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400361 Keywords: expatriates; power distance; asymmetrical culture distance
Correspondence: DM Brock, Department of Business Administration, Guilford Glazer School of Business and Management, Ben-Gurion University, PO Box 653, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel. Tel: þ 972 8 647 9731; Fax: þ 972 8 647 7691; E-mail: [email protected]
INTRODUCTION Although research on expatriates abounds, surprisingly little empirical work has looked at when, where, and why the multinational enterprise chooses to deploy expatriates in its subsidiaries. A search of the electronic database of the Journal of International Business Studies from 1987 to 2005 yielded 83 articles containing the word ‘‘expatriate’’, most dwelling on individual/micro-level issues such as expatriate and spousal adjustment, success, turnover, job satisfaction, repatriation, nationality, loyalty, performance appraisals, network ties, trainability, and career management, with only a single study (Belderbos & Heijltjes, 2005) investigating the correlates (or predictors) of expatriate assignment, albeit not from a cultural perspective. The present paper intends to address this gap in the literature, bridging the micro–macro divide on expatriate assignment while concomitantly offering a contribution to the measurement and application of culture in the context of multinational decisionmaking. Following a review of the literature, we examine the control function of expatriate deployment using the theoretical lenses of transaction cost economics and agency theory. We identify the transaction and agency role of select cultural dimensions, and then develop hypotheses pertaining to their impact on expatriate deployment. Data from 236 multinational subsidiaries from 22 home and nine host countries are utilized to examine the hypotheses. Finally, we outline theoretical, methodologica
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