Scientific Network for Expatriate Management

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Benjamin Bader
• Subject Area: Accounting and Finance
• Term: from 2014 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 262446991

Due to the increasing importance of global activities, assigning staff in foreign subsidiaries (expatriate assignments) has gained in importance for multinational corporations (MNCs). While abroad, expatriates often are challenged with complex management tasks and are responsible for the success of the subsidiary. However, empirical studies find that many expatriates return from their assignment prematurely without having successfully finished their tasks abroad. In contrast to a growing number of studies concerning the conditions for a successful assignment, especially questions of intercultural adjustment, the meaning of failed assignments has not been subject to intensive research yet. Neither is there a common definition for a failed assignment, nor do scholars agree, how success or failure can be operationalized and measured. However, this is of great importance due to the tremendous strategic meaning of expatriate assignments for MNCs. Expatriates decisively shape the market entry and the sustainable success of the company in any host country. However, from an academic point of view, expatriate management has mainly been focus of an individual perspective and in terms of Human Resource Management, not from a holistic, strategic point of view. As of now, there is no such thing as an overall plan to classify the assignment process, including measuring success and repatriation plans, in corporate strategy considerations. In order to close these conceptual gaps, the scientific network will work together on respective research questions. While doing so, the scientific network has three points as their major goals: (1) Creating a valuable contribution to literature on expatriate management and strengthening research from a German perspective. Thematically this will be done by (a) bridging the conceptual gap by defining and measuring successful versus failed assignments, (b) bridging the interdisciplinary gap by integrating individual-focused and strategic points of view in an interdisciplinary approach, and (c) bridging the intercontinental gap by contributing to and supporting European, especially German research on expatriate management, in order to supplement research approaches mainly being conducted in North America. (2) Supporting young German academics/scholar by collaborating and networking in an interdisciplinary approach with colleagues from different fields with different backgrounds.(3) Publishing the results in an edited book in order to generate a value-added for theory and practice.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks
• International Connection: Austria
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Jonas Puck; Professor Dr. Tassilo Schuster