TY - JOUR

T1 - Why does repatriate career success vary?

T2 - An empirical investigation from both traditional and protean career perspectives

AU - Breitenmoser, Anika

AU - Bader, Benjamin

AU - Nicola, Berg

PY - 2018/9/1

Y1 - 2018/9/1

N2 - To increase the long‐term benefits of global mobility for multinational corporations, international assignments and intraorganizational careers must be strategically integrated. However, systematic research on former expatriates' career success upon returning to their home organization remains scarce. Hence, this study transfers findings from the career literature to the repatriation context to identify the predictors of objective and subjective repatriate career success. Integrating traditional and protean career theory, we investigate data from 295 repatriates of publicly listed German organizations. Applying partial least squares structural equation modeling, we reveal that objective career success upon repatriation is affected by international assignment characteristics with human capital implications, repatriation support provided by the organization, and the individual's self‐directed career management. Objective career success, organizational repatriation support, and self‐directed career management further affect subjective career success in terms of career satisfaction. Hence, substantiating an impact of both traditional and protean career factors on repatriate careers, our results lay the groundwork for repatriation strategies that combine organizational and individual career management. In this way, multinational corporations can go beyond managing repatriate elites to make better use of all globally experienced employees

AB - To increase the long‐term benefits of global mobility for multinational corporations, international assignments and intraorganizational careers must be strategically integrated. However, systematic research on former expatriates' career success upon returning to their home organization remains scarce. Hence, this study transfers findings from the career literature to the repatriation context to identify the predictors of objective and subjective repatriate career success. Integrating traditional and protean career theory, we investigate data from 295 repatriates of publicly listed German organizations. Applying partial least squares structural equation modeling, we reveal that objective career success upon repatriation is affected by international assignment characteristics with human capital implications, repatriation support provided by the organization, and the individual's self‐directed career management. Objective career success, organizational repatriation support, and self‐directed career management further affect subjective career success in terms of career satisfaction. Hence, substantiating an impact of both traditional and protean career factors on repatriate careers, our results lay the groundwork for repatriation strategies that combine organizational and individual career management. In this way, multinational corporations can go beyond managing repatriate elites to make better use of all globally experienced employees

KW - Management studies

KW - careers

KW - international HRM

KW - structural equation modeling

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053483201&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/hrm.21888

DO - 10.1002/hrm.21888

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 57

SP - 1049

EP - 1063

JO - Human Resource Management

JF - Human Resource Management

SN - 0090-4848

IS - 5

ER -