Search results

This paper aims to investigate and reflect upon the effects of personality traits on expatriate adjustment within the context of Malaysia’s multicultural society.

Drawing on the multicultural personality questionnaire (MPQ) and extrapolating from the literature on expatriate adjustment, the authors introduce five hypotheses, which are then tested based on data derived from 101 expatriates working in Malaysia.

The results indicate a positive relationship between both open-mindedness and adjustment as well as between flexibility and adjustment. However, the authors did not observe any significant positive relationship between the three remaining MPQ personality traits and expatriate adjustment.

While various studies have investigated the relationship between personality and expatriate adjustment in an Asian context, the majority have been conducted in largely monocultural settings, or at least on the implicit assumption of a single societal culture within the host country. This paper contributes to the literature by exploring the relationship in the context of a multicultural Asian host country.

This paper aims to investigate the expatriate adjustment experiences of “biculturals”, defined here as individuals who have internalised at least two cultural profiles, in a host-country setting that is itself also culturally diverse.

A qualitative approach was adopted, involving semi-structured interviews with a small number of bicultural expatriates working in Malaysia.

The findings here echo previous studies in demonstrating bicultural expatriates’ ability (and tendency) to switch cultural frames as part of their adjustment. Despite this, however, their professional and social networks appear to still be shaped by cultural factors, with expatriates drawn towards networks whose members mainly comprise certain ethnic groups whose values and norms are perceived as being more closely aligned with those of the expatriate.

Though the literature on bicultural expatriates continues to grow, little emphasis has been given to a host-country setting that is itself culturally diverse. The findings here suggest that in such a setting, professional and social networks serve as an aid in the adjustment. Importantly, however, these networks, rather than being culturally impartial, as it were, may primarily comprise certain ethnic groups who are considered culturally “closer” to the expatriate in question.

The aim of the research, in the East and Southeast Asia context, is to explore the advantages and problems of Buslish (business facilitation English) for managers and to generate suggestions for maximising the use of Buslish as a critical resource in organisational effectiveness, including potential educational support and its required technology.

Data aimed to explore the issue were collected from a multi-country sample of 31 non-native English speakers, using a semi-structured questionnaire, plus in-depth interviews (10) with some respondents. Data were analysed using a mixture of descriptive statistics and logical argumentation.

The authors found a strong agreement that Buslish is important in the chosen setting, but there are problems in practice. Views on the importance of style and precision of the language actually used varied considerably. A key practical implication is that there is a role for English continuing professional development (CPD) courses.

Firms should support the development of English language skills of employees, certainly at management level and perhaps also at shop floor level. Suitable courses could be offered in firms' CPD programmes. Employees who are native speakers should be encouraged to enunciate clearly for non-native speaker colleagues, not to use slang and not to speak too quickly. While the authors encourage the use of contemporary communication technologies (e.g. virtual classrooms), they maintain that these should be supplementary in nature, supporting, rather than replacing, face-to-face learning formats.

A key aspect of the originality of the work is derived from the specific location, primary data collected and the creative nexus of the initial issue and its educational requirements, including technologies.

Existing studies on expatriate academics (EAs) are primarily set in advanced-country settings, thus overlooking the EA experience in developing and emerging markets. With this in mind, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the motivating factors behind EAs taking up jobs in Malaysia, and their adjustment and retention experiences in their host country.

The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 17 EAs working in four public universities in Malaysia.

Among the chief motivating factors for expatriation were familiarity with the country, the perceived desirable cultural/religious environment, and favourable research environment. Adjustment-wise, there was something of a mixed experience, with most adjusting well socially, but many citing disappointment with work. Such sentiment has contributed to reducing retention plans among several of the respondents.

The study explores the EA experience in the context of an emerging market. At present much of the literature focuses on EAs working in advanced economies. This paper indicates that the motivation, adjustment, and retention cognition of EAs in emerging markets may not be entirely consistent with what previous studies have suggested.

Within the expatriation subset of the wider IB literature, the focus of research has been on contemporary contextual factors. The purpose of this paper is to link the present to the past by investigating how the individual expatriate experience may be affected by a colonial legacy between host and home countries.

Given the exploratory nature of this study, a qualitative interview-based approach eliciting thick, detailed descriptions of the practical experiences of seven Japanese expatriate managers working in Malaysia was adopted. These were supplemented by additional interviews with three host-country nationals who work alongside some of the expatriates. The data were analysed through a two-stage coding process.

The expatriate respondents were largely unanimous in their view that the colonial past between the two countries had no negative impact on their experiences in Malaysia, and the Malaysian interviewees corroborated this. On the contrary, the majority of the expatriates actually spoke positively about their experiences. This was especially true for expatriates in both the tourism and education/research field whose work was linked in some way to the period of Japanese occupation.

The small, single-context nature of the investigation limits generalisation. There are also many particularities in this study (the nature of Japanese-Malaysian postcolonial relations, cultural values of the Malaysians and Japanese, and so on) that are perhaps not easily relatable to other contexts. Having said this, qualitative research is not always geared towards generalisability but rather towards contextual intricacies and nuances.

While most of the extant literature on expatriation has examined largely contemporary factors, this paper explores the impact of more historical events on the expatriate experience. Although such events may seem distant from an expatriate's current activities, this study suggests that in certain circumstances, they may have a lingering effect.

While the expatriation literature has explored cultural adjustment in considerable depth, it has largely overlooked the influence of cultural diversity in an expatriate’s home country. This study aims to address this shortcoming by investigating how home-country cultural diversity affects expatriate adjustment.

This study adopts a qualitative, inductive approach based on semi-structured interviews with a small number of Malaysian managers on international assignment in the Greater Brisbane area of Queensland, Australia.

The two key and related observations from the interviews are that, firstly, the existence of sizeable and profoundly distinct ethnic groups in an expatriate’s home country serves as an aid to successful adjustment, as it enhances cross-cultural understanding and communicative skills. Secondly, the positive effects of home-country cultural diversity are particularly felt by expatriates from ethnic minority groups in the home country due to their in-group and out-group interactions at home as well as their additional linguistic arsenal.

Multiculturalism is a polarising and contentious topic in the public debate in many countries around the world, frequently used for differing political purposes. But in a globalising world, it is unlikely to disappear any time soon, making it imperative for academic research to develop a better understanding of the phenomenon, from as many angles as possible, including from an international business perspective.

This study addresses an under-researched topic, namely how cultural diversity within an expatriate’s home country impacts adjustment. From the findings, this study also introduces a theoretical model for use in future research.

This paper aims to explore the internationalisation of service-sector small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from an emerging market, focussing on the entry modes, psychic distance, business network, internationalisation challenges and capabilities of business training and consultancy firms from Malaysia.

A multiple-case study approach is adopted, and 31 in-depth interviews were conducted with the top management and executives from eight business training and consultation (BT&C) firms in Malaysia. The Uppsala model is used for theoretical guidance to analyse the internationalisation of the firms.

The results suggest that psychic distance, business network and business capabilities influence the internationalisation of BT&C firms from Malaysia. However, the discussion of entry modes in the framework of service internationalisation does not accurately explain the internationalisation of the studied firms.

This study is a qualitative research based on the experiences of eight firms. The basis of this study is inadequate for scientific generalisation. Quantitative research should be conducted in the future to provide a statistical test and empirical results. This study is concerned with the emerging-market context. The study could be expanded to include more industries and other emerging markets in the future.

This study explored the application of internationalisation theories to the BT&C industry in an emerging market, with particular emphasis on firms’ entry modes, psychic distance, business networks, international challenges and capabilities. This study also highlighted some of the key internationalisation challenges facing emerging market small- and medium-sized enterprises (EMSMEs), underlining the importance of business networks and capabilities.

Nevertheless, this study shares useful and practical discoveries concerning the internationalisation process of BT&C firms from the emerging market, focussing on entry modes, psychic distance, business network, the challenges faced and the required capabilities.

The study provides new insights into service internationalisation in SMEs from an emerging market. The application of internationalisation theories to the BT&C industry in an emerging market is analysed.

The data for this case were obtained primarily through a series of in-person interviews in Penang between the authors and Pete Browning (a pseudonym) from 2017 to early 2019. The authors also consulted secondary data sources, including publicly available material on BMax and “Company B”.

This case examines a key decision, or set of decisions, in the life of a small- to medium-sized management consultancy group, namely, whether they might expand their operations in Southeast Asia, and if so, where. These key decisions came in the wake of their having already established a very modest scale presence there, with an operating base on the island of Penang just off the north western coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The initial establishment of a Southeast Asian branch had been somewhat spontaneous in nature – a former colleague of one of the two managing partners in the USA was on the ground in Malaysia and available: he became the local partner in the firm. But the firm had now been eyeing expansion within the region, with three markets under particular consideration (Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand) and a further two (Vietnam and China) also seen as possible targets, though at a more peripheral level. The questions facing the decision makers were “was it time they expand beyond Malaysia?” and “if so, where?”

This case could be used effectively in undergraduate courses in international business. The key concepts on which the case focuses are the factors affecting market entry, particularly the choice of market and the assessment of potential attractiveness such markets offer.

The purpose of this paper is to show how the theory of researcher positionality can help international business researchers and human resource managers clarify the ideal position of the expatriate in relation to host country nationals (HCNs), so that selection and cross-cultural training (CCT) can be more targeted and assignment specific.

This is a conceptual paper linking positionality theory and the methodological practice of reflexivity from ethnographic research and other social sciences to the research of expatriate acculturation.

This conceptual paper outlines theory from ethnographic research that, when applied to expatriate selection and acculturation, increases the field’s understanding of the expatriate’s position in relation to HCNs. This theory practically informs selection criteria, CCT programs and support plans as they pertain to specific international assignments. A novel theoretical model is then proposed.

This paper is conceptual in nature. Empirical research is needed to test the value of this paper and its proposed positionality gap model (PGM) model.

The research and conceptual model proposed in this paper has the potential to improve how multinational enterprise (MNE) managers conceptualize expatriate assignments, expatriate selections and expatriate CCT leading to more effective work and value added to stakeholders.

The PGM model proposed in this paper highlights the value of HCN’s culture and preferences as input for selection and CCT of an expatriate worker and contributes to the body of literature that views expatriation with multiple stakeholder perspectives.

This paper’s originality stems from the application of a well-understood phenomenon in ethnographic research and other social sciences to expatriate acculturation. The common practice of reflexology and theory of positionality can clarify the ideal position for an expatriate in relation to the MNE and HCNs for both researchers and practitioners.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between ethical leadership and the quality of the manager-subordinate relationship, as well as the moderating effect of female employees’ psychological empowerment on this relationship.

This is quantitative research in which an online questionnaire was distributed to female subordinates from multinational enterprises in Malaysia (n = 120). A partial least square is used for analysis in this research.

The findings confirm a strong positive correlation between all the seven ethical leadership dimensions and the quality of manager-subordinate relationship (leader member exchange). However, the moderating effect of psychological empowerment was found to be insignificant for two of the seven dimensions of ethical leadership.

This study contributes to highlighting new perspectives of women empowerment. Moreover, it also uncovers psychological factor that influences manager-subordinate relationship using cognitive evaluation theory. The seven dimensions of ethical leadership have not been tested in the past studies (only identified, not tested separately).