Intercultural Knowledge Sharing Between Expatriates and Host-country Nationals in Vietnam: A Practice-based Study of Communicative Relations and Power Dynamics

Expatriates’ Embeddedness and Host Country Withdrawal Intention: A Social Exchange Perspective

In this study, we conceptualize the thus far little explored relationship between expatriate and host country as a form of social exchange governed by the norm of reciprocity. Drawing from social exchange theory and our analysis of 451 self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) living and working in the United Arab Emirates, we examine whether the degree of SIEs’ career and community embeddedness explains their host country withdrawal intention via enhanced perceived institutional trust and a more tolerant attitude toward workplace discrimination. Our results provide general support for our theoretical model and most of our hypotheses. In this way, our article makes three contributions. First, it suggests a novel way to conceptualize the relationship between SIEs and host country as a form of social exchange. Second, it differentiates between two dimensions of embeddedness and explicates how the two contribute to SIEs’ intentions to stay in the host country. Finally, the analysis theorizes and empirically tests two previously little explored mechanisms of enhanced institutional trust and a more tolerant attitude toward workplace discrimination through which SIEs’ host country embeddedness influences their host country withdrawal intentions.

Reciprocal knowledge sharing: exploring professional–cultural knowledge sharing between expatriates and local nurses

Purpose

This study aims to explore how professional–cultural knowledge is reciprocally shared between experienced expatriates and novice local nurses. To address this, the situated learning in practice lens is combined with social exchange lens.

Design/methodology/approach

An interpretive case study methodology enabled an exploratory approach into the knowledge-sharing practices between experienced expatriates and novice local nurses in Saudi Arabia.

Findings

Insights gained in the fieldwork suggest that professional–cultural knowledge sharing (KS) often occurred through three primary practices, namely, developing a professional–cultural meaning, forming clinical competency development opportunities and intervening in unfamiliar professional–cultural situations. In addition, two micro-level conditions shaped the reciprocity of professional–cultural KS practices between expatriate and local nurses, which were individual differences and situational conditions.

Originality/value

This study advances and improves the understanding of two intertwined but rarely studied aspects of knowledge-sharing practices. The exploratory lens sought and gained rich insights into the knowledge-sharing practices between experienced and novice individuals and expatriate and local individuals.

Chinese expatriates working with African partners: power struggles and knowledge hiding

Purpose

The study explores African partners' experiences regarding Chinese expatriates' knowledge control practices in 29 Sino-African joint ventures in 12 countries. It provides insights into power dynamics and knowledge transfer (KT) from African partners' perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

The qualitative paper mobilized semi-structured interviews with Africans who worked with Chinese expatriates across Africa. The study focused on understanding the experiences of African partners when collaborating with their Chinese expatriate colleagues on assignments in joint ventures (JVs) in Africa.

Findings

Chinese expatriates employed five tactics, as described by African partners, to control knowledge based on power, behaviors and knowledge type. Particularly, through the lens of unofficial power, this study explains knowledge hiding tactics between knowledge-holding Chinese expatriates and host country knowledge-seeking locals. A new dimension of authority-based knowledge hiding is discovered.

Originality/value

The paper brings new insights into the analysis of power (official and unofficial) boundaries regarding knowledge control mechanisms in joint venture collaborations between employees from China and Africa. Unofficial power appeared as a major leverage for expatriates in monopolizing their strategic knowledge. The study recommends mobilizing African diaspora and repatriates from China to improve KT for Africa.

Health-care information technologies for dispersed knowledge management

Purpose

The health-care industry has multiple stakeholders, with knowledge dispersed among clinicians, experts and patients and their families. As the adoption of health-care information technologies (HITs) depends on multiple factors, this study aims to uncover the motivators for adopting them.

Design/methodology/approach

The study considers 391 respondents, representing the health-care sector, to evaluate the motivators for adopting HITs for better-dispersed knowledge management. The authors analyze the responses using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to identify the actual structure of the factors, followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

Findings

EFA categorized the factors into four classes: quality management; information sharing; strategic governance; and available technological infrastructure. CFA revealed that the strategic governance factor is most predictive of successfully adopting HITs that model the normative pressure of Institutional theory in health-care organizations. These results indicate that, along with considerations of finances, care quality and infrastructure, effective government involvement and policy-making are important for successful HIT adoption.

Practical implications

Results reveal that stakeholders’ motivating factors for HIT adoption in a developed economy like the United Arab Emirates are based on considering HITs as a knowledge management mechanism. These factors may help other nations in HIT implementation and drive valuable innovations in the health-care sector. This research presents the implications for health-care professionals and stakeholders in relation to adopting HITs and their role in knowledge flow for efficient care.

Originality/value

HITs offer an affordable and convenient platform for collaboration among diverse teams in the health-care sector. Apart from this, it helps in facilitating an interactive platform for knowledge creation and transfer for the benefit of users and providers.

Impact of mass collaboration on knowledge sharing process using mediating role of innovation capability

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to determine the impact of mass collaboration on the knowledge-sharing process in the manufacturing sector of Iraq in the mediation of innovation capability.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is quantitative in nature in which the data has been gathered from the primary sources of information through a survey questionnaire from 225 respondents. The structural equation structural equation modeling technique has been used to analyze the data along with the path assessment and confirmatory factor analysis confirmatory factor analysis.

Findings

The results of this study determined that in the context of the interactive system and mutual adjustment, the mediation of innovation capability is partial whereas, in the context of shared understating, the mediation is full. In addition to this, an interactive system and mutual adjustment had a significant effect on the knowledge sharing process, while the shared understanding was determined to have an insignificant effect on the knowledge sharing process.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of this study are limited to the manufacturing sector of Iraq. In addition to this, the study includes a limited sample size which must be increased by future researchers.

Originality/value

This paper ensures originality in the context of Iraq, as the associations tested in this study have not been tested previously considering Iraq.

From Host Country Nationals to Entrepreneurs: Insights from Professional Service Ventures in Vietnam

Working for multinational companies (MNCs) is often viewed as a privilege for host country nationals (HCNs) in emerging economies. This raises the question: Why do HCNs leave their jobs to pursue the hardship of establishing their own business? This article addresses this question by adopting a phenomenon-based approach to study 12 professional service firms in Vietnam. We explore why HCNs initially become entrepreneurs and identify how they make this transition. We reveal several idiosyncratic motivations and identify four types of migration pathways: MNC returnee, committed hybrid, transitional hybrid, and direct spin-off. Our findings address the shortcomings of the existing HCNs literature that centers on MNCs’ view and employee entrepreneurship literature that overlooks the context of emerging markets. We find evidence that institutional voids often promote, rather than suppress, entrepreneurship in emerging markets. Importantly, by taking a local perspective, our findings help MNCs increase their awareness that in the fast-growing market of Vietnam, a brain drain might occur as a result of HCNs becoming entrepreneurs.

Humanistic leadership in Thailand: a mix of indigenous and global aspects using a cross-cultural perspective

Purpose

To explore how leadership behavior in Thailand relates to humanistic leadership through indigenous and cross-cultural lenses.

Design/methodology/approach

Analogically based and semi-structured interviews were used. The primary focus was on factors associated with expatriate success in leading Thais in a Thai context. As such, the main sample included 24 expatriates. Two local Thai leaders were also interviewed. Qualitative interviews were analyzed inductively using NVivo.

Findings

Five interrelated themes emerged from the data: guiding, bridging, emotionally supporting, socializing and indirectly communicating. These themes relate to Asian holistic thinking, Thai culture and humanistic management. Evidence for humanistic leadership was found, albeit in culture-specific ways.

Research limitations/implications

Researchers may benefit from studying local, indigenous leadership practices and determining if and how they fit etic concepts such as humanistic leadership. Limitations of this study include a small sample from only one country.

Practical implications

To be successful, leaders should engage in humanistic leadership practices that fit the Thai context. Human resource departments may wish to focus their talent recruitment, selection and development on these behaviors.

Originality/value

This paper adds to the nascent literature on humanistic leadership by providing an indigenous as well as cross-cultural lens to understanding humanistic leadership in the context of Thailand.

Expatriates as catalysts: what and how Vietnamese locals learn from self-initiated expatriates

Purpose

In an era when expatriates are increasingly used as strategic conduits for developing capabilities in local business units, we identify what and how host-country nationals in a developing economy learn from self-initiated expatriates whose assignments focus on organizational capacity development objectives.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi-structured interviews with 23 Vietnamese host-country nationals rendered a sample of 138 learning episodes for qualitative content analysis. Respondents were employed in Vietnamese government and non-government organizations and worked closely with multiple self-initiated expatriates in a variety of professional contexts.

Findings

Host-country nationals develop a broad array of primarily “soft” capabilities. This learning is typically informal and vicarious in nature. While learning tends to arise incidentally through day-to-day activities, host-country nationals facilitate this by structuring their formal and informal interactions with expatriates to maximize their learning potential.

Research limitations/implications

While the study's exploratory design and specific context limit the transferability of our results, analysis of a sample of specific learning episodes allowed us to map “hotspots” of particular activities and contexts in which certain learning outcomes transpired.

Practical implications

Our results put into sharp focus the overlooked roles of expatriates as models (to be observed), mentors (to be consulted) and collaborators (to be partnered with) who can catalyse valued learning opportunities for local colleagues.

Originality/value

We provide a comprehensive account of the nature and extent of informal learning that host-country nationals accumulate during interactions with expatriates, and so contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the experiences of host-country nationals in international business.

Global human resources: a key to mission accomplishment

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors needed for the development of global human resources for leadership assignments in foreign subsidiaries. The paper aims to find an answer to enhance expatriate mission accomplishment rate at subsidiaries abroad.

Design/methodology/approach

This study examines the development of global human resources. In-depth face-to-face interviews were employed to collect data from eight senior HR managers in three financial institutions in Taiwan, while data from 28 expatriates in the overseas subsidiaries were obtained from asynchronous e-mail interviews. Conventional content analysis was used to code categories directly from the data.

Findings

The results of the study revealed that organizational policies do not focus on developing global human resources. To portray a global image, the focus is on staffing overseas subsidiaries with foreigners and Taiwanese that can speak English. Development to prepare staff for expatriation is limited to pre-departure training that focused mainly on language and cultural awareness training. However, organizational support during expatriation and repatriation is important. Expatriates view security briefing crucial and familiarization visit helps them to decide whether or not to accept expatriation. Organizational policies favor those that were not expatriated in terms of career progression deter managers from accepting international assignments.

Originality/value

It highlights some best practices in developing global human resources taking into consideration the herd mentality and social perspective. Social support, social learning and social capital are instrumental in developing global human resources as these hasten cultural adjustment.

A process model of how interpersonal interaction leads to effectiveness of the expatriate-host country national relationship

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop and present a conceptual model of expatriate–host country national (HCN) interaction that explains how organizations can help increase cooperation between expatriates and HCNs by facilitating interaction between expatriates and HCNs.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors draw upon intergroup contact theory to develop a process model which describes the processes critical to “the effectiveness of the expatriate–HCN relationship,” from both the expatriate and HCN perspectives.

Findings

HCN–expatriate interactions are critical to the success of both expatriates and HCNs, but such interactions should not be left to chance – instead, organizations should intervene and facilitate conditions that foster such interactions, which can lead to better understanding and appreciation of each other. This would ensure that both expatriates and HCNs have a better understanding of the critical role played by the other party, and thus be willing to offer relevant and necessary support at the right time.

Practical implications

Prior research reveals that most expatriate–HCN interactions are left to the individuals themselves and are thus subject to stereotypes, misperceptions and even unfulfilled expectations. By intervening in this process, and providing relevant information about each other to both parties, organizations can facilitate higher quality interactions, help reduce or remove stereotypes and increase the chances that both parties receive required and relevant information on a timely basis from each other.

Originality/value

The authors specifically discuss how interpersonal expatriate–HCN interactions allow the two parties to become acquainted with each other, when the effects of such interactions can be strengthened, and what the resultant effects are in terms of expatriate–HCN relationships.