Creating and leveraging social capital in international careers: A systematic review and future research directions

Friederike Mathey*, Evgenia I. Lysova, S.N. Khapova

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to ConferencePaperAcademic

Abstract

Scholars have long concurred that employees build social capital during international assignments and that this social capital can be leveraged in the form of positive individual and organizational outcomes. However, we lack a clear picture of how and under which conditions the social capital of international employees (IEs) is created and transferred to benefit individuals and their organizations. As a result, in practice, IEs’ social capital often leads to unintended negative consequences for both IEs and multinational corporations (MNCs). To address the identified shortcomings, we systematically review the literature on social capital in international careers published between 1973 and 2020. We develop an integrative framework in which we unravel the antecedents, creation mechanisms and outcomes of IEs’ social capital. Furthermore, we present three conditions that influence the creation of IEs’ social capital: organizational, job and cultural factors. We suggest that IEs’ networking behavior is a mediator of the acquisition of international support networks and conclude with recommendations for future research.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 19 Feb 2020
EventAcademy of Management Careers Division Conference Careers in Context: Theorizing in and About Turbulent Times - WU Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Duration: 14 Feb 202015 Feb 2020

Conference

ConferenceAcademy of Management Careers Division Conference Careers in Context: Theorizing in and About Turbulent Times
Country/TerritoryAustria
CityVienna
Period14/02/2015/02/20

Keywords

  • expatriation
  • international employees
  • social capital
  • social networks
  • international careers
  • Multinational corporations (MNCs)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Creating and leveraging social capital in international careers: A systematic review and future research directions'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this