How is social capital formed and leveraged in international careers? A systematic review and future research directions

The social capital that employees form on international assignments can have important implications for organizational outcomes. However, despite valuable prior research efforts, how and under which conditions international employees’ social capital is formed and translated into benefits for individuals and organizations remains unclear. To address this shortcoming, we employ a systematic literature review methodology and analyze papers on social capital in international careers published in peer-reviewed journals between 1973 and 2022. We integrate our findings into a framework that depicts the micro-, meso-, and macrolevel antecedents that influence the formation of social capital and describe the functional and dimensional features constituting international employees’ (IEs’) social capital. Our review thus outlines how IEs’ social capital is translated into individual and organizational outcomes as well as how it is contingent on several conditions. Based on our proposed framework, we conclude this paper with several suggestions for future research as well as certain practical suggestions for organizations.