An Investigation of Expatriate Adjustment and Performance

To understand the effects of host country nationals (HCNs) on expatriate effectiveness, we draw upon social capital theory to develop and test a model of expatriate adjustment and performance. This social capital model predicts that social networks and access to information and resources ( opportunities), trust and norm of reciprocity ( motivation) and HCNs' intercultural competencies and reliable task performance ( abilities) have direct effects on expatriate adjustment and performance. To test the proposed model, we conducted a field study and collected data from 147 expatriate managers working in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. The social capital variables were strong predictors of expatriate performance but were relatively weak for adjustment. Having adopted a new perspective for examining expatriate effectiveness, this research offers some new directions for future studies in expatriate research as well as in social capital.