Reasons to expatriate and work outcomes of self-initiated expatriates

Purpose ‐ Through a large-scale quantitative study, this paper aims to test and extend the qualitative findings of Richardson and McKenna and of Osland on reasons to expatriate and relate them to work outcomes. Design/methodology/approach ‐ Examining how reasons to expatriate may affect work outcomes, quantitative data was collected from self-initiated expatriate academics from 60 countries employed in 35 universities in five northern European countries. Findings ‐ Results mostly indicated support for the proposed hypotheses. The most striking finding was the apparently uniformly destructive influence of behaviour associated with escape from one's previous life as a reason to expatriate on all of the studied work outcomes. Research limitations/implications ‐ The self-developed scales measuring reasons for self-initiated expatriates to expatriate may have been inadequate to capture all relevant aspects of their behavioural intentions and the data from the retrospective type of questioning regarding the original reasons to expatriate may have been biased by memory effects. Practical implications ‐ Any organization recruiting self-initiated expatriates may want to inquire about the reasons for them to expatriate. Although there may be a plethora of other requirements on job applicants, the findings of this study may be used as contributing to additional hiring criteria. Originality/value ‐ Most of the fast growing literature on business expatriates has focused on organizational expatriates who have been assigned by their parent companies to the foreign location. However, there is much less research on self-initiated expatriates, who themselves have decided to expatriate to work abroad.