Abstract:

Prior research has highlighted the obstructive rather than motive role of cross-cultural stressors in expatriate success. The present research attempts to explore the reasons why Chinese multinational companies (MNCs) succeed or fail in international assignments. Based on the stress-motivation-behavior- outcome framework, this research focuses on the antecedents and outcomes of proactive behaviors of expatriates. To be specific, by drawing on self-determination theory and job demand-resource (control) model, our research links challenge-hindrance stressors to proactive behaviors of expatriates. Further, the research examines the motivation mechanisms of how these two different types of stressors influence proactive behaviors, and identifies the boundary conditions of these mechanisms from the perspectives of organization and job resources. In addition, our research also explores the impacts of proactive behaviors on multi-level expatriate outcomes as well as identifies the boundary conditions for such impacts. Our work underscores the strategic value of proactive behaviors in the uncertain and complex cross-cultural context, and entails significant practical implications for MNCs to select, train, motivate, and retain internationalized talents.

Key words: expatriate, challenge stressor, hindrance stressor, proactive behavior, expatriate success