Expatriation in Chinese MNEs in Africa: an agenda for research

Abstract

Despite increasing Chinese MNE activity in emerging countries, there is a paucity of studies and critical analysis of expatriate management in Emerging Market Multinational Enterprises (EMMNEs).This article provides a needed critical evaluation of the literature and research, and identifies an agenda for research. Chinese firms’ expatriation policies and practices should be viewed differently to those of Western firms. This has implications for policy regarding state MNEs in African countries, and individual Chinese MNE expatriation policies. There are potential synergies between Chinese and African cultural values, moderated by a low importance of the knowledge transfer role of Chinese expatriates. This may be moderated by the relational nature of career development including expatriate selection and a low emphasis on pre-departure training. The main contribution of this work is to inform empirical research at organizational level by making explicit differences in Chinese MNE engagement in Africa to Western MNEs, how this may influence differences in expatriate policy and practices, and why this may contribute a different perspective to the extant expatriation literature.

Keywords:

• Expatriation
• emerging market multinational enterprises
• China in Africa, international HRM, knowledge transfer, modernization theory