Purpose

This paper investigates whether career capital (CC) development abroad, expatriate type, career type and career stage affect expatriates' career success in terms of perceived marketability and the number of promotions.

Design/methodology/approach

The study presents findings from a 2020 follow-up study among 327 expatriates, including assigned expatriates (AEs) (n = 117) and self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) (n = 220), who worked abroad in 2015 and 2016. Among that group, 186 had continued their international career, while 141 had repatriated. Structural equation modeling with robust maximum likelihood estimation was used to test this study's hypotheses. MPlus 8.6 software supported the analysis.

Findings

The study outlines that CC developed abroad positively impacts perceived marketability and the number of promotions. Second, repatriates reported a greater degree of perceived marketability than those continuing an international career. Career type did not predict the number of promotions. The expatriate type did not influence any of the career success measures. Finally, expatriates in their late-career stage did not achieve a similar level of career success as those in other career stages.

Research limitations/implications

All the expatriates were university-educated Finnish engineers and business professionals, and the career benefits of expatriation could differ for different sample groups. The study calls for more context-sensitive global careers research. The findings have positive implications for self-guided career actors considering working abroad. Organizations could focus more of their global talent attraction, management and career efforts on SIEs.

Originality/value

To analyze the impacts of these four antecedents on the career success of expatriates, the authors cooperated with two Finnish labor unions in 2020 to explore the careers of 327 expatriates, having surveyed the same group in 2015/2016. Such follow-up studies are not very common in expatriation research since it is difficult to keep track of expatriates who change locations and employers.

中文翻译：

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外派人员的职业成功：职业资本、外派类型、职业类型和职业阶段的影响

目的

本文研究了国外职业资本（CC）发展、外派人员类型、职业类型和职业阶段是否会影响外派人员在感知市场性和晋升数量方面的职业成功。

设计/方法论/途径

该研究展示了 2020 年对 327 名外籍人士进行的后续研究的结果，其中包括 2015 年和 2016 年在国外工作的指定外籍人士 (AE)（n = 117）和自发外籍人士 (SIE)（n = 220）。其中 186 人继续其国际职业生涯，141 人回国。具有鲁棒最大似然估计的结构方程模型被用来检验本研究的假设。MPlus 8.6 软件支持该分析。

发现

该研究概述了国外发展的 CC 对感知市场能力和促销数量产生积极影响。其次，归国人员比那些继续从事国际职业的人更具有市场意识。职业类型并不能预测晋升的次数。外籍人士类型不会影响任何职业成功衡量标准。最后，处于职业生涯后期阶段的外籍人士并没有取得与其他职业阶段相似的职业成功水平。

研究局限性/影响

所有外派人员都是受过大学教育的芬兰工程师和商业专业人士，不同样本群体的外派职业福利可能有所不同。该研究呼吁进行更加情境敏感的全球职业研究。研究结果对考虑出国工作的自我引导职业演员具有积极影响。组织可以将其全球人才吸引、管理和职业努力更多地集中在社会企业上。

原创性/价值

为了分析这四个因素对外籍人士职业成功的影响，作者在 2020 年与两个芬兰工会合作，对 327 名外籍人士的职业生涯进行了调查，并在 2015/2016 年对同一群体进行了调查。此类后续研究在外派研究中并不常见，因为很难跟踪更换地点和雇主的外派人员。