Expatriation willingness in Asia: the importance of host-country characteristics and employees' role commitments

Abstract

Expatriation willingness is an important predictor for expatriate success. This study examines the direct and moderating effects of host-country characteristics (economic level and language) and employee's role commitments (work and family) on expatriation willingness. The survey results of 151 married Korean employees show that host-country characteristics and occupational role commitment have direct effects on employees' expatriation willingness and that host-country economic level interacts with occupational role commitment. However, unlike prior research that is based in Western countries, we find that marital role commitment has no effect. We also made another noteworthy finding: employees who have children are particularly eager to go abroad. The interpretations of these findings are provided in light of the extant literature.