Expatriate Staffing Policy for Foreign Affiliates: The Moderating Effects of Host Country and International Experiences

This study explores the question of under what conditions Japanese MNCs appoint parent country nationals to foreign affiliates. In addition to simple linear relationships, we examine moderating effects of the two kinds of experiences: international and host country experiences. Using data on 519 foreign affiliates of 26 Japanese MNCs, we found that the global integration imperative, the local market orientation, the country risk, and the unavailability of competent local managers affected expatriation decisions of Japanese MNCs. The results also revealed that these main effects were moderated by MNC’s international and host country experiences.