Managing Expatriation Willingness:
Biculturalism, Cultural Intelligence,
Ambiguity Tolerance & Cultural Distance
Examined
Ward Kroft
10048006 June 30th 2014 Academic year 2013-2014 Semester 2, block 3Supervisor: Mw. drs. P.A. Vromans Bachelor Thesis Business Studies Faculty of Economics and Business University of Amsterdam
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Abstract
Selecting an expatriate nowadays is more about finding anyone, than it is about finding someone with the right set of competences that are necessary to be successful on a foreign assignment (Selmer, 2001). The aim of this study is to gain more knowledge on expatriation willingness in order to help companies ultimately find employees with the right set of competences. It examines cultural intelligence, ambiguity tolerance and biculturalism, combined with the moderating effect of cultural distance. Analyzing a sample of 92 Dutch students and recent graduates showed that cultural intelligence, ambiguity tolerance and biculturalism are all positively related to expatriation willingness. However, these relationships for cultural intelligence and ambiguity tolerance apply only when the
destination country is culturally dissimilar. As expatriate performance research suggests that that these competences are crucial for expatriate performance, regardless of country of destination, the results of this research stress the importance of training ambiguity tolerance and particularly cultural intelligence, prior to sending an employee on an expatriate
assignment. This study also identifies biculturals as a potentially interesting source to broaden the expatriate candidate pool, although future research should examine this more extensively.
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Contents
1 Introduction ... 4
2 Theoretical Framework ... 6
2.1 Willingness and Performance of the Expatriate ... 6
2.2 Cultural Intelligence ... 7
2.3 Tolerance for Ambiguity ... 10
2.4 Biculturalism ... 12
2.5 Cultural Distance and Psychic Distance ... 14
2.6 Cultural Distance as a Moderator ... 15
3 Research Design and Methodology ... 17
3.1 Procedure ... 17 3.2 Sample ... 18 3.3 Measures ... 19 4 Results ... 21 4.1 Correlation Analysis ... 21 4.2 Regression Analyses ... 24
4.2.1 Predictors of Expatriation Willingness ... 24
4.2.2 Cultural Intelligence as a Mediator ... 26
4.2.3 The Moderating Effect of Cultural Distance ... 27
4.3 Repeated Measures ANOVA analysis ... 29
5 Discussion... 30
5.1 Main Research Findings ... 30
5.2 Limitations ... 33
5.3 Managerial Implications ... 35
5.4 Scientific Implications ... 36
6 Conclusions ... 37
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1 Introduction
The globalization of firms has led to a growth in the number of international assignments of employees (Bonache and Brewster, 2001). In the future it is expected that companies continue expanding their global footprint, which will involve moving employees on an international basis (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2013). This change to a global workplace expands the number of capabilities demanded from employees. Research has defined this extra set of capabilities as intercultural competence, which refers to the ability to function effectively in another culture (Bird, Mendenhall, Stevens and Oddou, 2010).
However, not every expatriate is able to cope with the challenges faced in foreign
assignments. In fact, research shows that satisfaction among expatriates is often low, leading to many international assignments being unsuccessful (Borstorff, Harris, Feild and Giles, 1997; Johnson, Kristof‐Brown and Klein, 2003). This low level of satisfaction is often the result of the inability of expatriates to adapt to the culture of the host country (Selmer, 2001). The lack of intercultural competence in the workforce starts with higher education institutions not putting enough emphasis on intercultural education (Fabregas-Janeiro, Kelsey and
Robinson, 2011). All of this urges the need for more research in the area of creating intercultural competent employees that perform well in international assignments.
Previous research in this domain has focused on expatriate selection and adjustment (Aryee, Chay and Chew, 1996). Poor adjustment leads to lower levels of performance and therefore many factors influencing cross-cultural adjustment have been identified
(Holopainen and Björkman, 2005). However, perceived problems with foreign assignments have led to companies having trouble finding employees that are willing to take on these assignments in the first place (Borstorff et al., 1997; Mol, Born, Willemsen, Van der Molen and Derous, 2009). Selecting an expatriate nowadays is more about finding anyone, than it is about finding someone with the right set of competences that are necessary to be successful on a foreign assignment (Selmer, 2001).
Therefore, in more recent literature on expatriation there is more emphasis on how to increase receptivity to expatriation. With an average cost of premature return of more than $100.000, unsuccessful expatriation can be very costly for companies (Black, Mendenhall and Oddou, 1991). To be able to select the right candidate for an expatriate assignment, companies need to make sure they are able to choose from an adequately sized pool of qualified candidates that are willing to take on such an assignment (Mol et al., 2009).
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Expatriation willingness is defined as the willingness to work and live abroad for a temporary period (Mol et al., 2009). Just like in the selection and adjustment phase, research on willingness to expatriate has also focused on many different influencers. Research on employee concerns about international assignments includes issues with location, work/life balance, and financial and career concerns. Some of the many specific influencers identified are: age, education, race, gender, type of work, career ambition, attitude towards moving, job tenure, marital status, having children, community links, openness to change, and previous international experience (Dickmann, Doherty, Mills and Brewster, 2008). Mol et al. (2009) conducted extensive research on explanatory variables and willingness to expatriate and found that intercultural sensitivity, cultural flexibility and ambiguity tolerance were most strongly related to willingness to expatriate. Other studies emphasize on the importance of the country of destination and its influence on expatriation willingness (Aryee, Chay and Chew, 1996; Lowe, Downes and Kroeck, 1999, Shenkar, 2001).
The aim of this study is to gain more knowledge on expatriation willingness in order to help companies ultimately find employees with the right set of competences to become a successful expatriate (i.e. broadening the expatriate candidate pool). As there are plenty of variables influencing expatriation willingness, such as marital status and childbearing for example, this research will focus on variables that affect intercultural competence, such as intercultural sensitivity, cultural flexibility and ambiguity tolerance for example, and how these relate to expatriation willingness (Dickmann et al, 2008). Companies can decide to train these competences (i.e. these variables can be altered), making these variables more
interesting to examine for managerial implications. Therefore, this research includes the following topics.
First of all, it will examine the relationship between biculturalism and willingness to expatriate. As will be discussed later, research suggests that biculturals are better at dealing with cultural differences. This study will investigate how biculturalism relates to expatriation willingness and how their ability of dealing with cultural differences affects this. This should indicate whether biculturals are more interesting for globalizing companies than
non-biculturals.
Secondly, this research will examine how cultural intelligence (CQ), a relatively new and under exposed possible predictor, and ambiguity tolerance (AT), a thoroughly researched predictor, influence willingness to expatriate. These two competences are dynamic, implying that they can be obtained through training. This study will try to find out whether or not
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companies should or should not invest in training these competences. Both will be discussed in more detail in the next section.
Finally, this research will examine the role of the destination of the foreign assignment on receptivity towards it. Not only will it investigate the direct relationship between cultural distance (CD) and willingness to expatriate, but it will also investigate how both the influence of CQ and the influence of AT on willingness to expatriate are moderated by CD. If so, this would imply that the relationship of CQ and AT with willingness to expatriate is different when there is low CD involved, compared to high CD between the employee’s own culture and the culture of the country of destination. Since research suggests that culturally similar countries are not easier to adjust to when expectations are not managed in the right way (Vromans, Van Engen and Mol, 2013), it is interesting to investigate this moderating effect of CD. An individual with low AT, who does not perceive much ambiguity in a culturally similar country and as a result shows high receptivity towards such an assignment, will therefore only after expatriation become aware of the real level of ambiguity and find itself not being able to cope with this, resulting in higher chances of premature repatriation. This research will help companies find out what role CD plays in the expatriate assignment decision making process.
2 Theoretical Framework
2.1 Willingness and Performance of the Expatriate
As mentioned earlier, expatriate research is divided in two areas. One focuses on expatriation willingness, the other focuses on expatriate selection and adjustment. Even though this division can seem definite, for managerial reasons it is important to recognize both. Employees need to be both willing and qualified to go on an expatriate assignment.
The Attraction, Selection and Attrition (ASA) model from Schneider (1987, p. 441) states that attraction to, selection by and attrition from organizations may result in a particular type of employee. This suggests that homogeneity exists among individuals who are attracted to the organization, those selected by the organization or those retained by the organization (Bretz, Ash and Dreher, 1989). Mol et al. (2009) suggest that the same is true for prospective expatriates. They state that “those who perceive themselves to be successful in a future expatriate assignment, will be more likely to self-select (or demonstrate expatriation
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willingness) and those who do not, will be more likely to deselect (or demonstrate expatriation unwillingness)” (p. 5).
The social cognitive career (SCC) theory has a somewhat similar explanation of how individuals form career interests, make choices and achieve educational and occupational pursuits. It proposes that “an individual’s personal agency, as well as other personal factors (e.g. demographic factors), help explain the development of career interests” (Tharenou, 2003, p.491). Personal agency includes self-efficacy, which refers to an individual’s judgment of its capabilities to reach goals (i.e. “can I do this?”), and outcome expectations, which involve the perceived consequences of exhibiting certain behavior (i.e. “if I do this, what will happen?”) (Lent, Brown and Hackett, 1994). Tharenou (2003) argues that if an individual has low self-efficacy for international work (i.e. the extent of one’s belief in one’s own ability to live and work in countries with different cultures from their own), he or she will avoid difficult situations, because he or she expects that these will exceed their coping abilities. An individual high on self-efficacy for international work will judge itself as very capable of dealing with difficult environments.
Since dealing with different cultures is central to an expatriate experience, it is likely that a significant part of this self-reflection and selection is in the cultural domain. As will be discussed later, CQ and AT, both part of this cultural domain, are considered to be crucial competences in a foreign cultural environment (Schaffer et al., 2006). These two theories try to explain how expatriation willingness and expatriate performance relate to each other. They argue that since high CQ and AT are positively related to expatriate performance, they will also be positively related to expatriation willingness. As a result, this research, although emphasis is on expatriation willingness, will constantly keep expatriate performance in mind to test these two theories.
2.2 Cultural Intelligence
Research on individual capabilities for intercultural effectiveness is scattered (Ang et al., 2007). Also within expatriate research, the Five Factor Model (which describes an individual’s personality by looking at five personality traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism) has proven to be a good predictor of successful expatriation (Mol et al., 2009). Since this model is considered to be too general and an individual’s scores on the five different personality traits can hardly be altered, research has focused on more expatriate specific predictors.
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Intercultural sensitivity is one of these predictors and this has been researched extensively and according to Jordan and Cartwright (1998) cannot be left out in the
assessment of suitability for expatriate selection (Bhawuk and Brislin, 1992). It is defined as “an individual’s ability to develop a positive emotion towards understanding and appreciating cultural differences that promotes appropriate and effective behavior in intercultural
communication” (Chen and Starosta, 2000, p. 409). Bennett (1986) developed the popular Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS); a continuum ranging from a denial phase, where one denies the existence of cultural differences, to an integration phase, where one integrates cultural differences within one’s personality. Jordan and Cartwright (1998) state that intercultural sensitivity may be interchangeable with a number of other terms given to this kind of competence. These include intercultural cognitive competence, flexible attributions, cultural flexibility, cultural adaptability, intercultural effectiveness and cultural empathy.
The relationship between all of these terms similar to intercultural sensitivity and expatriate performance has been well-researched. The level of cultural knowledge that expatriates have about the host country seems to be positively related to their performance (Paik and Sohn, 2004). Schaffer et al. (2006) found support for a positive relationship between cultural flexibility and expatriate cultural and work adjustment. They suggest that culturally flexible employees have access to more varied solutions to the problems that undoubtedly occur in foreign assignments. They also found a negative relationship between ethnocentrism, which is part of the DMIS and refers to the concept of seeing one’s own culture as right and those of others as wrong (Hammer, Bennett and Wiseman, 2003), and expatriate performance. They suggest that ethnocentrism generates feelings of prejudice, mistrust and insecurity which will lead to stronger desires to go back home (Schaffer et al., 2006). Mol et al. (2005) found a direct positive relationship between intercultural sensitivity and expatriate performance. They state that “an expatriate who routinely violates the norms and values of local colleagues, clients and the general public, is unlikely to excel” (Mol et al., 2005, p. 595).
Four years later, Mol et al (2009) found similar relationships concerning willingness to expatriate. They found a direct positive relationship between intercultural sensitivity and receptivity to expatriate, which supported their proposed theory that the ASA model holds true when researching expatriation willingness.
However, more recently a new concept regarding intercultural competence has been developed as a response to the lack of structure within this area of research. This is called
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cultural intelligence (CQ). Ang et al. (2007) define CQ as “an individual’s capability to function and manage effectively in culturally diverse settings” (p. 337). In contrast to the more narrow view of general intelligence, which views intelligence only as the ability to solve problems in an academic setting, it is part of the research on ‘real world’ intelligence, which views intelligence as a much broader concept and focuses on specific domains such as social intelligence, emotional intelligence and practical intelligence (Ang et al., 2007). CQ tries to capture the variety of competences needed in cultural environments worldwide by measuring four different dimensions of CQ (Rose et al., 2010).
The first dimension, metacognitive CQ, is the most related to general intelligence. Metacognitive CQ involves the mental processes an individual uses to acquire and understand cultural knowledge (Ang et al., 2007). It includes a person’s cultural consciousness and awareness and its ability to question cultural assumptions (Rose et al., 2010).
Cognitive CQ, the second dimension, refers to an individual’s knowledge of norms, practices and traditions of different cultures gained from both own experience and education (Rose et al., 2010). “This includes knowledge of the economic, legal and social systems of different cultures and subcultures and knowledge of basic frameworks of cultural values” (Ang et al., 2007, p. 338).
Motivational CQ, the third dimension, goes further than the recognition of cultural differences (Rose et al., 2010). “Motivational CQ reflects the capability to direct attention and energy towards learning about and functioning in situations characterized by cultural differences” (Ang et al., 2007, p. 338). It includes three primary motivators: enhancement, growth and continuality. Enhancement refers to the need to feel good about oneself, growth to the need to challenge and improve oneself, and continuality to continuity and predictability in one’s life (Rose et al., 2010).
The final dimension, behavioral CQ, reflects the ability to exhibit the appropriate verbal and nonverbal communication when interacting with people from different cultures (Ang et al., 2007). When one scores high on behavioral CQ this would suggest one is likely to exhibit culturally appropriate words, tones, gestures and facial expressions (Rose et al., 2010). Ang et al. (2007) argue that this dimension is crucial, because mental capabilities for cultural
understanding must be complemented with the right behavioral capabilities.
Due to the relative newness of CQ, research on this construct is relatively scarce. Nonetheless, CQ is found to be a good predictor of expatriate performance (Abdul Malek and Budhwar, 2013; Ang et al., 2006; 2007; Rose et al., 2010; Templer, Tay and Chandrasekar, 2006). In their research, Ang, Van Dyne and Koh (2006) found that CQ is closely related to
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the Five Factor Model, which in turn is closely related to expatriate performance. Templer et al. (2006) focused on motivational CQ and found that it is has a positive relationship with expatriate performance. Subsequent research by Ang et al. (2007) found positive
relationships between metacognitive and behavioral CQ and expatriate task performance. More recently, Abdul Malek and Budhwar (2013) found direct positive relationships between all dimensions of CQ and expatriate general, interaction and work adjustments. Rose et al. (2010) found similar relationships. These findings all suggest that CQ is a good measure of intercultural competence. It provides evidence that the mental processes an expatriate uses in intercultural situation, the knowledge an expatriate has about cultures, how eager an
expatriate is to learn about and function in different cultures and an expatriate’s ability to communicate with culturally different people combined, is a good predictor of expatriate performance (Abdul Malek and Budhwar, 2013).
Research on CQ in combination with expatriation willingness seems to be absent. As discussed before, the ASA model and the SCC theory suggests that the appropriate
employees select themselves by showing high receptivity towards expatriate assignments. Since prior research provides evidence for a positive relationship between CQ and expatriate performance, this would suggest that employees that score high on CQ would show high receptivity towards foreign assignments. Combining this with the fact that CQ is closely related to the Five Factor Model and expatriate specific predictors such as intercultural sensitivity and cultural flexibility, which are all found to have positive relationships with expatriation willingness, strengthens this suggestion (Ang, Van Dyne and Koh, 2006; Rose et al., 2010). This leads to the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 1: There is a significant positive relationship between CQ and willingness
to Expatriate.
2.3 Tolerance for Ambiguity
Ambiguity tolerance (AT) is considered to be another crucial competence for expatriates (Aycan, 1997). Ambiguity can be described as a perceived insufficient supply of information. Individuals can respond very differently to this phenomenon (McLain, 1993). AT is the extent to which an individual is able to cope with new and ambiguous situations. Being placed in another culture, like an expatriate, can result in interpersonal hostility, frustration and confusion. High tolerance for AT (i.e. responding to ambiguity with minimal discomfort)
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can prevent this from happening and this is therefore considered to be an important asset of an expatriate and crucial to succeed in a cross-cultural transition (Ruben and Kealey, 1979).
Within expatriate research, AT has gotten a lot of attention. It is considered to be closely related to flexibility, which Tucker, Bonial and Lahti (2004) define as “the capability to accept new ideas and see more than one’s own way of approaching and solving problems” (p. 230) and which is considered to be another important asset of an expatriate (Aycan, 1997). Schaffer et al. (2006) state that “flexible expatriates are able to respond more effectively to ambiguous situations” (p. 113). Organ and Greene (1974) found that AT is related to locus of control. They argue that internals (i.e. those who believe that environmental events are within one’s own control) perceive less ambiguity than externals (i.e. those who believe
environmental events are controlled by luck or fate). Chay (1993) found that also
extraversion is positively related to AT. In later research, Aryee, Chay and Chew (1996) state that “extraverts and internals are more able to attract social support and cope with stressful events” (p. 270), which is considered extra useful when on an expatriate assignment.
As a result, much research found evidence for a positive relationship between AT and expatriate performance (Black and Stephens, 1989; Mol et al., 2005; Ruben and Kealey 1979). Avril and Magnini (2007) argue that AT is crucial, because ambiguous situations are inevitable in international assignments and “an expatriate must be able to function in
situations with unclear rules and parameters, and where things do not necessarily make sense” (p. 55). Tolerance for role ambiguity, a more specific kind of ambiguity referring to the lack of clarity of appropriate actions, behaviors and codes of conduct within one’s job, is especially much examined within expatriate research and is found to have a positive
relationship with expatriate performance (Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al., 2005; Shaffer, Harrison and Gilley, 1999; Takeuchi, Yun and Tesluk, 2002). Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al. (2005) state that “role clarity may reduce the ambiguity associated with foreign work surroundings” (p. 260) and increase expatriate performance.
More recently, Mol et al. (2009) argue that AT is not only an important predictor of expatriate performance, but that it also positively affects an employee’s willingness to go on an expatriate assignment. Foreign countries are associated with more ambiguous situations and employees with low AT are therefore not eager to take on an expatriate assignment. They found the same holds true for cultural flexibility, providing some evidence that the ASA model and SCC theory, where the appropriate employees select themselves for an expatriate assignment by showing high receptivity, are applicable within expatriate research. This study therefore hypothesizes the same as Mol et al (2009) did:
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Hypothesis 2: There is a significant positive relationship between ambiguity tolerance
and willingness to expatriate.
2.4 Biculturalism
As some globalizing companies focus on training their employees to become interculturally competent, by developing their CQ and AT for example, others focus on expatriate
candidates who already have such a global mindset (Selmer and Lam, 2004). Third-culture kids and biculturals usually fit this profile.
Third-culture kids are defined by Selmer and Lam (2004) as “individuals who in their childhood have lived in more than one country and hence have been exposed to more than one different culture for a period of time” (p. 431). These individuals are considered to be less attached to any one of these cultures and instead combined these cultures to developed their own culture. As a result, they are found to be more culturally flexible and open-minded towards other cultures and have more respect and tolerance of others. Regarding expatriation they showed to have higher international career preferences and lower settling-down
preferences (Selmer and Lam, 2004). This suggests that third-culture kids would be more willing to take on an expatriate assignment. However, for sampling reasons (i.e. this study samples Dutch students that have been living in the Netherlands for more than 10 years) this study will not include culture kids. Because of the many similarities between third-culture kids and biculturals, for which also similar results have been found, it will focus on the latter.
Individuals that can be described as bicultural are defined by Benet‐Martínez and Haritatos (2005) as individuals that have internalized more than one culture. LaFromboise, Coleman and Gerton (1993) define a bicultural more specifically as “an individual who lives at the juncture between two cultures and can lay a claim to belonging to both cultures, either by being of mixed racial heritage or born in one culture and raised in a second” (p. 395). “It is the state in which individuals maintain their distinctive cultures, including values, attitudes, customs, beliefs and habits while simultaneously interacting and learning from those of other cultures” (Bell and Harrison, 1996, p.49). As a result, biculturals are considered to have high bicultural competence, meaning that they are good at dealing with acculturation (i.e. adopting the beliefs and behaviors of another culture) (Bell and Harrison, 1996). As Bell and Harrison (1996) elaborate: “Dimensions of bicultural competence include: knowledge of both culture’s
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beliefs and values (general cultural awareness); positive attitudes toward both cultural groups (acceptance); confidence that one can live effectively within two groups without
compromising one’s cultural identity (bicultural self-efficacy); ability to communicate effectively with both groups (dual fluency); possession of a continuum of acceptable
behaviors for both groups (broad role repertoire); and stable social networks in both cultures (groundedness)” (p.50). These competences are similar to what CQ tries to measure with its four different dimensions and also similar to the general knowledge, skills, abilities and other attributes that are considered crucial in expatriate assignments (Bell and Harrison, 1996; Thomas, Brannen and Garcia, 2010). Thomas et al. (2010) found that being raised in two different cultures (i.e. being bicultural) helps the development (through social experience) of skills related to intercultural effectiveness and also the development of metacognitive CQ.
Unfortunately, literature on the relation between biculturalism and willingness to expatriate seems absent. As previous research indicates that biculturals score high on
bicultural competence, which is very similar to CQ, it can be argued that biculturals are likely to score high on CQ as well. This study therefore hypothesizes the following:
Hypothesis 3a: There is a significant positive relationship between biculturalism and
cultural intelligence.
As CQ is hypothesized to be positively related to willingness to expatriate and biculturalism is hypothesized to be positively related to CQ, this would indicate a possible mediation effect of CQ on the relationship between biculturalism and willingness to expatriate.
Hypothesis 3b: There is a significant positive relationship between biculturalism and
willingness to expatriate, which is mediated by cultural intelligence.
Figure 1: Cultural intelligence as a mediator; hypotheses 3a and 3b
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2.5 Cultural Distance and Psychic Distance
As previously mentioned, this study hypothesizes that CQ and AT are positively related to willingness to expatriate. However, it also wants to examine the influence of cultural distance on willingness to expatriate.
The concept of Cultural distance (CD), sometimes referred to as culture novelty or cultural toughness (Lowe et al., 1999), is one of the most widely used constructs in international business. It is defined as the extent to which different cultures are similar or different (Shenkar, 2001). CD has been researched within many different business areas, including marketing, human resources and strategy (Shenkar, 2001). Due to the fact that culture is a complex, intangible and subtle phenomenon, it is hard to conceptualize and scale. Some cultural aspects, like language, are easily perceived, while others, like social norms, are less forthright (Ghemawat, 2001). The development of measures that quantify the difference between cultures, like Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory and Kogut and Singh’s measure of CD, has resolved some of the difficulties with research in this area (Babiker, Cox and Miller, 1980; Hofstede, 1980; Kogut and Singh, 1988).
These measures of CD have proven to be useful when researching expatriate
performance. Much research has found a negative relationship between CD and expatriate adjustment (Black, Mendenhall and Oddou, 1991). Aycan (1997) found that expatriates adjust better when they are assigned to cultural contexts similar to their own. The research of Searle and Ward (1990) reported similar results and they argue that “individuals who are more culturally distant are likely to have fewer culturally appropriate skills for negotiating everyday situations” (p. 452). They also urge the need of managing the expectations of the employee prior to departure. When expectations are not managed in the right way, adjustment to a culturally similar culture can be just as difficult as adjusting to a culturally dissimilar one (Vromans, Van Engen and Mol, 2013).
However, when researching willingness to expatriate, objective measures of CD are less valuable. Because receptivity to expatriation revolves around perceptions of CD, this should be measured on the individual level instead of the national level (Sousa and Bradley, 2006). Measuring perceptions of CD on the individual level is referred to as psychic distance (PD). Sousa and Bradley (2006) define PD as the individual’s perception of the difference between the home country and the foreign country. PD is therefore much more of a subjective nature. It focuses more on an individual’s values. “The way individuals perceive the world is
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influenced by their value systems” (Sousa and Bradley, 2006, p. 54). However, within previous research, CD and PD are used interchangeably. Since CD is a more widely known term, this research will from this point on refer to PD as CD. Please note that this implies perceived CD and not actual CD.
Several studies have found a negative relationship between CD and expatriation willingness (Aryee, Chay and Chew, 1996; Lowe, Downes and Kroeck, 1999; Noe and Barber, 1993). Aryee, Chay and Chew (1996) argue that this is because moving to a
culturally dissimilar location is associated with higher uncertainty and a larger disruption in both work and non-work routines. This leads to the following hypothesis regarding CD:
Hypothesis 4: There is a significant negative relationship between cultural distance and
willingness to expatriate.
2.6 Cultural Distance as a Moderator
As discussed in the introduction, this research wants to investigate how both the influence of CQ and the influence of AT on willingness to expatriate are moderated by CD. As stated in the previous section, research shows that there is more receptivity towards foreign
assignments in culturally similar countries than towards countries that are culturally
dissimilar (Aryee, Chay and Chew, 1996; Lowe, Downes and Kroeck, 1999; Noe and Barber, 1993). However, research on the influence of CD on other predictors of expatriation
willingness seems scarce.
Aryee, Chay and Chew (1996) state that internals (i.e. those who believe that
environmental events are within one’s own control) and extraverts (i.e. individuals with an outgoing personality) are generally more willing to accept an expatriate assignment to a culturally dissimilar country than externals (i.e. those who believe environmental events are controlled by luck or fate) and introverts (i.e. individuals with a more withdrawn personality). They argue that there is more uncertainty involved with expatriate assignments to culturally dissimilar countries than to culturally similar countries and that internals and extraverts are better at attracting social support and dealing with this uncertainty, making them more willing to take on expatriate assignments to culturally dissimilar countries.
Tharenou (2003) differentiates between developed and developing countries instead of culturally similar and culturally dissimilar countries. The extent to which individuals prefer countries that are stable, safe, economically well developed and not corrupt, influences their
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willingness to relocate to a foreign country. More importantly, he finds that self-efficacy for international work (i.e. the extent of one’s belief in one’s own ability to live and work in countries with different cultures from their own) is positively related to receptivity towards working in developing countries. He argues that individuals low on self-efficacy for
international work are less willing to take risks when relocating abroad and will avoid dealing with difficult situations, because they think they will exceed their coping abilities.
Sousa and Bradley (2006) argue that an individual who emphasizes on conservation values, one of the four higher-order value domains developed by Schwartz (1992) which includes self-restriction, order and resistance to change, is less tolerant to new and different ideas. They found that these individuals perceive greater CD. Combining this with the statement that CD is negatively related to willingness to expatriate, this would indicate that individuals who emphasize on conservation values would be less willing to go on an expatriate assignment to a culturally dissimilar country than to a culturally similar country.
Even though Aryee, Chay and Chew (1996) discuss extraversion and locus of control, Tharenou (2003) discusses self-efficacy for international work and Sousa and Bradley (2006) discuss conservation values, they all study the influence of CD on constructs that were already proven to be predictors of expatriation willingness. Since both the ASA model and the SCC theory argue that to a certain extent appropriate employees select themselves for an expatriate assignment (Mol et al., 2009; Tharenou, 2003), employees scoring high on CQ are considered to be the appropriate candidates for an expatriate assignment. The same effect that CD has on self-efficacy for international work (i.e. individuals who score low on self-efficacy for international work are less willing to go to a culturally dissimilar country) could be
extended to CQ. This would suggest that individuals scoring low on CQ are less willing to take on an expatriate assignment to a culturally dissimilar country than individuals scoring high on CQ. Hence, hypothesis 5a proposes:
Hypothesis 5a: The relationship between CQ and willingness to expatriate is
significantly weaker when cultural distance is low than when cultural distance is high.
Since conservation values and locus of control are somewhat similar to AT, and culturally dissimilar countries are associated with more uncertainty, including ambiguity (Aryee, Chay and Chew, 1996), individuals with high AT should be less affected by CD than individuals with low AT. Hence, hypothesis 5b proposes:
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Hypothesis 5b: The relationship between ambiguity tolerance and willingness to
expatriate is significantly weaker when cultural distance is low than when cultural distance is high.
Figure 2: Cultural distance as a moderator; hypotheses 5a and 5b
Cultural Intelligence
Willingness to expatriate Ambiguity Tolerance
Cultural Distance
3 Research Design and Methodology
3.1 Procedure
To test the hypotheses, data was collected through the use of a self-administered web-based questionnaire with a time frame of two weeks. This type of data collection is time- and cost-effective and minimizes the risk of data-entry errors (Wright, 2005). Respondents were informed that their answers would be completely anonymous and that they would be kept strictly confidential. Participants were recruited by a group of students of the Amsterdam Business School, using a combination of self-selecting sampling, snowball sampling and convenience sampling (Saunders et al., 1997). The group of students depended on their personal networks to fill in the online survey. These networks were addressed through the use of Facebook and e-mail.
The survey received 170 responses, of which 94 were fully completed. This resulted in a completion rate of 55%. Since 76 respondents did not sufficiently complete the survey, they were deleted from the sample. Of the remaining 94 respondents, two were deleted as a result of their age (13 and 51 years) not corresponding to the desired sample of students. This
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resulted in a total number of 92 respondents. Since the survey was distributed among different social networks, the response rate is unknown.
3.2 Sample
This study samples students and recent graduates for a number of reasons.
First of all, as stated by Mol et al. (2009), today’s university students and recent graduates are tomorrow’s job applicants, so it can be expected that future job applicants are very similar to the sample of this study. Research suggests that in the near future international transfers will no longer be the domain of senior managers (Forster, 2000; Tharenou, 2003). Expatriate assignments will occur earlier in employee’s careers, when they have only two or three years of work experience (Tharenou, 2003). Forster (2000, p. 76) states that “The new generation is much more amenable to learning about different cultures, many have traveled abroad and increasing numbers are embracing international careers. Most are tuned into the global learning opportunities of the Web and many are, technologically, high literate. If organizations need to develop global mind-sets, then these are exactly the kind of people they have to recruit in greater numbers.” This makes the receptivity of students and recent
graduates the most relevant to study (Tharenou, 2003).
Secondly, and maybe most importantly, people’s personal situations, which are not part of this research, may intrude on their willingness to expatriate through time (Mol et al., 2009). Some life events such as marriage and childbearing decrease receptivity to expatriate, while others, such as difficulties in finding a job in the home country and spousal
expatriation, increase this receptivity. Students and recent graduates are least influenced by such factors (Mol et al., 2009).
Thirdly, students and recent graduates were sampled for practical reasons. They were easy to reach through online social networks and since the data for this research was collected through the use of a self-administered web-based questionnaire, this sample assured enough online know-how and access to the Internet.
The survey received a total of 92 usable responses. 34 (37%) of these were men and 58 (63%) were women. The average age of the respondents was 22.17 with a standard deviation of 2.28. The lowest age reported was 17 and the highest age reported was 30. Among the total of 92 respondents 88 were students and 4 were recently graduated. 87 reported to have the Dutch nationality, 5 reported to have a different nationality. However, all 92 respondents reported to be living in the Netherlands for more than 10 years. More precisely, 2 respondents
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reported to be living in the Netherlands for 10-14 years, 7 respondents for 15-20 years, 10 respondents for 20 years or more and the remaining 73 respondents reported to be living in the Netherlands their entire lives. From the 5 respondents that reported not to have the Dutch nationality, 3 were living in the Netherlands their entire lives and 2 were living in the
Netherlands for 15-20 years. 28 respondents were reported as bicultural.
3.3 Measures
The survey measured the predictor variables Cultural intelligence, Biculturalism, Ambiguity tolerance, Willingness to expatriate, Willingness to expatriate to a culturally similar country and Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country. It measured age and gender as control variables.
Cultural intelligence (CQ), an independent variable, was measured using a 20-item scale, developed by Ang et al. (2007). Ang et al. (2007) define CQ as an individual’s capability to function and manage effectively in culturally diverse settings. The scale measures four dimensions of CQ: metacognitive CQ (4 items, α = .88), cognitive CQ (6 items, α = .89), motivational CQ (5 items, α = .81) and behavioral CQ (5 items, α = .86). An example item of metacognitive CQ is “I adjust my cultural knowledge as I interact with
people from a culture that is unfamiliar to me”. An example item of cognitive CQ is “I know the marriage systems in other countries”. An example item of motivational CQ is “I enjoy interacting with people from different cultures”. An example item of behavioral CQ is “I alter my facial expressions when a cross-cultural interaction requires it”. This scale used a
seven point numeric Likert-style rating scale anchored from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree. In the current study, CQ reported a Cronbach alpha coefficient of .93 (20 items). The independent subscales reported the following; Metacognitive CQ: α = .82 (4 items), Cognitive CQ: α = .83 (6 items), Motivational CQ: α = .84 (5 items), and Behavioral CQ: α = .83 (5 items).
Biculturalism, an independent variable, was measured using the definition of
LaFromboise, Coleman and Gerton (1993). They define a bicultural as “an individual who lives at the juncture between two cultures and can lay a claim at belonging to both cultures, either by being of mixed racial heritage or born in one culture and raised in a second” (LaFromboise, Coleman and Gerton, 1993, p. 395). As a result, respondents who reported that one or both of their parents were born in a different country than the Netherlands, is considered to be a bicultural in this study.
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Tolerance for ambiguity (AT), an independent variable, was measured using 10-items from a 22-item scale (α = .86) developed by McLain (1993). These ten items are the same items that Mol et al. (2009) used in their research. McLain (1993) defines AT as a range, from rejection to attraction, of reactions to stimuli perceived as new and unfamiliar, complex and dynamically uncertain, or subject to multiple conflicting interpretations. An example item is “I avoid situations that are too complicated for me to easily understand”. This scale used a seven point numeric Likert-style rating scale anchored from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree. In the current study, AT reported a Cronbach alpha coefficient of .80 (10 items).
Expatriation willingness, the dependent variable, was measured using the composed scale by Mol et al. (2009). Mol et al. (2009) define willingness to expatriate as the
willingness to work and live abroad for a temporary period. Mol et al. (2009) took two items (α = .87) from the scale developed by Van der Zee and Van Oudenhoven (2000). An example item is “How capable do you consider yourself for an international career?”. In order to measure the moderation effect of CD, the remaining items from the scale by Mol et al. (2009) had to be adjusted slightly. Both the Expatriation willingness to a culturally similar country and a culturally dissimilar country were measured independently. Mol et al. (2009) took one item from a scale (α = .87) developed by Douthitt et al. (1999). This item was adjusted in “How would you feel about a job that requires a lot of travelling to a culturally similar
country?” to measure the willingness to expatriate to a culturally similar country, and the
item “How would you feel about a job that requires a lot of travelling to a culturally
dissimilar country?” to measure the willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar
country. The remaining three items (α = .87) were developed by Mol et al. (2009) themselves. Also these items had to be adjusted slightly for the purpose of this research. An example item, after adjustment, is “It’s my goal to have the experience to live and work in a culturally
similar foreign country” to measure the willingness to expatriate to a culturally similar
country, and the item “It’s my goal to have the experience to live and work in a culturally
dissimilar foreign country” to measure the willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar
country. This resulted in 10 items measuring Willingness to expatriate, 4 items measuring Willingness to expatriate to a culturally similar country and 4 items measuring Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country. All expatriation willingness items used a seven point numeric Likert-style rating scale with different kinds of anchoring that fit the different items. Unfortunately, two items (originally one item, but in order to measure the moderation effect of CD it was converted into two slightly adjusted items) reported very low Cronbach
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alpha coefficients and were deleted. As a result, in the current study, Willingness to
expatriatie reported a Cronbach alpha coefficient of .83 (8 items). Expatriation willingness to a culturally similar country reported a Cronbach alpha coefficient of .74 (3 items).
Expatriation willingness to a culturally dissimilar country reported a Cronbach alpha coefficient of .70 (3 items).
Age and gender were also measured in order to use them as control variables. Previous studies have found age to be negatively related to expatriation willingness, but since this study samples only a small range of ages (students and recent graduates), such results are not expected to be found (Aryee, Chay and Chew, 1996). Previous studies have also found that males are more willing to go on an expatriate assignment than females (Aryee, Chay and Chew, 1996; Lowe et al., 1999; Van der Velde, Bossink and Jansen, 2005). Lowe et al. (1999) state that gender is only a significant predictor when specific countries were
identified. For example, women showed lower receptivity towards an expatriate assignment to Iran which is suggested to be the result of their uncertainty about their ability to
re-establish routines in a Muslim country (Aryee, Chay and Chew, 1996). Since this study does not identify specific countries in its measurements, such results are not expected.
4 Results
4.1 Correlation Analysis
A bivariate correlation analysis was run to assess whether or not the different variables in this study are related. This was done by using the guidelines for assessing correlation strength developed by Cohen (1988).
A large positive relationship was found between Cultural intelligence (r = .51, p < .01) and Willingness to expatriate. The four subscales of CQ, Metacognitive CQ (r = .50, p < .01), Cognitive CQ (r = .49, p < .01), Motivational CQ (r = .44, p < .01) and Behavioral CQ (r = .32, p < .01) show a moderate positive relationship with Willingness to expatriate. These findings suggest that individuals with high CQ are more willing to go on an expatriate assignment that individuals with low CQ, supporting hypothesis 1.
A weak positive relationship was found between AT (r = .26, p < .05) and Willingness to expatriate. Although weak, this relationship suggests that high AT leads to more
Table 1: Means, standard deviations, scale reliabilities and scale intercorrelations Variables M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 Gender .63 .49 (-) 2 Age 22.17 2.28 -.30** (-) 3 Biculturalism .30 .46 .02 .02 (-) 4 Cultural Intelligence 4.72 .88 -.08 .00 .26* (.93) 5 Meta Cognitive CQ 4.68 1.03 .00 -.02 .21* .87** (.82) 6 Cognitive CQ 4.52 1.04 -.09 -.04 .30** .88** .75** (.83) 7 Motivational CQ 5.09 1.05 -.14 .12 .19 .84** .67** .60** (.84) 8 Behavioral CQ 4.62 1.01 -.01 -.07 .17 .82** .62** .61** .60** (.83) 9 Ambiguity Tolerance 4.27 .81 -.17 .04 -.01 .31** .27** .21* .48** 0.12 (.80) 10 Willingness to Expatriate 4.06 .88 -.06 -.23* .36** .51** .50** .49** .44** .32** .26* (.83) 11 Culturally Similar 4.53 1.05 .00 -.17 .33** .29** .31** .36** .17 .12 .09 .85** (.74) 12 Culturally Dissimilar 3.92 1.14 -.05 -.27** .25* .52** .50** .40** .51** .39** .36** .84** .48** (.70)
Note: scale reliabilities are reported in the diagonal
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
A weak positive relationship was found between Biculturalism (r = .26, p < .05) and CQ. This relationship, although weak, suggests that indeed biculturals score higher on CQ. This supports hypothesis 3a.
A moderate positive relationship was found between Biculturalism (r = .36, p < .01) and Willingness to expatriate. This suggests that biculturals are more willing to take on an expatriate assignment than non-biculturals. Together with the earlier found positive relationship between Biculturalism and CQ and CQ and willingness to expatriate, all
prerequisites required for a mediation effect of CQ are met (hypothesis 3b). Further analysis should indicate whether this mediation effect indeed exists.
When distinguishing between Willingness to expatriate to a culturally similar and a culturally dissimilar country (i.e. examining the moderator effect of CD), some interesting differences are surfacing. Although Willingness to expatriate to a culturally similar country is also found to be moderately positively related to Cultural intelligence (r = .29, p < .01), it is only found to be moderately positively related to the subscales of Metacognitive CQ (r = .31, p < .01) and Cognitive CQ (r = .36, p < .01) and not to Motivational CQ and Behavioral CQ. This differs from Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country, which is found to be strongly positively related to Cultural Intelligence (r = .52, p < .01), the subscales Metacognitive CQ (r = .50, p < .01) and Motivational CQ (r = .51, p < .01), and moderately positively related to Cognitive CQ (r = .40, p < .01), and Behavioral CQ (r = .39, p < .01). These findings suggest that there is a difference between how Willingness to expatriate to a culturally similar country and Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country relate to Cultural intelligence (hypothesis 5a). Further analysis should indicate whether hypothesis 5a can be supported.
It is also apparent that Willingness to expatriate to a culturally similar country is not related to AT, while a moderate positive relationship was found between Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country and AT (r = .36, p < .01). This suggests that there is support for hypothesis 5b, although further analysis is needed for more certainty.
Biculturalism is found to be moderately positively related to both Willingness to expatriate to a culturally similar country (r = .33, p < .01) as Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country (r = .25, p < .05).
A paired samples t-test showed that the mean of Willingness to expatriate to a culturally similar country (M = 4.53, SD = 1.05) was significantly higher than the mean of Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country (M = 3.92, SD = 1.14, t(92) = 5.15, p < .0005).
The eta squared statistic reported .23, which according to Cohen (1988) indicates a large effect size. This proves that in this sample more people were willing to go to on an expatriate assignment to a culturally similar country than to a culturally dissimilar country. This supports hypothesis 4.
Age was found to be negatively related to Willingness to expatriate (r = -.23, p < .05) and Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country (r = -.27, p < .01).
4.2 Regression Analyses
To further explore how CQ and AT affect Willingness to expatriate, to investigate whether CQ mediates the relationship between Biculturalism and Willingness to expatriate, and to test the moderation effect of CD, a number of regression analyses were performed.
4.2.1 Predictors of Expatriation Willingness
A hierarchical linear regression analysis was performed to estimate the effects of the predictors (CQ, AT and Biculturalism) and the control variables (age and gender) on Willingness to expatriate. The first model consisted only of the control variables. Age (β = -.28, p = .011) was found to be significantly accounting for variance in Willingness to expatriate. In the second model Biculturalism (β = .37, p = .000) was added and found to be significantly accounting for variance in Willingness to expatriate, together with Age (β = -.29, p = .005). In the third model CQ and AT were added. CQ (β = .39, p = .00) together with Age (β = -.27, p = .003) and Biculturalism (β = .27, p = .003) significantly accounted for variance in Willingness to expatriate. AT did not.
The results of this regression indicated that in Model 3 three predictors (Age,
Biculturalism and CQ) explained 37% of the variance (adjusted R2 = .37, F(5,86) = 11.52, p = .000). Cultural intelligence was found to be significantly accounting for variance in
Willingness to expatriate giving more support for hypothesis 1.
To examine the effect of the different dimensions of CQ, the same hierarchical regression analysis was performed, but this time one variable of CQ was changed into four different variables representing the four different dimensions of CQ. Surprisingly, none of the four dimensions was found to be significantly accounting for variance, even though the model as a whole was found significantly accounting for variance in Willingness to
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Table 2: Regression analyses
Willingness to expatriate Willingness to expatriate Culturally Similar Willingness to expatriate Culturally Dissimilar B S D β B SD β B SD β 1 Constant 6.59 .96 6.52 1.17 7.66 1.23 Age -.11 .04 -.28* -.09 .05 -.19 -.16 .05 -.32** Gender -.27 .19 -.15 -.13 .24 -.06 -.34 .25 -.15 R2 .07 .03 .10 Adjusted R2 .05 .01 .07 F 3.54* 1.49 4.65* 2 Constant 6.48 .90 6.41 1.10 7.56 1.19 Age -.11 .04 -.29** -.09 .05 -.20 -.16 .05 -.33** Gender -.28 .18 -.16 -.15 .22 -.07 -.36 .24 -.15 Biculturalism .70 .18 .37** .76 .22 .34** .63 .24 .26* R2 .21 .15 .16 R2 Change .14 .12 .06 Adjusted R2 .18 .12 .13 F 7.77** 5.04** 5.59** 3 Constant 3.85 .95 5.07 1.13 3.46 1.21 Age -.10 .03 -.27** -.09 .05 -.19 -.15 .04 -.31** Gender -.17 .16 -.10 -.10 .22 -.05 -.18 .21 -.07 Biculturalism .51 .17 .27** .65 .23 .29** .38 .21 .15 Cultural Intelligence .39 .10 .39** .24 .13 .20 .52 .12 .40** Ambiguity Tolerance .15 .10 .13 .03 .14 .03 .33 .12 .23* R2 .40 .19 .42 R2 Change .19 .04 .26 Adjusted R2 .37 .14 .39 F 11.52** 3.95** 12.39**
*. Significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). **. Significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
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significantly account for variance in this model. The results of this regression indicated that in Model 3 two predictors (Age and Biculturalism) explained 38% of the variance (adjusted R2 = .38, F(8,83) = 7.82, p = .000).
Strangely enough, AT was not found to be significantly accounting for variance in Willingness to expatriate, contradicting hypothesis 2. Since some of the items of the CQ measurement overlap with the measurement of AT, it was argued that CQ might mediate the relationship between AT and Willingness to expatriate. Another regression analysis, where AT was added in the third model and CQ in a fourth model, showed that indeed AT (β = .26, p = .007) by itself was significantly accounting for variance in Willingness to expatriate in model 3, but when CQ was added in model 4, AT (β = .13, p = .14) did not. This supports hypothesis 2, but also indicates a full mediation effect of CQ on the relationship between AT and Willingness to expatriate.
4.2.2 Cultural Intelligence as a Mediator
Previous regressions analysis shows that Biculturalism and CQ significantly account for variance in Willingness to expatriate, which satisfies two of the three requirements to test mediation. However, the fact that Biculturalism was still significantly adding variance to Willingness to expatriate after CQ and AT were added in model 3 suggests that the
relationship between Biculturalism and Willingness to expatriate is not fully mediated by CQ. Nonetheless, a number of regression analyses were performed to examine this possible
mediation effect of CQ more closely.
First, a regression analysis with CQ as the dependent variable was conducted. In model 1 the control variables (Age and Gender) were added. None was found to be significantly accounting for variance in CQ. In the second model Biculturalism (β = .26, p = .012) was added and found to be significantly accounting for variance. This satisfies the final
requirement to test the mediation effect. Further investigation showed that Biculturalism (β = .30, p = .004) only significantly accounted for variance in Cognitive CQ, when the four dimensions were independently analyzed.
To test the mediation effect another regression analysis was performed with
Willingness to expatriate as the dependent variable. In model 1 the control variables (Age and Gender) were added. Age (β = -.28, p = .011) was added and found to be significantly
accounting for variance in Willingness to expatriate. In model 2 Biculturalism was added. Age (β = -.29, p = .005) and Biculturalism (β = .37, p = .000) were found to be significantly
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accounting for variance. In the third model CQ was added. Age (β = -.27, p = .003), Biculturalism (β = .25, p = .005) and CQ (β = .44, p = .000) were found to be significantly accounting for variance in Willingness to expatriate. The fact that Biculturalism in model 3 still significantly accounted for variance, indicates that no full mediation effect of CQ exists. However, the fact that the standardized coefficient of Biculturalism decreased from model 2 (β = .37) to model 3 (β = .25) shows that CQ does partially mediates the relationship between Biculturalism and Willingness to expatriate.
Further analyzing showed that when CD is high (i.e. the dependent variable was changed to Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country), the mediation effect of CQ does exist. In model 2 Biculturalism (β = .26, p = .010) was found to be significantly accounting for variance in Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country together with Age (β = -.33, p = .002). In model 3 Biculturalism (β = .13, p = .143) was not, while CQ (β = .48. p = .000) and Age (β = -.31, p = .001) did significantly account for variance. This indicates that CQ does fully mediate the relationship between Biculturalism and Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country. Regarding Willingness to expatriate to a culturally similar country, no such mediation effect was found.
4.2.3 The Moderating Effect of Cultural Distance
To test if there is a difference in the effects of the predictors and the control variables on Willingness to a culturally similar country and a culturally dissimilar country, two more hierarchical regression analyses were performed.
First, a regression analysis was performed to estimate the effects of the predictors (CQ, AT and Biculturalism) and the control variables (Age and Gender) on Willingness to
expatriate to a culturally similar country. In model 1 the control variables were added. Surprisingly, Age did not significantly account for any variance in Willingness to expatriate to a culturally similar country, while it did for Willingness to expatriate in general. Just like previous regression analyses, Gender was not found to be significantly accounting for variance. In model 2 Biculturalism (β = .34, p < .001) was added and found to be significantly accounting for variance in Willingness to expatriate to a culturally similar country. In model 3 AT and CQ were added, but neither was found to be significantly accounting for any variance. Only Biculturalism (β = .29, p < .006) was found to be significantly accounting for variance in Willingness to expatriate to a culturally similar
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country. The results of this regression indicated that in Model 3 one predictor (Biculturalism) explained 14% of the variance (adjusted R2 = .14, F(5,86) = 3.95, p = .003).
When replacing CQ with four different variables representing the four different dimensions, again none of the dimensions was found to be significantly accounting for
variance in Willingness to expatriate to a culturally similar country, even though the model as a whole was found to be significantly accounting for variance in Willingness to expatriate. Only Biculturalism (β = .26, p = .011) significantly accounted for variance in this model. The results of this regression indicated that in Model 3 one predictor (Biculturalism) explained 17% of the variance (adjusted R2 = .17, F(8,83) = 3.43, p = .002).
Second, a regression analysis was performed to estimate the effects of the predictors (CQ, AT and Biculturalism) and the control variables (age and gender) on Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country. In model 1 the control variables were added. Age (β = -.32, p = .003) was found to be significantly accounting for variance in Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country. In model 2 Biculturalism was added. Age (β = -.33, p = .002) and Biculturalism (β = .26, p = .010) were found to be significantly accounting for variance in Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country. In model 3 AT and CQ were added. Age (β = -.31, p = .001), AT (β = .23, p = .010) and CQ (β = .40, p = .000) were found to be significantly accounting for variance in Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country. As discussed ealier, the relationship between Biculturalism and Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country was found to be fully mediated by CQ. The results of this regression indicated that in Model 3 three predictors (Age, AT and CQ) explained 39% of the variance (adjusted R2 = .39, F(5,86) = 12.39, p = .000).
When replacing CQ with four different variables representing the four different dimensions, only Age (β = -.34, p = .000) and Motivational CQ (β = .28, p = .038) were found to be significantly accounting for variance in Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country in this model. The results of this regression indicated that in Model 3 two predictors (Age and Motivational CQ) explained 40% of the variance (adjusted R2 = .40, F(8,83) = 8.62, p = .000).
These last two regression analyses show that there is indeed a difference in how the variables explain Willingness to expatriate to a culturally similar country and to a culturally dissimilar country. When CD is low (i.e. Willingness to expatriate to a culturally similar country), neither CQ nor AT was found to be significantly accounting for any variance. When CD is high (i.e. Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country), CQ and AT were found to be significantly accounting for variance. This difference indicates that the
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relationship between CQ and Willingness to expatriate and the relationship between AT and Willingness to expatriate are indeed weaker when CD is high (hypothesis 5a and 5b). However, further analyzing should show whether there is support for hypothesis 5a and 5b.
4.3 Repeated measures ANOVA analysis
Since this study involves two conditions (expatriation willingness to a culturally similar and a expatriation willingness to a culturally dissimilar country), a two-way repeated measures analysis of variance was conducted to assess whether there is a significant difference between these two conditions regarding their relationship with the predictor variables (hypothesis 5a and 5b) and control variables.
A statistically main effect was discovered for Age [F(1, 85) = 10.07, p = 0.002], with a large effect size (partial eta squared = .11), CQ [F(1, 85) = 13.89, p = 0.000], with a large effect size (partial eta squared = .14), and Biculturalism [F(1, 85) = 7.11, p = 0.009], with a small effect size (partial eta squared = .08). The strengths of eta squared values were interpreted using the guidelines developed by Cohen (1988). The main effect for Gender [F(1, 85) = 0.36, p = .55] and TA [F(1, 85) = 2.91, p = .09] did not reach statistical significance.
To control for the earlier found mediation effect of CQ on the relationship between AT and Willingness to expatriate, a two-way repeated measures analysis of variance where CQ was left out showed that TA [F(1, 86) = 8.36, p = .005] does reach statistical significance.
When the four dimensions of Cultural intelligence were added separately to the analysis, none reached the statistical significance (Metacognitive CQ [F(1, 82) = 3.58, p = .06], Cognitive CQ [F(1, 82) = .46, p = .50], Motivational CQ [F(1, 82) = .91, p = .34], Behavioral CQ [F(1, 82) = .51, p = .48]).
This repeated measures ANOVA analysis shows that there is a significant difference of impact of Age, Biculturalism, CQ and AT on Willingness to expatriate when CD is high or low. Together with the previously discussed regression analysis, which showed that CQ and AT only affect Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country, this proves that in this sample the positive relationship between CQ and Willingness to expatriate and the positive relationship between AT and Willingness to expatriate are both significantly weaker when CD is low than when CD is high. Therefore, hypothesis 5a and 5b were supported.
A post-hoc comparison using the Bonferroni test indicated that the mean score of Willingness to expatriate to a culturally similar country (M = 4.53, SD = 1.05) was
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significantly different from the mean score of Willingness to expatriate to a culturally dissimilar country (M = 3.93, SD = 1.14). This is in line with earlier found results from the paired samples t-test and more support for hypothesis 4.
5 Discussion
5.1 Main Research Findings
First of all, it was argued that CQ is positively related to Willingness to expatriate and indeed this relationship was found in the sample of this study. Therefore, hypothesis 1 was
supported. This indicates that CQ, a relatively new measure of intercultural understanding and previously only researched in combination with expatriate adjustment and performance, is also a predictor of expatriation willingness. This is in line with the ASA model and SCC theory that both suggest that candidates that eventually will perform well as an expatriate, will beforehand also be more willing to take on such an assignment. In this research, CQ was found to be the best predictor of expatriation willingness, defeating age, biculturalism and AT.
The measurement of CQ was originally developed to measure different aspects of expatriate performance (Ang et al., 2007). For example, Ang et al (2007) found that only metacognitive CQ and behavioral CQ were related to task performance, while only motivational and behavioral CQ were related to cultural adjustment. All dimensions
combined form a good predictor of overall expatriate performance. This research found that when it comes to expatriation willingness, the measurement of CQ as a whole is also a good predictor, while the dimensions independently are seldom good at predicting expatriation willingness. Since Ang et al. (2007) state that only the four dimensions of CQ combined are a predictor of expatriate performance, it is not surprising that none of the four dimensions independently were found as a significant predictor of expatriation willingness.
Secondly, research suggested a positive relationship between AT and Willingness to expatriate. Indeed such a relationship was found in this research and therefore hypothesis 2 was supported. This suggests that individuals that are very tolerant for ambiguity will be more willing to take on an expatriate assignment than individuals who are intolerant for ambiguous situations. However, AT was found to be the least best of all predictors examined in this study and it was also found that CQ fully mediates the relationship between AT and expatriation willingness. Since CQ tries to measure a broad range of capabilities that are
