Japanese self‐initiated expatriates as boundary spanners in Chinese subsidiaries of Japanese MNEs: Antecedents, social capital, and HRM practices

• Published date: 01 November 2018
• Author: Chris Brewster,Masayuki Furusawa
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/tie.21944
• Date: 01 November 2018

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Japanese self-initiated expatriates as boundary spanners

in Chinese subsidiaries of Japanese MNEs: Antecedents, social

capital, and HRM practices

Masayuki Furusawa

1

| Chris Brewster

2

1

Kindai University, Higashiosaka, Osaka, Japan

2

Henley Business School, University of

Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, Berkshire,

United Kingdom

Correspondence

Masayuki Furusawa, Faculty of Business

Administration, Kindai University, 3-4-1

Kowakae, Higashiosaka, Osaka, 577-8502,

Japan.

Email: mfurusawa@bus.kindai.ac.jp

This article examines the potential boundary-spanning roles of Japanese self-initiated expatri-

ates (SIEs) working at Japanese-affiliated companies in China. We show that, compared to

Japanese assigned expatriates (AEs), Japanese SIEs have longer living and working experience

in China and better linguistic proficiency in Chinese, and build a relationship of trust with Japa-

nese AEs, Chinese employees, and the headquarters in Japan. We also find human resource

management (HRM) practices that emphasize normative integration will lead to the nurturing

of trust (social capital) among the parties concerned, and the social capital will enhance the

boundary-spanning functions of Japanese SIEs. This research demonstrates the value of these

SIEs as a new option to replace the dichotomy of AEs or host-country nationals and the impor-

tance of practices for normative integration and social capital, which can be expected to facili-

tate the boundary-spanning roles of Japanese SIEs.

KEYWORDS

assigned expatriates, boundary spanners, international human resource management,

Japanese MNEs in China, self-initiated expatriates, social capital

1|INTRODUCTION

Studies of international human resource management (HRM) in multi-

national enterprises (MNEs) have centered on issues concerning the

expatriation of parent-country nationals or assigned expatriates (AEs)

versus the utilization of host-country nationals (HCNs) (Furusawa,

2014). However, both expatriation and localization have drawbacks.

For AEs, the disadvantages include their limited understanding of

local culture and language, dual-career issues, repatriation blues, and,

obviously, costs (Puck, Kittler, & Wright, 2008; Tarique & Caligiuri,

2009). On the other hand, localization might lead to difficulties

in communication between local managers and the headquarters

(Mayrhofer & Brewster, 1996; Scullion & Collings, 2006). So MNEs

have begun to seek new HRM options beyond the AE/HCN dichot-

omy. One alternative, which has attracted considerable academic

interest since first being identified at the turn of the century (Suu-

tari & Brewster, 2000), is the hiring of self-initiated expatriates (SIEs).

Such employees can act as boundary spanners between the local

context and the parent country (Andresen, Al Ariss, & Walther, 2012;

Vaiman & Haslberger, 2013).

To explore this issue in practice, we examine the potential

boundary-spanning roles of Japanese SIEs working at Japanese-

affiliated companies in China. We compare the living and working

experience of the SIEs and their Chinese language proficiency with

those of Japanese AEs. We also discuss the relationship between

HRM practices and social capital among Japanese SIEs and AEs, local

employees and the headquarters, and, in particular, we explore the

boundary-spanning roles of the SIEs.

While there have been studies of Western expatriates in China

(e.g., Selmer, 2006), there has been le ss attention paid to other Asian

nationals operating in that count ry. This article, one of the first

detailed empirical analyses of sel f-initiated expatriation in Chine se

subsidiaries of Japanese MNEs , takes the following form. F irst, we

review relevant literature on sel f-initiated expatriates an d discuss

their value as boundary spanners. Th en, we explain our methodology

and present our findings. Finall y, we discuss the implications of

DOI: 10.1002/tie.21944

Thunderbird Int Bus Rev. 2018;60:911–919. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/tie © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 911