International assignments of employees and entrepreneurial intentions: the mediating role of human capital, social capital and career prospects

Abstract

PurposeDrawing on human capital (HC) and social capital (SC) as well as the Jack-of-all-trades theory, this paper aims to clarify the relationship between international assignments (IAs) of employees and their entrepreneurial intentions. The study proposes that such IAs provide specific environmental features which may enable employees to build up diverse skills and network relations conducive to entrepreneuship.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected data using an online survey, targeting professionals and managers in Germany and Switzerland. They used 223 complete responses. Before data collection, they ensured the suitability of their questionnaire by employing well-tested scales and consulted independent experts in survey design and methodology. They tested their hypotheses by applying multiple mediation modeling.FindingsAs hypothesized, the authors find empirical evidence that diverse skills and network relationships as well as poor career prospects, positively mediate the relationship between IAs and entrepreneurial intentions of employees.Research limitations/implicationsWe applied simple random and the snowball sampling method. Our approach involved the use of headhunters, international employers and relocation companies as multipliers.Practical implicationsOur results have practical implications for employees and employers. Employees on international assignments can proactively pursue opportunities in order to utilize the acquired experiences and resources for taking up entrepreneurial activities. Employers can try to retain these employees to facilitate (international) corporate entrepreneurship.Originality/valueTo the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical study to highlight the entrepreneurial ambitions of international assignees. It thus provides initial insights into this topic.

Individual entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention: The mediating role of entrepreneurial motivations

“…Studies have shown that entrepreneurial motivations vary from country to country (Carsrud and Brännback, 2011; Hessels et al, 2008). Schlepphorst et al (2020) described intention as ambition influenced by a set of motivations, leading to actual behavior. Another study found that women entrepreneurs exhibited psychological characteristics like inventiveness, risk-taking, achievement motivation, problem-solving and determination, and that these constituted motivating factors for starting a business (Singh and Sengupta, 1985).…”

CEOs’ International Work Experience and Compensation

“…We argue that work experience abroad is linked to increases in a CEO's human capital. By staying abroad, (future) top managers accumulate valuable skills, knowledge and competencies (Carpenter et al 2001;Herrmann and Datta 2005;Jones 2013;Roth, 1995), which in turn helps them lead firms that operate abroad (Lu and Beamish 2001;Sambharya 1996) and enhances innovativeness, creativity or entrepreneurial orientation (Godart et al 2015;Maddux and Galinsky 2009;Maddux et al 2020;Schlepphorst et al 2020). In other words, international work experience is positively related to the development of the kind of human capital that is necessary to cope with the challenges in an increasingly globalized world (Gupta and Govindarajan 2002;Knight and Cavusgil 2004;Peng et al 2015).…”

AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL CAPITAL ON THE DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURS’ PERFORMANCE DURING THE OMICRON VARIANT WAVE (SARS-CoV-2: B.1.1.529)

“…According to (Ibrahim et al, 2021;Schlepphorst et al, 2020), when entrepreneurs use their social networks, their entrepreneurial performance will be uplifted because of the new prospects that the network introduces, which entrepreneurs would not be able to obtain within a short time to create a barrier to overcome the competition and business rivalries.…”