Re-Expatriation Inclinations of Professional Women Returnees in Asia's Rapidly Developing Economies

Abstract

Highly-skilled expatriation increasingly involves women that are an important source of talent in relatively under-developed, emerging countries that desire to grow quickly by economic transformation. Many of these are returnees with high-quality education and/or work experience in more developed economies but some of them may consider re-expatriating. We combine Tharenou’s (2010) stages of the mobility cycle with Identity theory to understand the re-expatriation inclinations among 248 professional Vietnamese women. We find that career identity, family identity and social identity have a significant influence on returnees’ inclination to re-expatriate. We also find that attitude towards re-expatriation fully mediates the influence of family identity and career identity on re-expatriation inclinations. The research furthers our understanding by delineating the extent to which identity-related factors contribute to professional women returnees’ inclinations to re-expatriate. By also being in line with the Academy of Management’s 2020 conference theme of 2020 theme by break down dichotomies and broadening the way migration and expatriation is seen, we suggest government and organizational policies for retaining this important talent by better supporting them in their community and workplace.