Self-Initiative or Diverse Knowledge? Linking Foreign Work Experience to Intrapreneurial Outcomes

Abstract

Although research in international management has shed light on the career outcomes of professionals with extensive foreign work experiences, little work has examined how working abroad affects an individual’s specific contributions and behavior in the workplace after returning to one’s home country. Drawing on recent findings from economic sociology and social psychology suggesting that diverse foreign experiences enhance creativity ability, I investigate how the richness of a foreign work experience is related to individual engagement with intrapreneurship – i.e., the self-initiated act of creating new ventures, practices, and products within an organization. Using original survey data on 3,840 skilled professionals from close to 100 countries who all have had overseas work experience in the United States, I find that lengthier and richer experiences abroad increase one’s tendency to initiate intrapreneurial projects, but is not related to the success of their implementation. Instead, richer overseas wo...