You are always one of us: The role of implicit theories of ethnicity in host country nationals’ view of co‐ethnic expatriates

Abstract

Ethnic similarity often generates positive interactions between host‐country nationals (HCNs) and co‐ethnic expatriates in multinational corporations (MNCs), but the potential causes of conflict between these groups are under‐studied. In two studies, we tested whether Chinese HCNs’ attitudes towards expatriates are associated with the implicit theories of ethnicity held by HCNs—essentialism (i.e., believing ethnicity has an immutable essence) versus constructivism (i.e., believing ethnicity to be malleable/socially constructed)—as well as expatriates’ ethnicity, which we operationalised as Chinese (co‐ethnic) versus Scottish (other‐ethnic), and expatriates’ cultural upbringing, operationalised as Chinese (local) versus American (foreign). In Study 1, HCNs who endorsed an essentialist perspective of ethnicity expected co‐ethnic (vs. other‐ethnic) expatriates to demonstrate greater ingroup identification and favouritism towards them irrespective of the expatriates’ cultural upbringing. In Study 2, HCNs primed with the essentialist view expected co‐ethnic (vs. other‐ethnic) expatriates to demonstrate greater ingroup identification and favouritism towards them irrespective of the expatriates’ upbringing, whereas those primed with the constructivist view expected expatriates with local (vs. foreign) upbringing to demonstrate greater ingroup identification and favouritism towards them irrespective of their ethnicity. These findings advance international management literature by providing a nuanced understanding of the interactions between HCNs and co‐ethnic expatriates that are influenced by essentialist beliefs about ethnicity.