Dear Colleagues,
The International Management (IM) special interest group at EURAM is hosting TWO symposia next year at the annual conference to be held in Glasgow, 21-24 June 2017 (http://euramonline.org/annual-conference-2017.html).
Symposia participants include many high-profile scholars in the IM and expatriate studies fields, among them Dave Lepak, Margaret Shaffer, Rosalie Tung, Peter Dowling, Ingemar Torbiorn, Mark Mendenhall, Chris Brewster, Anne-Wil Harzing, Dave Collings, Guenter Stahl, and Mila Lazarova. This is an opportunity to meet your favourite scholars and to hear what they have to say about the future of expatriate studies and IM research.
Why not submit a paper to the expatriate management track (EMT) at EURAM and take part in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear from leaders in our field? Paper submission deadline is 10 January 2017. See here: http://euramonline.org/programme2017/tracks/sig-07-international-management-im-2.html.
EMT at EURAM
The standing (permanent) expatriate management track (EMT) at EURAM is now the largest of the expatriate studies track at any academic conference in the world. At the 2016 EURAM conference, there were 30 papers presented in the EMT alone (it being the largest specialist track at EURAM overall) which brought together a large and world-class group of expatriate scholars that included Mila Lazarova, Michael Dickmann, Vesa Suutari, Chris Brewster, Jean-Luc Cerdin, Jan Selmer (track chair), Thomas Hippler, Jakob Lauring and Maike Andresen (among others). Scholars participating in the EMT came from as far as Australia, South Africa, Singapore, and the USA.
- SYMPOSIUM - The Next Generation of Expatriate Studies: A Future Proofing Conversation with Famous Scholars About Their Seminal Articles
Organisers: Yvonne McNulty and Jan Selmer
Description:
Based on a recently published article reviewing a 60-year history of expatriate studies*, this symposium engages with famous scholars about their seminal articles and asks them to 'future proof' the next generation of expatriate research. High profile scholars include Mark Mendenhall, Margaret Shaffer, Rosalie Tung, Dave Collings, Günter Stahl, Anne-Wil Harzing and Chris Brewster who, collectively, have co/authored 12 of the 25 most cited articles relating to expatriates or expatriation from the Web of Science and Scopus. The session will focus, firstly, on how their seminal articles came about such as: the ideas and inspiration for the topic(s) they chose; why and how they selected their co-authors and research teams; the process of publishing the papers including target journals, rejection, and revisions; why their papers have been so influential over time (did they sense it might be or has it been a complete surprise?); and how their papers have shaped the field. In the second part of the session, each famous scholar will predict where and by whom they see the next 20 years of research being conducted. The intent of the symposium is to bring together famous scholars whose voices we typically only see in print. The symposium represents a rare opportunity to engage in a future proofing dialogue with some of the field's most influential and leading scholars and to inspire and motivate the next generation of expatriate scholars.
*McNulty, Y., & Selmer, J. (2017). Overview of early expatriate studies – 1952 to 1979. In Y. McNulty & J. Selmer (Eds). Research Handbook of Expatriates. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar (FORTHCOMING). (contact the authors for an advance copy)
Confirmed participants:
- Margaret Shaffer
- Rosalie Tung
- Dave Collings
- Anne-Wil Harzing
- Mark Mendenhall
- Günter Stahl
- Chris Brewster
- SYMPOSIUM - The Meaning(s) of 'Expatriate'
Organisers: Yvonne McNulty, Chris Brewster and Jan Selmer
Description:
Based on a forthcoming article in The International Journal of Human Resource Management*, this symposium asks, who is it that we claim to study when we use the word 'expatriate'? Sloppy use of the term in the past has led to problems of inconsistent research, incompatible findings and a lack of clarity in the field. The increasing interest over the last dozen years or so in other forms of international experience, often equally or even more poorly conceptualised, has compounded the problem. The result is a lack of consensus as to how expatriates should be defined, with an almost casual use of terminology, a failure to define terms adequately, and too many unstated assumptions about the people being researched. As each year goes by, the situation is undoubtedly getting worse. This symposium brings together high profile scholars in the field of expatriate studies to begin a necessary conversation about the need for greater construct clarity in studies of expatriates. Through critique and debate, each presenter will respond to the McNulty & Brewster paper with their own insights and analysis, suggestions for further research, and ideas for next steps in the conversation. The starting point for the symposium is that we all benefit from imposing a parsimoniously organized and clearly communicated statement about the boundary conditions under which, and to whom, the expatriate concept, and the business expatriate concept more specifically, does and does not apply. Goals of the symposium, while not modest, are nonetheless critical: first, to challenge underlying assumptions in extant literature about the construct clarity of 'expatriates' and how it relates to other concepts of international (work) experiences; and second, to broaden theorizing about expatriates. Doing so is not intended to reinforce, build upon or extend the established body of research about expatriates, but to disrupt ('overproblematize') its assumptions in such a way as to encourage others to develop better and more reliable measures, and more interesting and relevant research questions, leading to the development of a more rigorous theory about expatriates. The intent of the symposium is to be deliberately provocative, by raising questions and starting a necessary dialogue among scholars in our field as to the meaning(s) of the business expatriate prototype and the boundary conditions under which we can speak of, and study, them.
*McNulty, Y., & Brewster, C. (2017). Theorizing the meaning(s) of 'expatriate': Establishing boundary conditions for business expatriates. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(1), (FORTHCOMING). DOI:10.1080/09585192.2016.1243567 (available in early cite)
Confirmed participants:
- Dave Lepak (Editor-in-Chief, The International Journal of Human Resource Management)
- Margaret Shaffer
- Peter Dowling
- Ingemar Torbiorn
- Mila Lazarova
We look forward to seeing you at EURAM 2017 in Glasgow.
Dr. Yvonne McNulty
Senior Lecturer
School of Human Development and Social Services
SIM University
461 Clementi Road
Singapore 599491