Trust and expatriation: an integrative review of the literature and a research agenda

Ridgway, M., Stefanides, A., Kougiannou, N. and Brewster, C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5314-1518 (2025) Trust and expatriation: an integrative review of the literature and a research agenda. European Management Review. ISSN 1740-4762 (In Press)

Abstract/Summary

Multinational enterprises need high-status expatriates to enhance their workforce and improve coordination and control. Such employees face personal and socio-political challenges that require the creation and sustenance of multipartite mutual trust between organisations and their expatriates, as well as host-country nationals. Nevertheless, there have been few studies on how trust related to such individuals is formed, developed, maintained or breached and no comprehensive analysis. We address this knowledge gap by arguing for the further synthesis of trust and expatriation. We conducted a Boolean search using ProQuest Central and applied exclusion criteria to examine 46 relevant empirical articles. This review reveals that most research only considers part of the expatriation lifecycle, being rather limited to the time spent in the host country. Our approach allowed us to examine the context of expatriation through a ‘trust’ lens and thus further synthesise two discrete literature areas to offer a holistic conceptual framework to guide future research directions.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/129571
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Henley Business School > International Business and Strategy
Publisher	Wiley
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