Negotiating expatriate identity in the global era: Implications on expatriate performance

This article develops a taxonomic model of expatriate identities based on the concepts of the self, national culture and existing literature on acculturation and cultural identities. Drawing from previous literature scattered in different disciplines, we clarify the conceptualization of monocultural, multicultural, global and cosmopolitan identity among expatriates. We further explicate differences of these four forms of expatriates from two perspectives ¨C centrality of cultural identity and cultural engagement willingness. More importantly, we propose on the relationship between different types of expatriate identities and expatriate performance in tasks of managerial control, knowledge and technology transfer, and creativity in the subsidiary overseas. This study also highlights incremental theoretical and practical values of this taxonomy of expatriate identity in relation to the more established theories of cultural identification.