The intention to become an expatriate: A multinational application of the theory of planned behaviour

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of the theory of planned behaviour for understanding individuals' intention to accept an offer to work in a foreign country and to assess its generalisability across countries. Furthermore, we tested the direct effect of gender on expatriate intention and its determinants. To address these objectives, we used a survey sample of 896 business students in Croatia, Germany, Russia, Turkey and the USA. The theory of planned behaviour explained a substantial amount of variance in intentions to accept a foreign assignment. As proposed, attitude towards expatriation, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control significantly influence individuals' expatriation intention. Men showed stronger intentions to expatriate than women. Moreover, the theory of planned behaviour was shown to be an effective predictor of expatriation intention across countries. Implications of these results for theory and practice and directions for future research are discussed. © 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.