Inpatriate Marketing Managers: Issues Associated with Staffing Global Marketing Positions
Published 12/1/2011
Author: Miriam Moeller and Michael Harvey
View this contentExecutive Summary
This manuscript addresses the strategic role of an inpatriate marketing staffing approach in the development of a global marketing mindset within global organizations. By utilizing inpatriate marketing managers as a supplementary means of transferring tacit knowledge from the host-country locations, the home-country organization obtains a global perspective that would be difficult to imitate by home-country nationals deployed on expatriate assignments. Given the inevitable progression of globalization which results in the convergence of markets, the incremental employment of inpatriate marketing manager poses challenges relative to their acclimatization to the home-country organization’s environment. Specifically, the nature of inpatriation dictates a close analysis of traditional overseas staffing practices that may impede the inpatriate marketing manager’s integration process. Using Reference Point Theory as a foundation to explain the dynamics of the transitioning phenomenon, the authors suggest that through the minimization of negative implication caused by their liabilities-of-foreignness (LOF) it would appear to provide inpatriate marketing managers with a platform to develop and cultivate a global marketing mindset. The manuscript defines LOF as the additional cost of sending an employee on an overseas assignment that a local employee would normally not incur. The authors suggest a need to assess and consequently manage the degree of contextual and managerial LOF to foster the development of a global mindset. The manuscript highlights such hardships from multiple perspectives, mainly those external and internal to the organization and the inpatriate themselves.
Biography
Miriam Moeller is a Lecturer in the UQ Business School at The University of Queensland, Australia. Her research interests include human resource management and cross-cultural management. She has published in the Journal of World Business, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, International Journal of Human Resource Management, International Journal of Management Reviews, Business Horizons, and Organizational Dynamics among others.
Michael Harvey (Ph.D., University of Arizona) holds a joint appointment as Distinguished Chair of Global Business in the School of Business Administration at the University of Mississippi and Professor of International Business at Bond University, Australia. He has published articles in international peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of International Business Studies, Thunderbird International Business Review, Journal of World Business, Organizational Dynamics, International Journal of Management Reviews, International Journal of Human Resource Management, International Marketing Review, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, and Industrial Marketing Management among others.
Journal International Marketing, Volume 19, Number 4, December 2011
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