Inpatriation

• Published in: Annals of business administrative science 2013, Vol.12 (6), p.327-343
• Main Author: KIM, Heejin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: expatriate; global r&d; global staffing; inpatriate; knowledge transfer
• ISSN: 1347-4464; 1347-4456
• DOI: 10.7880/abas.12.327

Much research has been conducted about transferring the headquarters (hereafter HQ) staff to subsidiaries (expatriation). On the contrary, this paper reviews existing researches on transferring subsidiary staff to the HQ (inpatriation). Inpatriate staff clearly form a heterogeneous group and differ from expatriate staff in terms of their positions, strengths, and roles. The overall stream of related researches can be summarized into three topics. (1) Empirical surveys on Japanese companies have been conducted since the late 1980s, in which inpatriation was considered as a tool for localization of human resources. (2) Growing business opportunities in emerging economies stimulated researches on inpatriation since the late 1990s, especially focusing on Western multinational corporations. A research group headed by Harvey discussed the need for inpatriation and management issues that inpatriate staff may encounter at the HQ; Collings and his colleagues discussed the importance of strategic global staffing and preconditions for inpatriation. (3) In the 2000s, Reiche and others discussed knowledge transfer by inpatriate staff and the factors that facilitate this process (i.e., inpatriation) as a means of knowledge transfer in multinational corporations. It is possible that inpatriation, which has been discussed within the context of localization of human resources since the 1980s, will now present a new solution for many Japanese companies that are struggling to gain or transfer market knowledge from emerging markets.