Title: The relocation processes and international business travellers in the era of globalisation and their impact on employee experiences

Authors: Hana Ornoy; Shlomo Yedidia Tarba

Addresses: School of Business Administration, The Lander Academic Institute, Am Veholamo Street 3, Jerusalem, Israel; Department of Economics and Management, The Open University, 108 Ravutski Street, Rahanana 43107, Israel ' Department of Economics and Management, The Open University, 108 Ravutski Street, Rahanana, 43107, Israel; School of Business Administration, College of Management, Izchak Rabin Boulevard 7, Rishon Lezion75490, Israel

Abstract: In recent years, multinational companies have offered new alternatives to expatriation. One of the important and widespread alternatives is business travels - short, frequent business trips abroad for work purposes, which enables face-to-face business interaction without the need to physically move with the family to a foreign company as is the case in the process of assignment. Although this phenomenon is steadily increasing in the business world, the research of this topic is most limited and very little is known of its impact on the family, the career, the personal characteristics, and other relevant issues. The increasing power of globalisation and with it the expectation of the increase of the phenomenon of business travels necessitates research on the topic. The present research study is an initial exploratory study. The article presents a qualitative research that included 44 research participants examined the feelings and attitudes of managers who frequently travel for business.

Keywords: business relocation; expatriation; frequent fliers; international business travellers; business trips; family impact; career impact; personal characteristics; short-term expatriation; spouses; flexpatriation; occupational health; employee experiences; multinational companies; MNCs; globalisation.

DOI: 10.1504/WREMSD.2013.052358

World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, 2013 Vol.9 No.2, pp.179 - 194

Published online: 30 Jan 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article