Title: Big Five personality traits, cultural intelligence, and expatriate job performance: a configurational perspective

Authors: Faruk Şahin; Laura Brancu

Addresses: Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Fethiye Faculty of Business Administration, Muğla, Turkey; University of South Africa (UNISA), College of Accounting Sciences, Pretoria, South Africa ' Department of Management, West University of Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania

Abstract: Despite decades of research on personality and cultural intelligence that support expatriate success, knowledge of the interdependencies of personality and cultural intelligence for explaining expatriate job performance remains nascent. Based on the configurational perspective, we used the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis on a sample of 62 expatriates to examine the impact of the Big Five personality traits and cultural intelligence dimensions on job performance. The findings showed that three different configurations, in which the Big Five personality traits and CQ dimensions complement each other, explain high levels of expatriate job performance. This study provides a better understanding of the Big Five personality traits and cultural intelligence as causal conditions for a high level of expatriate job performance and enriches the relevant literature. The findings are discussed in relation to theories and practices.

Keywords: Big Five personality; cultural intelligence; expatriate performance; configurational perspective; fsQCA.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2026.152253

European Journal of International Management, 2026 Vol.28 No.4, pp.618 - 648

Received: 29 May 2023
Accepted: 29 Dec 2023
Published online: 13 Mar 2026 *

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