Title: Social identities of expatriates: a systematic literature review and agenda for future research

Authors: Feng Liu; Xin Gu

Addresses: School of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China ' School of Economics and Management, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

Abstract: As the business world becomes more global and interweaved, multinational organisations have gradually become the major actor in international business. Meanwhile, the number of expatriates is continuously increasing during this process. Social and cultural (non-)psychologists have examined expatriate acculturation and adjustment from both empirical and theoretical perspectives. However, existing studies have not gone far enough in fully understanding the definition and categorisation of expatriates' social identity, limiting our insights of the overarching effect of it on expatriate tasks and expatriates' experiences. This article provides a systematic literature review on expatriates' social identity from cultural and ethnic perspectives. The overview shows most studies have been done based on empirical investigations, the use of identity theories is limited, and the emphasis is more on outcomes than on antecedents, particularly antecedents of expatriates' social identity at organisational level are deficient. Furthermore, by reviewing the theoretical frameworks and empirical findings of studies in this field, it also provides a roadmap for future scholars to more systematically research on expatriates' social identity.

Keywords: expatriates; social identity; multinational corporations; literature review.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2026.151603

European Journal of International Management, 2026 Vol.28 No.3, pp.458 - 492

Received: 25 Mar 2020
Accepted: 12 Nov 2020
Published online: 10 Feb 2026 *

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