ABSTRACT
In an influential paper in the international human resource management literature, Kobrin (1988) argued that US multinational enterprises (MNEs) were progressively reducing the number of international assignees in response to a need to reduce costs and due to the high rates of failure of expatriates. A decade later, it seems that this statement may not reflect the current practice of MNEs. According to the 1996 survey carried out by the consulting firm Organization Resources Counselors (ORC), from a sample of 546 MNEs (87 Asian, 108 European, 351 North American) the most common pattern among the majority of these companies, including the North Americans, is an increasing use of expatriates.
