ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors analyze possible host country effects on expatriates' practiced cosmopolitanism. They begin by developing their analytical lenses and continue by delivering an empirical reconstruction of those properties of the three host countries China, the US, and Germany and, more specifically, the host localities of the expatriates from their sample that impact expatriates' modes of practicing cosmopolitanism. The authors consider three types of properties to be important for expatriates' cosmopolitan practices or 'bubble' life practices, respectively. The first property refers to the images the expatriates have of the host country and/or specific localities within it. The second kind of property is material-symbolic. Thirdly, the authors pay attention to properties of social structure and spatial arrangement. Host country effects is a highly important theoretical category, especially in the institutionalist camp of scholars in organization studies when it comes to explaining differing multinational corporation (MNC) structures and strategies. The authors summarize their findings in the conclusion.
