ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the impact of host country characteristics, the particularities of a location, on self-initiated expatriate (SIE)'s career success. For the SIE, therefore, the host country's institutional characteristics, culture, language, and reputation may have considerably more salience than they would for assigned expatriates. However, little is known about the impact of the host country's characteristics on SIEs' cross-border career success. The chapter first presents a brief discussion of SIE career success/satisfaction, to examine the host country's institutional and cultural characteristics that have an impact on SIE's career success. It then proposes a research model and agenda. Since there is almost no research on the impact of host country characteristics on SIEs' career success, the chapter reviews the general literature on expatriate career success and pull out from that the specific factors that will affect SIEs' career success.
