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Nonlinear influences of stressors on general adjustment: the case of Japanese expatriates and their spouses

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Abstract

Integrating research on parental demands, learning, and expatriate adjustment, we examine potential nonlinear influences of two stressors – parental demands and perceived culture novelty – on general adjustment of expatriates and their spouses. Using a sample of 170 matched pairs of Japanese expatriates and spouses assigned to the US, we found a quadratic effect of parental demands and a cubic effect of cultural novelty on spouse general adjustment but not on expatriate general adjustment. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

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Notes

  1. We thank one of the anonymous reviewers for pointing us toward this direction.

  2. We did not use the exact same coding scheme that Bedeian et al. (1988) used because this confounds the effect of age and number of children.

  3. We thank one of the anonymous reviewers for this suggestion for future research.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Kazuo and Keiko Takeuchi, and John Hannon for their critical assistance provided during the survey development, translation, and data collection stages. We also greatly appreciate the insightful comments provided by the three anonymous reviewers and the acting editor, Charles Galunic, on the previous version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management of Organizations, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Riki Takeuchi

  2. Department of Human Resource Management, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Jersey, USA

    David P Lepak

  3. Department of Managerial Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Sophia V Marinova

  4. Department of Management, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

    Seokhwa Yun

Authors
  1. Riki Takeuchi
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  2. David P Lepak
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  3. Sophia V Marinova
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  4. Seokhwa Yun
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Correspondence to Riki Takeuchi.

Additional information

Accepted by Arie Y Lewin, Editor-in-Chief and Charles Galunic, Departmental Editor, 8 February 2007. This paper has been with the authors for two revisions.

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Takeuchi, R., Lepak, D., Marinova, S. et al. Nonlinear influences of stressors on general adjustment: the case of Japanese expatriates and their spouses. J Int Bus Stud 38, 928–943 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400298

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400298

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