Table 3 Comparing micro level research between two research periods (1997–2011 vs. 2012–2014)

Motivational drivers

A desire for exploration and excitement, a positive predisposition to the experience prompted by family and social connections, to escape from a current way of life or job situation (Inkson et al. 1997; Inkson and Myers 2003)

Economic factors, better opportunities/income, career-vocational opportunities, family, life-style, cultural distance and political environment. Pull Factors: life style and family considerations; Push Factors: career, culture and economics (Jackson et al. 2005)

Chance rather than a result of a specific plan, desire for adventure, life change and benefit to the family (Richardson and Mallon 2005)

Several sub-motives underlie the motivation to go abroad, related to career, cultural/travel opportunities, economic/personal relationships. These vary with gender, location and life stage (Thorn 2009)

The motives to expatriate (adventure/travel, career, family, financial incentives and life change/escape) differ in terms of acquired personal characteristics: marital status, nationality, previous expatriate experience and seniority (Selmer and Lauring 2011b)

The advances in education and careers, escape mandate of military service (Beitin 2012)

A desire for international experience, attractive job conditions, family ties, and poor labor markets in home countries (Froese 2012)

Motivational drivers were grouped in four sets of reasons: refugee, mercenary, explorer and architect (Selmer and Lauring 2012)

Cultural and travel opportunities, career, economics, affiliations, political environment, and quality of life (Thorn 2013)

Tourism-oriented and work-related motivations were stronger among academic SIEs who are younger, non-married, non-EU and with short experience. Non-EU SIEs arriving in the EU have stronger financial and seeking motivations (Lauring et al. 2014)

Demographics (gender, marital status, age)

Women’s willingness to go abroad is more affected by family/relationships than men’s (Myers and Pringle 2005; Tharenou 2008)

Women chose less risky environments, which can offer them international career opportunities and more career benefit than men (Myers and Pringle 2005)

Women are less motivated to go abroad by financial gain and life change (Selmer and Lauring 2010)

Positive relationship between marital status and work effectiveness/performance is not moderated by gender (Selmer and Lauring 2011a)

Female SIEs have better job performance than male SIEs (Lauring and Selmer 2014)

Married SIEs have better time to proficiency and job performance than unmarried SIEs (Lauring and Selmer 2014)

Individual characteristics

Self-reliant, autonomous, exhibiting diffuse individual developmental goals and valuing the cultural experience and opportunity for personal learning, as opposed to purely work experiences (Inkson et al. 1997)

Individualistic, non-conformist, self-reliant, self-directed and proactive, operating with a degree of personal agency and giving personal motives precedence in determining their psychological and physical mobility (Sullivan and Arthur 2006)

Career

The metaphor “river” is proposed to describe career development (Crowley-Henry 2012)

Career agency is impacted by both individual (e.g. personal control, proactivity, self-determination) and contextual factors, which provide support for Tams and Arthur’s (2010) six dimensions of career agency (Guo et al. 2013)

Careerist attitude and career fit explain international mobility success, while the influence of protean and boundaryless career attitude is not very clear. Careerist orientation is the individual career characteristic which better explains international mobility success (Cerdin and Le Pargneux 2014)

Four career patterns are identified: reinventors, reinvigorators, reversers and rejecters (Muir et al. 2014)

Adjustment

Language proficiency, personality traits, cultural empathy and type of expatriation experience (SIE vs. AE) have a positive effect on work and non-work adjustment; SIEs adjust better than AEs (Peltokorpi 2008)

Positive framing and proactive socialization enable more effective coping and adjustment (Fu et al. 2005)

Previous international experience and marital status have no influence on adjustment (Alshammari 2012)

Previous overseas experience has a positive relationship with SIEs’ adjustment, while culture novelty has a negative one. Contrary to what was predicted, foreign language ability was not positively related to adjustment (Isakovic and Whitman 2013)

Positive cross-cultural adjustment mediates the positive relations between protean career attitude and SIEs’ experienced outcomes: career satisfaction, intentions to stay in the host country and life satisfaction (Cao et al. 2013)

Beneficial associations between positive affectivity and adjustment (Selmer and Lauring 2014a)

Adult third-culture kids have a greater extent of general adjustment, but not interaction or work adjustment, when compared with adult mono-culture kids (Selmer and Lauring 2014b)

Relationship with home and host country/repatriation

The propensity of moving was explored through allegiance, a dynamic and fluid bond that influences both the desire to remain in the host country and the desire to return to home country. Family and social connections have a great impact on the intention to stay or return (Richardson and McKenna 2006; Schoepp and Forstenlechner 2010)

Weak host country pull and strong home country pull, along with shocks motivate repatriation (Tharenou and Caulfield 2010)

After repatriation, adjustment to work is a stressful experience, since SIEs do not return to a role within an organization and have to reacquire local experience and rebuild networks (Begley et al. 2008)

Relationship with home and host country are fluid and subject to change due to adjustment and ease of communication (Beitin 2012)

Desire for cultural and travel opportunities was the best predictor of cessation of mobility and development level in the host country. Career motives predicted duration of mobility and cultural difference of the destination (Thorn et al. 2013)