Further investigation of the relationship between cultural intelligence and expatriate career intentions

Abstract

Previous research has shown that cultural intelligence is a positive predictor of expatriate career intentions among university students, but little is known about the “how” of this relationship. In a first study (N = 241) we provide evidence for the incremental validity of cultural intelligence, by showing that cultural intelligence predicts expatriate career intentions over and above emotional intelligence and the five-factor model of personality. In a second study (N = 469), we find that expatriate career self-efficacy mediates the link between cultural intelligence and expatriate career intentions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Full text

Running head: CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND EXPATRIATE CAREER
INTENTIONS 1
Further investigation of the relationship between cultural intelligence and expatriate career
intentions
Ana Camargo
Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France
Martin Storme
IESEG School of Management, Lille, France
Pinar Celik
Centre Emile Bernheim Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université
Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
Title page, authors

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 1
Abstract
Previous research has shown that cultural intelligence is a positive predictor of expatriate career
intentions among university students, but little is known about the "how" of this relationship. In a
first study (N = 241) we provide evidence for the incremental validity of cultural intelligence, by
showing that cultural intelligence predicts expatriate career intentions over and above emotional
intelligence and the five-factor model of personality. In a second study (N = 469), we find that
expatriate career self-efficacy mediates the link between cultural intelligence and expatriate
career intentions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Résumé
Analyse supplémentaire de la relation entre l’intelligence culturelle et les intentions
d’expatriation professionnelle
Des recherches antérieures ont montré que l'intelligence culturelle est un prédicteur positif des
intentions d'expatriation parmi les étudiants universitaires, mais l'on sait peu de choses sur le
"pourquoi" de cette relation. Dans une première étude (N = 241), nous démontrons la validité
incrémentale de l'intelligence culturelle en montrant que l'intelligence culturelle prédit les
intentions d'expatriation au-delà de l'intelligence émotionnelle et du modèle de personnalité à
cinq facteurs. Dans une deuxième étude (N = 469), nous montrons que l'auto-efficacité relative à
l'expatriation joue un rôle médiateur dans la relation entre l'intelligence culturelle et les
intentions d'expatriation. Les implications théoriques et pratiques sont discutées.
Manuscript (Excluding authors names and affiliations)

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 2
Abstract
Untersuchung des Zusammenhangs zwischen kultureller Intelligenz und beruflichen Absichten
von Expatriates
Frühere Untersuchungen haben gezeigt, dass kulturelle Intelligenz ein positiver Prädiktor der
Karriereabsichten von Expatriates unter Universitätsstudenten ist, aber es ist wenig über das
"Wie" dieser Beziehung bekannt. In einer ersten Studie (N = 241) liefern wir Evidenz für die
inkrementelle Validität der kulturellen Intelligenz, indem wir zeigen, dass sie die
Karriereabsichten von Expatriates über emotionale Intelligenz und das Fünf-Faktoren-Modell der
Persönlichkeit hinaus voraussagt. In einer zweiten Studie (N = 469) finden wir, dass die
Selbstwirksamkeit der Expatriates als Mediator zwischen kultureller Intelligenz und den
beruflichen Absichten vermittelt. Theoretische und praktische Implikationen werden diskutiert.
Resumen
Investigación adicional de la relación entre la inteligencia cultural y la intención de expatriación
profesional
Investigaciones anteriores han mostrado que la inteligencia cultural es un predictor positivo de la
intención de expatriación profesional en estudiantes universitarios, pero se sabe poco sobre el
“cómo” de la relación. En un primer estudio (N = 241), demostramos la validez de predicción
incremental de la inteligencia cultural, mostrando que la inteligencia cultural predice la intención
de expatriación profesional más allá de la inteligencia emocional y del modelo de la personalidad
en cinco factores. En un segundo estudio (N = 469), encontramos que la autoeficacia relativa a la
expatriación profesional es un mediador de la relación entre la inteligencia cultural y la intención

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 3
de expatriación profesional. Las implicaciones teóricas y practicas de los resultados son
analizadas.
Keywords: Cultural intelligence; Expatriate career intentions; Incremental validity;
Mediation analysis

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 4
Further investigation of the relationship between cultural intelligence and expatriate career
intentions
Introduction
Expatriation has benefits for companies, but also for workers who can acquire cross-
cultural knowledge and develop social skills that are important for a career (Fang, Jiang, Makino,
& Beamish, 2010; Vaiman, Haslberger, & Vance, 2015). The awareness of the benefits of
expatriation among workers has even contributed to the growing phenomenon of self-initiated
expatriation (Doherty et al., 2013; Vaiman et al., 2015). It is important for practitioners like
career managers, counsellors, and teachers, to understand the antecedents of expatriate career
intentions among students, in order to find methods to foster intentions to expatriate.
Several researchers have therefore focused on investigating the factors associated with
intentions to expatriate and some have identified cultural intelligence as an important predictor
(Krishnan & Kirubamoorthy, 2017; Presbitero & Quita, 2017). The relationship between cultural
intelligence and expatriate career intentions needs however further investigation. For example,
little is known about the real incremental predictive power of cultural intelligence over and
beyond other possible predictors of expatriate career intentions – such as personality traits and
emotional intelligence – which are also known to be correlated with cultural intelligence (Ang et
al., 2007; Harari, Reaves, Beane, Laginess, & Viswesvaran, 2018). Does cultural intelligence
really add something to the prediction of expatriate career intentions or is it redundant with more
traditional constructs? More research is also needed on the psychological mechanisms that
explain the relationship between cultural intelligence in regard to expatriate career intentions.
How can we explain that cultural intelligence contributes to expatriate career intentions?

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 5
Our aims with the current research are 1) to provide evidence for the incremental validity
of cultural intelligence beyond personality and emotional intelligence when predicting expatriate
career intentions, and 2) to test a model of the relationship between cultural intelligence and
expatriate career intentions based on self-efficacy theories which conceptualizes expatriate career
self-efficacy as an important mediator (Ireland & Lent, 2018; Lent & Brown, 2013; Lent, Brown,
& Hackett, 1994; Weerasinghe & Kumar, 2015).
Cultural intelligence and expatriate career intentions
Due to globalization, working in a foreign country is becoming more and more frequent
among educated workers (Caligiuri & Bonache, 2016; Liu & Giroud, 2016). Such expatriations
can be imposed by the constraints of the job market, but they can also be desired by workers
themselves (Caligiuri & Bonache, 2016; Liu & Giroud, 2016; Vaiman et al., 2015). The
phenomenon of self-initiated expatriation – moving to another country without being sent by an
employer – is gaining in popularity (Doherty et al., 2013; Vaiman et al., 2015). This is because
working abroad is increasingly considered as an asset in career paths, as it allows individuals to
gain cross-cultural insights, to acquire knowledge that is not available in the country of origin,
and to train adaptation skills (Fang et al., 2010; Vaiman et al., 2015). The benefits of hiring
candidates with professional experience in another country are emphasized more and more
(Pérez & Pla-Barber, 2005). Companies are looking to hire global leaders that will give them the
competitive edge that will make the difference (Li & Lowe, 2016). As a result, the desire and
curiosity regarding working abroad through a self-initiated expatriation can start early on during
individuals’ higher education.
Previous research has tried to establish the factors that explain expatriate career intentions
among university students. It has been shown that cultural intelligence is a positive predictor of

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 6
expatriate career intentions (Presbitero & Quita, 2017). Cultural intelligence can be defined as an
individual’s ability to function effectively in culturally diverse situations that result from
differences in race, ethnicity and nationality (Ang et al., 2007). Cultural intelligence has been
conceptualized as a multidimensional construct (Ang et al., 2007). The metacognitive dimension
of cultural intelligence refers to the awareness of one’s own thought processes while interacting
with people from other cultural backgrounds (Ang & Van Dyne, 2015; Van Dyne, Ang, & Koh,
2008). When interacting with people from other cultures, individuals with high levels of
metacognitive cultural intelligence tend to consciously monitor their cultural assumptions and
update them when necessary (Van Dyne et al., 2008). The cognitive dimension of cultural
intelligence (Ang & Van Dyne, 2015; Van Dyne et al., 2008) refers to the knowledge of
economic, legal and social systems as well as the values unique to each culture (Van Dyne et al.,
2008). Individuals gain such cultural knowledge through their education and personal experience
(Ang et al., 2007). The motivational dimension of cultural intelligence refers to the intrinsic drive
to learn about different cultures, to interact with people from different cultural backgrounds, and
to be in culturally diverse situations (Ang et al., 2007). This dimension also includes self-efficacy
beliefs pertaining to the ability to deal with cultural diversity (Van Dyne et al., 2008). Finally, the
behavioral dimension of cultural intelligence refers to the ability to adopt appropriate verbal and
nonverbal behavior during social interactions with people from different cultural backgrounds
(Ang, Van Dyne, & Koh, 2006). Individuals with high levels of behavioral cultural intelligence
use culturally appropriate words, voice tones, facial expressions, or gestures (Ang et al., 2007).
To explain the relationship between cultural intelligence and expatriate intentions,
reasoned that culturally intelligent individuals, because of their heightened knowledge and skills,
are more interested in an expatriate career as they feel confident that they could adjust to a new

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 7
culture and handle working overseas. The desire to have a career in another country has indeed
been shown to be strongly influenced by self-efficacy beliefs (Weerasinghe & Kumar, 2015).
More specifically, the confidence one has in his/her ability to expatriate – that is to adjust to and
work in a new culture – plays a major role in explaining expatriate career intentions
(Weerasinghe & Kumar, 2015). Consequently, the factors contributing to explaining expatriate
career intentions are probably partly those that are predictive of cross-cultural adjustment during
expatriation, as the awareness of these resources might increase self-efficacy beliefs among
individuals who are interested in working abroad. The literature on the predictors of cross-
cultural adjustment shows that cultural intelligence contributes to cross-cultural adjustment, but
also other predictors, such as emotional intelligence (Ang et al., 2007; Lee, Veasna, & Sukoco,
2014) and personality traits (Caligiuri, 2001; Harari et al., 2018) that are also known correlates of
cultural intelligence .
Incremental validity of cultural intelligence
Previous research has established that cultural intelligence is positively related to
expatriate career intentions but did not provide evidence for the incremental predictive power of
cultural intelligence over and beyond other constructs that might provide alternate explanations
as to why cultural intelligence is related to expatriate career intentions. Expatriate career
intentions have been shown to be strongly related to self-efficacy beliefs pertaining to the ability
to adjust to a new culture and work efficiently in a new culture (Weerasinghe & Kumar, 2015).
Consequently, as individuals are likely aware of the resources that would help them in a new
culture, the resources that contribute to cross-cultural adjustment could also directly contribute to
intentions to expatriate.

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 8
The social cognitive model of Career Self-Management (Lent & Brown, 2013), provides
an interesting framework to conceptualize the mechanism underlying the relationship between
cultural intelligence and expatriate career intentions. The Career Self-Management model is
based on Social Cognitive Career Theory, and complements the latter with factors that explain
general career decision-making processes. Indeed, SCCT describes key stages involved in
careers: development of basic academic and career interests, educational and career choice,
acquisition of academic and career success, and career satisfaction/well-being. It enables
predictions of the specific educational and occupational fields individuals will find satisfaction
and success in. Complementing the former, the Career Self-Management model sheds light on
the processes behind individuals’ adaptive career behaviors, or the how that explains how
individuals manage their career and education, across occupational fields. These adaptive career
behaviors include “self-assertion, general planning, career advancement and cognitive coping
skills” (Lent & Brown, 2013, p. 559).
The Career Self-Management model is inspired by Bandura’s General Social Cognitive
Theory (1977), and places self-efficacy beliefs at the center of adaptive career behaviors (Lent &
Brown, 2013; Lent et al., 1994). More specifically, individuals wishing to accomplish a specific
career outcome or behavior, are more likely to do so through high self-efficacy expectations and
outcome expectations that will influence their career goals, actions and outcomes. Self-efficacy
expectations are influenced by sources of efficacy information as well as personality and
contextual factors. Altogether, self-efficacy, goals, actions, person inputs (including personality,
abilities and predispositions) and contextual factors, all increase the likelihood of adaptive career
behaviors.

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 9
In the same way that SCCT had been successfully applied to general career decision
making processes , previous research has shown that the Career Self-Management model has
been applied to job searching (Lim, Lent, & Penn, 2016), multiple role planning (Roche,
Daskalova, & Brown, 2017), career exploration and career decision making activities (Ireland &
Lent, 2018). Applying the reasoning of the Career Self-Management model to expatriate
decisions, one could reason that expatriate career intentions are strongly influenced by self-
efficacy beliefs pertaining to expatriation, which are reinforced by available person inputs or
abilities, including but not limited to, cultural intelligence (see Figure 1).
The literature on cross-cultural adjustment showed that emotional intelligence is an
important resource contributing to cross-cultural adjustment among expatriates (Konanahalli &
Oyedele, 2016; Koveshnikov, Wechtler, & Dejoux, 2014). Emotional intelligence can be defined
as the ability to perceive, assimilate, understand, and manage emotions to facilitate social
interactions (Wong & Law, 2002). Emotional intelligence is fundamentally about social
interactions, sharing some resemblance with cultural intelligence (Ang & Van Dyne, 2015;
Brislin, Worthley, & Macnab, 2006; Earley & Mosakowski, 2004; Van Dyne et al., 2008).
Emotional intelligence and cultural intelligence both rely on the ability to perceive and interpret
cues when communicating with others, demonstrating sensitivity to complex situations and
behavioral flexibility, which translate into effective interactions with others (Crowne, 2009).
It has been shown that emotional intelligence plays a mediating role between cultural
intelligence and cross-cultural adjustment (Lin, Chen, & Song, 2012), seen as a career outcome
in the Career Self-Management (CSM) model. In addition, it has been found that emotional
intelligence predicts career adaptability, another important outcome in the CSM model (Coetzee
& Harry, 2014). It could therefore be hypothesized that the relationship between cultural

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 10
intelligence, a personal ability in the CSM model, and expatriate career intentions (or expatriate
career goals in the CSM model), is fully explained by correlations of the two constructs with
another personal ability: emotional intelligence, as an antecedent of expatriate career intentions.
Nevertheless, we have reasons to believe that this is not the case and that cultural intelligence, is
a personal ability that has incremental predictive power beyond emotional intelligence when
predicting the career related goal of expatriate career intentions.
Skills that are more specifically associated with emotional intelligence are the ability to
perceive and interpret emotional cues, the understanding of emotions, the facilitation of
emotional thoughts, empathy, emotional expression, and effective emotion management
(Crowne, 2009). Skills that are more specifically associated with cultural intelligence are the
ability to perceive and interpret cultural cues, the processing of cultural knowledge and
information, the suspension of judgment, the exhibition of appropriate cultural behaviors, and the
motivation to learn about cultures (Crowne, 2009). Cultural intelligence, seen as a personal
ability within the CSM model, should thus be more appropriate than emotional intelligence when
it comes to predicting career-related goals that are related to culturally diverse environments
(Ang & Van Dyne, 2015; Van Dyne et al., 2008). Supporting this reasoning, cultural intelligence
has been shown to have incremental validity over and above emotional intelligence when
predicting cultural decision making (Van Dyne et al., 2008). We therefore hypothesize that
cultural intelligence has incremental validity beyond emotional intelligence when predicting
expatriate career intentions.
Personality – notably extroversion, emotional stability, and openness – is another known
predictor of cross-cultural adjustment (Harari et al., 2018) that could explain the observed
correlations between cultural intelligence and expatriate career intentions. Research on the

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 11
relations between personality and cultural intelligence has shown that openness and extroversion
are also correlated with several dimensions of cultural intelligence. One could therefore wonder
whether the relationship between cultural intelligence and expatriate career intentions cannot be
explained by correlations of the two constructs with basic personality traits. Cultural intelligence
probably taps into personality traits – with openness to new cultural experiences –, but it also
taps into other constructs that cannot be reduced to personality traits, such as the self-efficacy
beliefs pertaining to the ability to adjust to new cultures. Consequently, we hypothesize that
cultural intelligence has incremental validity beyond the five factor model when predicting
expatriate career intentions.
The mediating role of self-efficacy
What does explain the relationship between cultural intelligence and expatriate career
intentions if not emotional intelligence and personality? As mentioned previously, one could
reason that expatriate career intentions are strongly influenced by self-efficacy beliefs pertaining
to expatriation, reinforced by person inputs or abilities, such as cultural intelligence (see Figure
1).
Insert Figure 1 about here
There is already partial support for this model in the literature. For example, found that
expatriate career self-efficacy is an important predictor of expatriate career intentions. This
theoretical model could also explain some interesting findings regarding the relationship between
the dimensions of cultural intelligence and expatriate career intentions. Previous research indeed
showed that it is mostly the motivational dimension of cultural intelligence that is predictive of

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 12
expatriate career intentions, above and beyond the cognitive, metacognitive and behavioral
dimensions of cultural intelligence (Schlägel & Sarstedt, 2016). As the motivational dimension
also includes a measure of self-efficacy beliefs regarding one’s ability to cope with cultural
challenges, our model based on the Career Self-Management model that emphasizes the role of
self-efficacy beliefs would explain why motivational cultural intelligence is the main predictor of
expatriate career intentions across the four dimensions of cultural intelligence. Altogether, we
hypothesize that expatriate career self-efficacy should have a mediating role between cultural
intelligence – and in particular, its motivational dimension – and expatriate career intentions.
Aims of the study
We seek to further explore the relationship between cultural intelligence and expatriate
career intentions with two empirical studies. In the first study, we are interested in the
incremental predictive validity of cultural intelligence over and beyond emotional intelligence
and personality traits from the five factor model. We hypothesize that cultural intelligence – and
especially its motivational dimension – positively predicts expatriate career intentions above and
beyond emotional intelligence and the five personality factors.
In the second study, we test the mediation model described above. We hypothesize that
cultural intelligence predicts expatriate career intentions through expatriate career self-efficacy
(see Figure 1). In other words, being able to deal with cultural problems, should be associated
with higher levels of expatriate career self-efficacy, which should in turn be associated with
higher expatriate career intentions. Altogether, we hypothesize that expatriate career self-efficacy
mediates the relationship between cultural intelligence – especially its motivational dimension –
and expatriate career intentions.

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 13
Study 1
The aim of the first study was to investigate the incremental validity of cultural intelligence over
and beyond personality and emotional intelligence when predicting expatriate career intentions
among university students.
Method
Participants. The sample consisted of 241 first year French (from Paris area) business
administration university students (    , ranging from 18 to 23). In the
sample, 50.62% of the participants were male (n = 122), and 49.38% were female (n = 119). We
do not have information about the ethnicity of participants as ethnicity statistics are illegal in
France.
Measures. Cultural intelligence (CQS, Van Dyne, Ang, & Koh, 2008). We used the
Cultural Intelligence Scale to measure cultural intelligence. The questionnaire measures four
dimensions of cultural intelligence. Metacognitive CQ refers to the awareness of cultural thought
processes while interacting with people with another cultural background (4 items: e.g. “I am
conscious of the cultural knowledge I use when interacting with people with different cultural
backgrounds”), cognitive CQ refers to the knowledge of norms, practices, and conventions of
different cultures (6 items: e.g. “I know the legal and economic systems of other cultures”),
motivational CQ refers to the desire to learn about and be in situations characterized by cultural
diversity (5 items: e.g. “I enjoy interacting with people from different cultures”) and behavioral
CQ refers to the ability to adopt verbal and nonverbal behaviors that are functional when
interacting with people with different cultural backgrounds (5 items: e.g. “I change my verbal
behavior (e.g., accent, tone) when a cross-cultural interaction requires it”). We used a 7-point

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 14
Likert scale ranging from 1 (Totally disagree) to 7 (Totally agree). Two French native speakers
translated the original items into French, and an independent English native speaker translated
them back into English for validation purposes. The CQS has been shown to have good
psychometric properties with satisfactory levels of scale-score reliability, and construct validity
(Ang et al., 2007). The CQS is correlated with emotional intelligence and the Big 5 personality
traits, but also with various indicators of cross-cultural competence (Ang et al., 2007). The
original validation study also provides support for the discriminant validity of CQ (Ang et al.,
2007). In our sample, the CQS exhibited satisfactory scale-score reliability, with Cronbach’s ’s
of .82, .79, .78, and .84 for respectively metacognitive CQ, cognitive CQ, motivational CQ, and
behavioral CQ.
Big Five personality traits (Gosling, Rentfrow, & Swann Jr, 2003). The Big Five
personality traits were assessed with the French version of the Ten-Item Personality Inventory.
The TIPI is a 10-item self-report questionnaire that measures extroversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience. The TIPI has been built as a
short scale with large content coverage to maximize content validity. Consequently, the
measurement model of the TIPI is more formative than reflective in nature, as it is evidenced by
empirical research (Myszkowski, Storme, & Tavani, 2018). The Cronbach’s  is therefore not a
relevant indicator to assess the quality of the scale (Gosling, Rentfrow, & Swann Jr, 2003;
Storme, Tavani, & Myszkowski, 2016). The reliability of the TIPI is better assessed by test-retest
reliability indicators, which have been shown to be satisfactory in both English and French
speaking samples (Gosling et al., 2003; Storme et al., 2016).
Emotional intelligence (Wong & Law, 2002). We used the Emotional Intelligence scale
designed by Wong and Law (2002). The scale assesses the following four dimensions of

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 15
emotional intelligence: Self-emotion appraisal (4 items: e.g. “I really understand what I feel”),
Others’ emotion appraisal (4 items: e.g. “I am a good observer of others’ emotions”), Use of
emotion (4 items: e.g. “I am a self-motivated person”) and Regulation of emotion (4 items: e.g. “I
have good control of my own emotions”). The response scale was a 7-point Likert scale ranging
from 1 (Totally disagree) to 7 (Totally agree). Previous research has shown that the original scale
has satisfactory psychometric properties and construct validity (Wong & Law, 2002). Two
French native speakers translated the original items into French, and an independent English
native speaker then translated them back into English for validation purposes. The scale showed
satisfactory scale-score reliability in our sample with Cronbach’s ’s of .87, .86, .85, and .89 for
respectively self-emotion appraisal, others’ emotion appraisal, use of emotion, and regulation of
emotion. The overall Cronbach’s  was also satisfactory: .85.
Expatriate career intentions (Weerasinghe & Kumar, 2015). We used a 5-item scale to
measure students’ expatriate career intentions (Weerasinghe & Kumar, 2015). Responses were
given on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Sample
items of expatriate career intentions are “I intend to work in a foreign country in the near future
(i.e. soon after graduation)” and “It is likely that I will try to work in a foreign country in the near
future”. Two French native speakers translated the original items into French, and an independent
English native speaker then translated them back into English for validation purposes. Previous
empirical research has shown that the scale has satisfactory psychometric properties with a
Cronbach’s  of .93. Regarding the construct validity, expatriate career intentions are positively
related with attitudes towards expatriation, expatriate career self-efficacy, and actual behaviors of
expatriation (Weerasinghe & Kumar, 2015). The scale also had satisfactory psychometric
properties in our sample (Cronbach’s  was .94).

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 16
Procedure. Students participated in this study as an extra credit opportunity. Questionnaires
were filled in online. Anonymity and confidentiality were guaranteed. It was required that
participants answer all items before submitting their responses in the setting of the online survey,
consequently, we had no missing data among participants who took all the questionnaires.
Results
Preliminary analyses. Descriptive statistics are reported in Table 1. Consistent with our
hypotheses, we found that general emotional intelligence was positively related to all four
dimensions of cultural intelligence. Openness was positively related to metacognitive CQ,
cognitive CQ, and motivational CQ, but not to behavioral CQ. Furthermore, we found that three
of the four dimensions of cultural intelligence (metacognitive, cognitive and motivational) and
openness to experience were positively related to expatriate career intentions. Contrary to our
expectations, emotional intelligence was not related to expatriate career intentions.
Insert Table 1 about here
In order to assess the factor structure of the scales, we ran a confirmatory factor analysis
for ordinal variables using the R package lavaan (Rosseel, 2012). Ordered indicators such as
responses to Likert scales should be handled with estimation methods that take into account the
ordinal nature of the data (Wirth & Edwards, 2007). The most often employed approach to
modeling ordinal data relies on the weighted least squares means and variance adjusted estimator
(WLSMV) and consists in modeling thresholds for each indicator that describe at which level of
the latent trait the specific category is most likely chosen (Rosseel, 2012).

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 17
The model was built according to the theoretical structure of the emotional intelligence,
the cultural intelligence, and the expatriate career intentions scales. The items of the cultural
intelligence scale loaded on their respective latent variable (metacognitive, cognitive, motivation,
or behavior). The four latent variables were allowed to correlate. The items of the emotional
intelligence scale loaded on their respective latent variable (self-emotion appraisal, others’
emotion appraisal, use of emotion, or regulation of emotion), and the four sub-dimensions loaded
in turn on a second-order factor of general emotional intelligence. The items of expatriate career
intentions loaded on one latent variable. The Big Five were not included in this analysis as using
latent variable modeling is not relevant on such a brief scale (Gosling et al., 2003; Storme et al.,
2016). The correlations between all constructs were freely estimated in the analysis.
Regarding model fit, we followed the recommendations of and used four statistical
indices: The  ratio (should be less than 3), the Comparative Fit Index (CFI should be
greater than .90), the Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR should be less than .08),
and the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA should be less than .08). The model
showed acceptable fit = 1557.72, / = 2.05, CFI = .924, SRMR = .080, RMSEA =
.066. All factor loadings were significant and medium to large in magnitude (all loadings were
greater than .50). With this first analysis, we concluded that the data supported our theoretical
expectations regarding the structural validity of the investigated constructs.
Incremental validity analyses. To test whether cultural intelligence has incremental
predictive validity over and beyond the Big Five personality traits and emotional intelligence
when predicting expatriate career intentions, we conducted a stepwise regression and tested
whether the proportion of variance in expatriate intentions is significantly larger when cultural
intelligence is used as a predictor. In the first step, expatriate career intentions was regressed on

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 18
the Big Five (extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness
to experience) and emotional intelligence. In the second step, expatriate career intentions was
regressed both on the Big Five traits and emotional intelligence and all four cultural intelligence
dimensions. The results are reported in Table 2.
Insert Table 2 about here
In line with our hypothesis, we found that cultural intelligence has increased predictive
value for expatriate career intentions F(4, 230) = 3.47, p = .009, beyond personality and
emotional intelligence. Our analyses revealed that only motivational CQ ( = .24, < .01) and
openness to experience ( = .17, < .05) predicted expatriate career intentions when controlling
for all predictors in the same analysis.
Discussion
Our aim with Study 1 was to test the incremental validity of cultural intelligence in
predicting expatriate career intentions, compared to other factors commonly seen in the
expatriate career-related literature, including emotional intelligence and personality. Our findings
are in line with our expectations as cultural intelligence – and especially its motivational
dimension – had incremental predictive power over emotional intelligence and the five factor
model of personality. This means that the relationship between cultural intelligence and
expatriate career intentions cannot be fully explained by the fact that both constructs are
correlated with emotional intelligence or the same personality traits.
Our findings suggest that it is mostly the motivational dimension of cultural intelligence
that contributes to the incremental validity of cultural intelligence over and beyond other
predictors. Motivational CQ, or the desire to learn about and be in situations characterized by

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 19
cultural diversity, is based on an intrinsic interest as well as the confidence in one’s cross-cultural
effectiveness (Ang et al., 2007). Compared to the metacognitive, cognitive and behavioral
dimensions of cultural intelligence, the motivational dimension of cultural intelligence is the
only dimension that incorporates intrinsic interest as well as a measure of self-efficacy beliefs,
which come into play when predicting expatriate career intentions. Intentions, are themselves
characterized by a determination to act a certain way, which is reflected in expatriate career
intentions, as the likeliness and the future efforts that will be provided towards a future
expatriation. Individuals with high levels of motivational cultural intelligence are probably more
likely to have an incentive that drives them to provide the necessary efforts required by a future
expatriation.
Study 2
The aim with Study 2 was to extend the findings of Study 1 and to test a model inspired
from the Career Self-Management model (Lent & Brown, 2013), in which expatriate career self-
efficacy mediates the relationship between the personal ability of cultural intelligence and the
career goal of expatriate career intentions.
Method
Participants. The sample consisted of 469 third year French (from Paris area) business
administration university students (    , ranging from from 19 to 27
years). In the sample, 41.79% of the participants were male (n = 196), and 58.21% were female
(n = 273). We do not have information about the ethnicity of participants as ethnicity statistics
are illegal in France.
Measures. Cultural intelligence (CQS, Van Dyne, Ang, & Koh, 2008). We used the same
Cultural Intelligence Scale as in Study 1 to measure cultural intelligence. In this sample,

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 20
Cronbach’s ’s were .81, .77, .82, and .81 respectively for metacognitive CQ, cognitive CQ,
motivational CQ, and behavioral CQ.
Expatriate career self-efficacy and intentions (Weerasinghe & Kumar, 2015). We used a 6-
item scale to measure students’ expatriate career self-efficacy (Weerasinghe & Kumar, 2015),
and the 5-item scale to measure students’ expatriate career intentions as in Study 1 (Weerasinghe
& Kumar, 2015). Responses were given on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly
disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Sample items of expatriate career self-efficacy are “I would feel
comfortable pursuing a job in a foreign country on my own” and “If I wanted to, I could easily
pursue a job in foreign country on my own”. Two French native speakers translated the original
items into French, and an independent English native speaker then translated them back into
English for validation purposes. Previous empirical research has shown that both scales have
satisfactory psychometric properties with Cronbach’s  of .84 for self-efficacy and .93 for
intentions. Both scales also had satisfactory psychometric properties in our sample (Cronbach’s 
was .90 for self-efficacy, and .94 for intentions).
Procedure. Students participated in this study as an extra credit opportunity.
Questionnaires were filled in online. Anonymity and confidentiality were guaranteed. We
required that participants answer all items before they could submit their responses in the setting
of the online survey, consequently, we had no missing data among participants who took all the
questionnaires.
Results
Preliminary analyses. Descriptive statistics are reported in Table 3. Consistent with our
hypotheses and with our expectations regarding convergent validity, correlations between

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 21
cultural intelligence, expatriate career self-efficacy, and expatriate career intentions were all
positive.
Insert Table 3 about here
In order to assess the factor structure of the three scales, we ran a confirmatory factor
analysis for ordinal variables using the R package lavaan (Rosseel, 2012). The model was built
according to the theoretical structure of the three scales. The items of the cultural intelligence
scale loaded on their respective latent variable (metacognitive, cognitive, motivation, or
behavior). The four latent variables were allowed to correlate. The items of the expatriate career
self-efficacy scale and the items of expatriate career intentions loaded on their respective latent
variable. The correlations between all constructs were freely estimated in the analysis.
The model showed acceptable fit    / = 2. 23, CFI = .978, SRMR =
.047, RMSEA = .051. All factor loadings were significant and medium to large in magnitude (all
loadings were greater than .50). With this first analysis, we concluded that the data supported our
theoretical expectations regarding the structural validity of the investigated constructs.
Mediation analyses. The mediation analyses were conducted in lavaan. The process
model included the four dimensions of cultural intelligence as predictors of the mediator
expatriate career self-efficacy, which predicted in turn expatriate career intentions. Because the
distribution of indirect effects is not normal, it is usually recommended to use bootstrapping to
obtain bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals for making statistical inference about indirect
effects (Preacher & Hayes, 2008). See Figure 1 for a representation of the path model, and Table

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 22
4 for corresponding path coefficients. Note that the fit of the mediation model was the same as
the fit of the previously tested measurement model as the model was saturated.
Insert Table 4 about here
About one third of the total variation in expatriate career self-efficacy was explained by
cultural intelligence ( = .34). Cultural intelligence and expatriate career self-efficacy explained
about two thirds of the total variation in expatriate career intentions ( = .62). Our analyses
revealed that only the total effect of motivational CQ on expatriate career intentions was
significant ( = .75, < .001). Motivational CQ was also a predictor of expatriate career self-
efficacy ( = .61, < .001). Expatriate career self-efficacy was in turn a significant predictor of
expatriate career intentions ( = 1.03, < .001). To test more thoroughly the mediation, we
computed the indirect effect and its 95% bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval with 10000
bootstrap samples. When the interval does not include 0, we can conclude that the indirect effect
is significant. We found that expatriate career self-efficacy significantly mediated the effect of
motivational CQ on expatriate career intentions ( = .63, 95% Bootstrap Confidence Interval =
[0.40; 0.88]).
Discussion
Our aim with Study 2 was to test a model inspired from the Career Self-Management
model (Lent & Brown, 2013) in which expatriate career self-efficacy was conceptualized as a
mediator of the relationship between cultural intelligence – and especially its motivational
dimension – and expatriate career intentions. The originally hypothesized model was only partly
confirmed as only paths a3, b and c’3 were confirmed (see Figure 1 and Table 4). This shows that

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 23
unlike our hypothesized model, where expatriate career self-efficacy mediated the relation
between all four cultural intelligence dimensions, only the relation between motivational CQ and
expatriate career intentions, mediated by expatriate career self-efficacy is statistically significant.
Our findings support the model by showing that 1) motivational cultural intelligence is positively
related to expatriate career intentions, and that 2) this relationship becomes non significant when
controlling for expatriate career self-efficacy, indicating mediation, which was confirmed by
more advanced statistical tests.
General discussion
Our aim with the present research was to further understand the relationship between
cultural intelligence and expatriate career intentions by providing evidence 1) for the incremental
predictive power of cultural intelligence over and beyond emotional intelligence and personality,
and 2) for the mediating role of expatriate career self-efficacy. The findings of our two empirical
studies support our hypotheses. These findings have several theoretical and practical
implications.
The findings about the incremental validity of cultural intelligence show that the
relationship between cultural intelligence and expatriate career intentions cannot be fully
explained by the fact that culturally intelligent individuals are also more emotionally intelligent
or have specific personality characteristics that make them more likely to adjust to new cultures
and therefore more willing to work in a foreign country. In other words, the construct of cultural
intelligence taps into something specific that goes beyond emotional intelligence and personality
and this something specific is a relevant predictor of expatriate career intentions. From a
theoretical viewpoint, our findings suggest that the skills that differentiate cultural intelligence
from emotional intelligence – especially the confidence in one’s abilities to deal with cultural

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 24
differences and the motivation to learn about cultures (Crowne, 2009) – contribute to expatriate
career intentions. Our findings also suggest that the traits that differentiate cultural intelligence
from personality – such as the openness to new cultural experiences or the self-efficacy beliefs
pertaining to the ability to adjust to culturally diverse environments – contribute to expatriate
career intentions. More specifically, our studies show that it is the motivational dimension of
cultural intelligence that predicts expatriate career intentions, mediated by expatriate career self-
efficacy, suggesting that motivational cultural intelligence plays a key role in expatriate career
self-efficacy, and, in turn, in predicting expatriate career intentions. More research using specific
measures of the traits listed before could be conducted in order to test more thoroughly our
suggestions.
For practitioners seeking to develop monitoring programs to detect students who have
low intentions to expatriate, our findings suggest that it seems relevant to incorporate cultural
intelligence as it adds to the prediction of intentions to expatriate among students over and
beyond more traditional constructs such as emotional intelligence and personality. Some
institutions aim at fostering expatriation among students because the number of alumni who
expatriated is a direct performance indicator for them. The rate of expatriation among alumni is
often used, for example, to rank business schools. Our findings suggest that if the objective of a
practitioner is to favor expatriation, s/he should pay close attention to students with low levels of
motivational cultural intelligence as they might be less likely to intend to work abroad in the
future. Note that future research measuring expatriation behaviors might be interesting to
investigate whether cultural intelligence predicts expatriate decisions, and not only intentions.
Our findings regarding the mediating role of self-efficacy are in continuation with
different earlier studies. We replicated previously theorized and observed relationships between

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 25
cultural intelligence and expatriate career intentions (Krishnan & Kirubamoorthy, 2017;
Presbitero & Quita, 2017; Schlägel & Sarstedt, 2016) and expatriate career self-efficacy and
expatriate career intentions (Weerasinghe & Kumar, 2015). Importantly, whereas previous
research investigated these relationships in isolation, the current work is the first to place and test
these constructs within one theoretical model inspired by the Career Self-Management model
(Lent & Brown, 2013). According to the Career Self-Management model, career goals, actions
and outcomes are highly dependent on self-efficacy beliefs which are themselves dependent on
resources including learning experiences and personal inputs (personality, abilities and
predispositions). In line with the Career Self-Management model, our findings suggest that
individuals with resources to cope with cultural challenges have higher levels of expatriate self-
efficacy beliefs, which make them in turn more willing to pursue a career in a foreign country.
We found that it is especially the motivational dimension of cultural intelligence – which
measures the motivation as well as the confidence or the self-efficacy needed to deal with
cultural diversity – that contributes to self-efficacy beliefs regarding expatriation. The fact that
our direct effects were rendered non-significant after controlling for expatriate career self-
efficacy, suggests that, at least in our population, alternate mechanisms may not play a significant
role.
The findings of our second study suggest that expatriate career self-efficacy explains the
relationship between cultural intelligence and expatriate career intentions, which means that
cultural intelligence does not really add anything over and beyond self-efficacy when predicting
expatriate career intentions. Practitioners who are only interested in predicting intentions might
therefore not need to use the construct of cultural intelligence. However, cultural intelligence has
been shown to predict many outcomes, and not only intentions to expatriate. For example,

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 26
cultural intelligence is predictive of the cross-cultural adjustment and the performance of
expatriates, but also of the efficiency of cultural decision making (Van Dyne et al., 2008). We
therefore recommend practitioners to include cultural intelligence in their monitoring systems
along with emotional intelligence and personality which predict other important academic
outcomes as cultural intelligence can predict additional cultural outcomes that might be of
interest.
The findings of the second study might also have implications for the development of
training modules. Many empirical studies have shown that cross-cultural training has an impact
on cultural intelligence (Bücker & Korzilius, 2015; Fischer, 2011; MacNab, 2012; MacNab &
Worthley, 2012; Moon, 2010; Ott & Michailova, 2018; Reichard et al., 2015). From a practical
point of view our findings could suggest that in cross-cultural training courses, emphasis should
be placed on developing expatriate career self-efficacy. Notably, to foster expatriate intentions
among students, practitioners, but also teachers, could build interventions and teaching methods
that integrate methods to nurture cultural intelligence with methods to develop expatriate career
self-efficacy. Practitioners could, for example, not only train their clients to understand how
cultures can differ, but also explicitly introduce concrete ways of how clients’ could deal with
specific cultural career challenges, due to certain cultural differences. Such interventions and
training could boost clients’ confidence and develop their cross-cultural conflict resolution
preparedness and capabilities, and in turn, their willingness to pursue a career in another country.
Our study has limitations. A first limitation is that our study design was correlational. A
correlational design makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions regarding the direction of
relationships and the role of each variable in explaining the contribution of cultural intelligence
to expatriate career intentions. Although emotional intelligence was not related to expatriate

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 27
career intentions, it is possible that emotional intelligence, measured as an ability, also plays a
mediating role in the relationship between cultural intelligence and expatriate career intentions.
Cultural intelligence as a resource to cope with cultural challenges could indeed facilitate the use
of efficient emotion regulation strategies, which could in turn influence self-efficacy beliefs or
even directly influence expatriate intentions. Future research could therefore address alternative
models that explain the link between cultural intelligence and expatriate career intentions.
Emotional intelligence as an ability could be part of a serial mediation model between cultural
intelligence and self-efficacy, or could be part of a parallel mediation model next to self-efficacy.
Testing alternative models could provide valuable insights about the mechanism through which
cultural intelligence contributes to expatriate career intentions.
Another limitation of our study is that we tested our hypotheses in a student population,
which precludes drawing conclusions about other populations such as the population of workers,
or unemployed individuals. On the other hand, the question of expatriate career intentions is
especially relevant among university students, and as such the current study makes an important
contribution. We invite other researchers to replicate our study in other populations to investigate
the generalizability, but also the possible boundary conditions of our findings. Indeed, our studies
did not include moderators although several moderators may be of importance both regarding
cultural intelligence and the relationship between expatriate career self-efficacy and expatriate
career intentions. For example, the study domain has likely an impact on the relationship
between cultural intelligence and expatriate career intentions. The empirical literature already
shows that expatriation is more likely in some jobs than in others (Finaccord, 2014). It is possible
that in domains in which expatriation is less frequent, the level of cultural intelligence is less
strongly related to expatriate career intentions as individuals, independent of their level of

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 28
cultural intelligence, do not really expect that they will work abroad and therefore do not express
intentions to expatriate. Further research is needed to better identify when cultural intelligence is
especially relevant in predicting expatriate career intentions.

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 29
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CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 35
Figure 1. A simplified version of the proposed mediation model (Study 2) with expatriate career
self-efficacy as mediator of the effect of cultural intelligence dimensions on expatriate career
intentions (see Table 4 for estimates).

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 36
Table 1.
Study 1: Descriptive statistics.
Note. N = 241; CQ = Cultural Intelligence; p < .10; * p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .001.
Mean
SD
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
1. Metacognitive CQ
5.52
0.92
-
2. Cognitive CQ
4.27
1.01
.37***
-
3. Motivational CQ
5.59
0.85
.47***
.39***
-
4. Behavioral CQ
4.75
1.19
.37***
.30***
.40***
-
5. Extroversion
4.56
1.29
.05
.14*
.14*
.08
-
6. Agreeableness
5.11
0.93
.23***
.04
.20**
.07
.11
-
7. Conscientiousness
5.46
1.10
.08
-.12
.01
.07
-.13
.24***
-
8. Emotional stability
4.32
1.25
.30***
.10
.10
.04
.10
.29***
.20**
-
9. Openness to experience
5.24
0.98
.23***
.21**
.24***
.06
.27***
.17**
.08
.02
-
10. General emotional intelligence
5.05
0.81
.39***
.29***
.30***
.27***
.19**
.25***
.20**
.31***
.22***
-
11. Expatriate career intentions
4.59
1.04
.18**
.14*
.28***
.10
.05
.06
-.07
.08
.20**
.10

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 37
Table 2.
Study 1: Stepwise Regression results.
Note. N = 241; * p< .05; ** p< .01; *** p< .001; CQ = Cultural Intelligence.
Variable
Step 1
Step 2
General emotional intelligence
.01
-.01
Extroversion
-.05
-.05
Agreeableness
.02
-.01
Conscientiousness
-.13
-.11
Emotional stability
.08
.07
Openness to experience
.21**
.17*
Metacognitive CQ
.03
Cognitive CQ
-.01
Motivational CQ
.24**
Behavioral CQ
.00
R²
.06
.12

     
     

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 38
Table 3.
Study 2: Descriptive statistics.
Note. N = 469; CQ = Cultural Intelligence; All correlations are significant at p < .001.
Mean
SD
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
1. Metacognitive CQ
5.37
0.92
-
2. Cognitive CQ
4.35
0.88
.29
-
3. Motivational CQ
5.56
0.92
.43
.27
-
4. Behavioral CQ
4.58
1.01
.44
.39
.34
-
5. Expatriate career self-efficacy
5.22
1.10
.32
.22
.47
.28
-
6. Expatriate career intentions
4.26
1.23
.29
.17
.42
.18
.72

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTIONS TO EXPATRIATE 39
Table 4.
Unstandardized path coefficients of the structural mediation model (Bootstrap estimates).
Note. N = 469.
Effect
Path label

SE
p-value
95% CI
Direct effects
a1
0.11
0.11
.29
[-0.10; 0.34]
of cultural intelligence
a2
0.09
0.09
.95
[-0.10; 0.26]
on expatriate career self-efficacy
a3
0.61
0.12
<.001
[0.40; 0.88]
a4
0.11
0.10
.25
[-0.08; 0.30]
Direct effect of expatriate career self-efficacy on intentions
b
1.03
0.07
<.001
[0.90; 1.17]
Direct effects
c1’
0.14
0.12
.23
[-0.08; 0.38]
of cultural intelligence
c2’
-0.03
0.10
.78
[-0.22; 0.16]
on expatriate career intentions
c3’
0.11
0.11
.30
[-0.10; 0.33]
c4’
-0.18
0.12
.14
[-0.42; 0.06]
Total effects
c1
0.26
0.16
<.10
[-0.02; 0.61]
of cultural intelligence
c2
0.06
0.13
.65
[-0.21; 0.32]
on expatriate career intentions
c3
0.75
0.16
<.001
[0.47; 1.07]
c4
-0.06
0.16
.69
[-0.38; 0.25]