Cosmopolitanism is widely debated in the literature of business and management and social sciences. It is often seen as a solution to the problem of international employees' maladjustment. The literature has predominantly examined the experiences of labour migrants and expatriates. In recent years, self-initiated foreign work experiences (SFE) have gained more relevance. Demographically, economically, socially and culturally, SFEs are situated in the 'middle' between labour migrants and expatriates. Yet, concomitant discussions of a 'middle' of cosmopolitanism and the exploration of everyday life of this middle cosmopolitanism have been rare. Conceptualising SFE processes is vital for a more holistic and effective understanding of international adjustment and cosmopolitanism. To this end, the study provides an ethnography of SFEs' everyday lives. In particular, it examines the backgrounds and current experiences of international employees (IEs) in India's knowledge process offshoring (KPO) industry at work, at home and outside their homes. At work, IEs displayed and created attachments to their work, India and the local through their colleagues and friends. At home, IEs in different company apartments demonstrated various processes of sharing and learning despite cultural and linguistic differences. Outside their homes, IEs engaged in numerous leisure activities revealing IEs' motivations and ways in which IEs adjusted. The study offers two findings. Throughout their activities at work, homes and in India, IEs balanced emotions and reasons, negotiated the global and local and self-flexibility and externally required flexibility. IEs also engaged in friendships to various degrees. Both findings of IEs' activities reveal complex dynamics of SFE adjustment and cosmopolitanism. The findings built the foundation for a new framework to understand SFE cosmopolitanism and international adjustment.

Svenska varumärken i allmänhet och svenska modevarumärken i synnerhet har en god ställning på den globala marknaden. Som en konsekvens av detta väljer flera svenska modeföretag att marknadsföra sina varumärken genom att betona sitt svenska ursprung. Detta är vad som inom marknadsföring benämns som Country-of-Origin. Utlandsarbete har tidigare associerats med negativa aspekter så som kulturella konflikter och anpassningsproblem, men även positivt betonade aspekter som ökad produktivitet och ökad nivå av kreativitet. Denna studie har som syfte att undersöka hur svenska modedesigners som arbetar utomlands påverkas i sitt arbete av att ha Sverige som ursprungsland. Studien undersöker om svenska modedesigners likt svenska modeföretag nyttjar sin ursprungslandsidentitet för att skapa framgångar, hur de påverkas av sitt ursprungsland i form av fördelar, nackdelar, förväntningar och fördomar, samt vilken uppfattning de har av innebörden av att lyckas med sitt arbete inom modedesignbranschen i utlandet. De teorier som studien utgår ifrån är Country-of-Origin, Kulturkapitalsteori samt Psychological Contract Theory. Studien utgår från kvalitativa intervjustudier där fem svenska modedesigners verksamma i fem olika länder besvarat intervjufrågor i både strukturerat och semi-strukturerat format. Efter analys av resultaten i förhållande till relevanta teorier och tidigare forskning kommer studien till slutsatsen att det inte finns någon delad tydlig syn mellan svenska modedesigners i utlandet gällande innebörden med att lyckas med sitt arbete, då en mängd olika faktorer både inom den direkta arbetsplatsen och utanför benämns som orsaker bakom ett lyckat arbete. Utöver detta nås slutsatsen att svenska modedesigners i utlandet inte aktivt anser sig använda sin ursprungslandsidentitet för att lyckas i sitt arbete, men att de upplever särskilda förväntningar samt vissa fördelar med att ha Sverige som ursprungsland. / Swedish brands in general and Swedish fashion brands in particular hold a strong position on the global market. As a result of this many Swedish fashion companies choose to market their brands by emphasizing their Swedish origin. This is commonly known as Country-of-Origin within the field of marketing. Working abroad has often been associated with negative aspects such as cultural conflicts and integration issues, but also positive aspects such as increased productivity and increased levels of creativity. The purpose of this study is to examine how Swedish fashion designers working abroad are impacted in their work by having Sweden as their country of origin. The study examines if Swedish fashion designers utilize their country of origin in a way alike Swedish fashion companies in order to establish success, how they are impacted by their country of origin in terms of benefits, disadvantages, expectations and stereotypes, and also how they perceive the meaning of the term success in terms of working abroad as a Swedish fashion designer. The study utilizes Country-of-Origin, Cultural Capital Theory as well as Psychological Contract Theory to construct its theoretical base. The study is based on qualitative interviews where five Swedish fashion designers working in five different countries answer questions in both a structured and a semi-structured format. After analyzing the results using relevant theories and previous research the conclusion that there is no unified and commonly agreed opinion of what constitutes success while working abroad as a Swedish fashion designer is reached. This is due to the fashion designers expressing a variety of different factors both within and outside of the direct workplace when defining success. In addition to this the conclusion that Swedish fashion designers abroad do not claim to actively utilize their country of origin in order to be successful in their work, and that they experience certain expectations and some benefits because of their country of origin is reached.

This study investigates the association between CEO foreign work experience and CEO total compensation. The sample contains 863 observations from 2007 to 2016 from seven European countries. As certain aspects of foreign work experience are considered beneficial for the firm, it is likely that those who have worked abroad may appropriate some of the benefits themselves in the form of higher compensation. Contrary to the proposed positive association based on the resource-based theory, I find evidence that CEOs with foreign work experience receive significantly lower levels of total compensation compared to similar CEOs without foreign work experience, regardless of the diversity of their work experience. The results are robust to the endogenous CEO selection using a propensity-score matching method. The results show that the negative association between CEO foreign work experience and CEO total compensation is more pronounced for CEOs that are at the head of firms with a higher level of internationalization, measured as percentage of foreign sales. Managerial implications and suggestions for related future research are provided.