Digital Technologies and Expatriation – A Systematic Literature Review

Over the last two decades, the impact of digital technologies on the management of international assignments (i.e., expatriation) has gained increasing attention by researchers across the world. Although, studies on the influence of digital technologies on the expatriation process exist for 20 years now, most researchers focus on conventional face-to-face expatriate assignments. Given the new relevance of digital technologies in a COVID-19 pandemic affected world, we reviewed existing expatriation literature between 2000 and 2020 to guide future research. Our review shows that the entire expatriation cycle is influenced by various digital technologies and that global HR practices need to reflect the increasing use of digital technologies from an integrated perspective. We point to the emergence of advanced technologies (i.e., Virtual Reality) and their potential for expatriation. Thus, understanding the transformation and digitalization of expatriation should be the focus of researcher and practitioners aiming to adapt expatriation to the new normal.