Going abroad to play: Motivations, challenges, and support of sports expatriates

Marian van Bakel

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › peer review

Resumé

Professional athletes moving abroad for their career is a novel phenomenon in IHRM. This exploratory paper charts the motivations of sports expatriates to move abroad to play, as well as adjustment challenges and sources of support. A survey was conducted with 77 professional athletes in 10 different sports. The main motivations to move abroad were an interest to experience life abroad, followed by the search for new challenges. In terms of challenges, different coaching style and communication issues were most often mentioned. Support was mainly informal, through team mates rather than professional providers. Our paper contributes to the literature because it is one of the first studies focusing on sports expatriates from an international HR perspective. Our study provides information on a vulnerable group of expatriates; they are young in age and under extreme performance pressure. Sports expatriates need all the support they can get, and yet, little professional support is offered.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftThunderbird International Business Review
ISSN1096-4762
StatusAccepteret/In press - 2019

Fingeraftryk

sport
Sports
athlete
coaching
career
communication
Expatriates
performance
experience
Group

Citer dette

van Bakel, Marian. / Going abroad to play: Motivations, challenges, and support of sports expatriates. I: Thunderbird International Business Review. 2019.
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van Bakel, M 2019, 'Going abroad to play: Motivations, challenges, and support of sports expatriates', Thunderbird International Business Review.

Going abroad to play: Motivations, challenges, and support of sports expatriates. / van Bakel, Marian.

I: Thunderbird International Business Review, 2019.

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › peer review

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van Bakel M. Going abroad to play: Motivations, challenges, and support of sports expatriates. Thunderbird International Business Review. 2019.