IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/intman/v6y2000i1p29-47.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Skill utilization of overseas interns: antecedents and consequences

Author

Listed:
  • Feldman, Daniel C.
  • Bolino, Mark C.

Abstract

Overseas internship programs are intended to provide substantive learning and skill development opportunities for interns. At the same time, internships are intended to provide employers with bright students who can help meet staffing needs and opportunities to recruit superior candidates for future job openings. However, overseas internships can be successful for interns and organizations alike only if interns are effectively utilized by their host organizations and have the opportunity to acquire new skills and knowledge. This research examines the factors that enhance the skill utilization and development of overseas interns as well as the consequences of poor skill utilization or skill misutilization. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 125 interns working in overseas internships in 23 countries. The results suggest that ineffective assignment procedures, poorly articulated duties, inadequate mentoring, and lack of corporate experience with internship programs all contribute to the underutilization or misutilization of interns' skills. In addition, poor skill utilization was strongly associated with negative attitudes about the internship and decreased work effort even after controlling for such variables as age, gender, previous overseas work experience, and cultural distance. The article concludes with directions for improving the design of overseas internships.

Suggested Citation

  • Feldman, Daniel C. & Bolino, Mark C., 2000. "Skill utilization of overseas interns: antecedents and consequences," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 29-47.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:intman:v:6:y:2000:i:1:p:29-47
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1075425399000137
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Khan, Linda J. & Morrow, Paula C., 1991. "Objective and subjective underemployment relationships to job satisfaction," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 211-218, May.
    2. Bruce Kogut & Harbir Singh, 1988. "The Effect of National Culture on the Choice of Entry Mode," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 19(3), pages 411-432, September.
    3. Daniel C Feldman & Holly B Tompson, 1993. "Expatriation, Repatriation, and Domestic Geographical Relocation: An Empirical Investigation of Adjustment to new Job Assignments," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 24(3), pages 507-529, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amy Wei Tian & Ying Wang & Terence Chia, 2018. "Put My Skills to Use? Understanding the Joint Effect of Job Security and Skill Utilization on Job Satisfaction Between Skilled Migrants and Australian Born Workers in Australia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 139(1), pages 259-275, August.
    2. Koveshnikov, Alexei & Tienari, Janne & Piekkari, Rebecca, 2019. "Gender in international business journals: A review and conceptualization of MNCs as gendered social spaces," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 37-53.
    3. Srikanth P.B., 2014. "Role Perception and Role Performance: Moderating Effect of Competence Mobilization," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 15(3), pages 531-544, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rosalie L Tung & Günter K Stahl, 2018. "The tortuous evolution of the role of culture in IB research: What we know, what we don’t know, and where we are headed," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 49(9), pages 1167-1189, December.
    2. Usunier, Jean-Claude, 1998. "Oral pleasure and expatriate satisfaction: an empirical approach," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 89-110, February.
    3. Utz Schäffer & Matthias D. Mahlendorf & Jochen Rehring, 2014. "Does the Interactive Use of Headquarter Performance Measurement Systems in Foreign Subsidiaries Endanger the Potential to Profit from Local Relationships?," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 24(1), pages 21-38, March.
    4. Shaheer, Noman Ahmed & Li, Sali, 2020. "The CAGE around cyberspace? How digital innovations internationalize in a virtual world," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(1).
    5. Ilhan-Nas, Tulay & Okan, Tarhan & Tatoglu, Ekrem & Demirbag, Mehmet & Wood, Geoffrey & Glaister, Keith W., 2018. "Board composition, family ownership, institutional distance and the foreign equity ownership strategies of Turkish MNEs," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(6), pages 862-879.
    6. Tanos, Barbara Abou, 2022. "Culture and mutual funds’ performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PB).
    7. Bas Daamen & Jean-Francois Hennart & Dong-Jae Kim & Young-Ryeol Park, 2007. "Sources of and Responses to the Liability of Foreignness: The Case of Korean Companies in the Netherlands," Global Economic Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(1), pages 17-35.
    8. Benischke, Mirko H. & Guldiken, Orhun & Doh, Jonathan P. & Martin, Geoffrey & Zhang, Yanze, 2022. "Towards a behavioral theory of MNC response to political risk and uncertainty: The role of CEO wealth at risk," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(1).
    9. Christine M. Chan & Lei Shi & Jingtao Yi, 2024. "Home country’s economic and political institutions: firms’ ownership decisions in cross-border acquisitions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 55(8), pages 1020-1037, October.
    10. Shi, Wei & Tang, Yinuo, 2015. "Cultural similarity as in-group favoritism: The impact of religious and ethnic similarities on alliance formation and announcement returns," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 32-46.
    11. Arora, Ashish, 1999. "Exploring the internalization rationale for international investment: wholly owned subsidiary versus technology licensing in the worldwide chemical industry," DEE - Working Papers. Business Economics. WB 6430, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía de la Empresa.
    12. Kampelmann, Stephan & Rycx, François, 2012. "The impact of educational mismatch on firm productivity: Evidence from linked panel data," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 918-931.
    13. Chen, Jun & King, Tao-Hsien Dolly & Wen, Min-Ming, 2015. "Do joint ventures and strategic alliances create value for bondholders?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 247-267.
    14. Dasí-Rodríguez, Sonia & Pardo-del-Val, Manuela, 2015. "Seeking partners in international alliances: The influence of cultural factors," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 1522-1526.
    15. Ye, Silin & Zhou, Jing & Jiang, Yunwen & Liu, Xiaming, 2023. "Managers as the bridge: How cultural friction influences the integration of cross-border mergers and acquisitions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(4).
    16. Ulrike Mayrhoffer & Fabrice Roth, 1999. "Gestion de l'incertitude et influence de la diversification et de la nationalité sur les formes de rapprochement : une comparaison Allemagne, France et Royaume-Uni," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 2(4), pages 135-156, December.
    17. Manolis, Chris & Nygaard, Arne & Stillerud, Bård, 1997. "Uncertainty and vertical control: An international investigation," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 6(5), pages 501-518, October.
    18. Anthony Goerzen & Stephen Sapp & Andrew Delios, 2010. "Investor Response to Environmental Risk in Foreign Direct Investment," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 50(6), pages 683-708, December.
    19. Conti, Claudio Ramos & Parente, Ronaldo & de Vasconcelos, Flávio C., 2016. "When distance does not matter: Implications for Latin American multinationals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 1980-1992.
    20. Mutinelli, Marco & Piscitello, Lucia, 1998. "The entry mode choice of MNEs: an evolutionary approach," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 491-506, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:intman:v:6:y:2000:i:1:p:29-47. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/601266/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.