The bi-cultural option for international human resource management: the Japanese/Brazilian Nikkeijin example

Furusawa, M. and Brewster, C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5314-1518 (2015) The bi-cultural option for international human resource management: the Japanese/Brazilian Nikkeijin example. Journal of World Business, 50 (1). pp. 133-143. ISSN 1090-9516 doi: 10.1016/j.jwb.2014.02.005

Abstract/Summary

This paper reports on an important subgroup of international boundary-spanners – immigrants and second or third generation migrants from the MNC's home country living in the subsidiary host country. We take as our example the Nikkeijin (Japanese immigrants and their descendants) in Brazil. Such bi-cultural people are a largely unexplored source of boundary-spanning internationally competent talent for multinational enterprises. Using two different surveys, we find that this group is recognized as a source of talent by Japanese MNCs, but that their HRM practices are not appropriate to attract and use them in their global talent management programmes.