To share or not to share: The role of affect in knowledge sharing by individuals in a diaspora

The diaspora is often credited with helping its homeland, especially when the country is less developed. Yet diasporans are also known to have complex feelings about the homeland. In a study of the South African diaspora, we find that positive affect about both the homeland and the migration experience is positively correlated with the willingness of diasporans to share knowledge with the homeland. But for negative affect there are inflection points, and different intensities of feelings such as guilt and a sense of loss have differing effects. Our findings suggest that an ongoing, beneficial engagement by a diaspora cannot be assumed. Given how individuals are increasingly shaping crossborder economic activity, our findings also suggest that international business research needs to pay greater attention to individuals and individual-level variables such as emotions.