Expatriate knowledge utilization and MNE performance: A multilevel framework

•Expatriate knowledge utilization is a multilevel and cyclical process.•Expatriate learning helps continued knowledge flow to subsidiary and home division.•Knowledge transfer to the subsidiary can continue upon repatriation.•Outward knowledge transfer can begin before repatriation.

We present a multilevel conceptual framework of expatriate knowledge utilization. Drawing from the resource-based view and multilevel approaches to expatriate utilization, we describe how individual expatriate characteristics (task-related and intercultural competencies, and motivation to transfer knowledge) and international adjustment, as well as subsidiary characteristics (absorptive capacity and knowledge sustainability) influence knowledge transfer effectiveness. We also draw from outward knowledge transfer and expatriate learning perspectives to address the cyclical nature of the process. As such, we include the effect of expatriate learning not only in continued knowledge flows to the subsidiary, but also in knowledge flows to the home division. We offer several implications for research on practice, including the notion that knowledge transfer to the subsidiary should continue upon repatriation, and that outward knowledge transfer can begin before repatriation. The framework reiterates that expatriates are valuable human capital and a source of sustained competitive advantage to the MNE.