Critical Success Factors Affecting Multinational Companies Selecting an Expatriate for An International Assignment: Qualitative Research

International companies decided to enter in different countries worldwide by establishing subsidiaries. These subsidiaries could be a representative office of the headquarters or a full fledge subsidiary with all competencies. In most of the cases companies decided in advance which positions in the subsidiary should be hold by an expatriate and for which positions a local employee would be the best solution. In case of an expatriate, the companies do have several alternatives starting from a local foreigner employee in the market of the host country, a local foreigner employee from the host company, a manager from the headquarters, a manager from the international organization (from the group, but from another country than the host country or headquarters) or from the international open market (others than the host country). The possible modalities and the implications of the choice are the major issues of this paper.