How cultural intelligence drives expatriate performance: The serial mediating roles of cross-cultural competence and psychological resilience

Expatriate underperformance remains a persistent challenge for multinational corporations and a central concern in cross-cultural management scholarship. Yet existing research still offers limited explanation of how intercultural capabilities are transformed into effective performance in culturally complex work settings. Drawing on Conservation of Resources theory, this study examines how cultural intelligence enhances cross-cultural performance through the sequential development of cross-cultural competence and psychological resilience. Survey data from 314 company-assigned expatriates across Taiwan, Europe, and North America were analysed using PLS-SEM and Hayes’ PROCESS Macro. The findings show that cultural intelligence positively predicts cross-cultural performance and that this relationship is partially mediated by cross-cultural competence and psychological resilience. Specifically, cultural intelligence strengthens expatriates’ cross-cultural competence, thereby enhancing psychological resilience and, in turn, improving cross-cultural performance. The study contributes to cross-cultural management scholarship by showing that effective cross-cultural performance is not simply the direct result of cultural intelligence, but a resource-building process through which intercultural, competence-based, and psychological resources accumulate. The findings also offer practical implications for expatriate selection, training, and support.