Attracting SIEs: Influence of SIE motivation on their location and employer decisions

Self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) are skilled and mobile individuals, who present a large but untapped pool of skilled international workforce. There is still not enough research on understanding how SIEs choose a location or an employer. The focus of this paper is to explore individual, organisational and macro-level factors that impact on SIE choice of employer and location. We suggest the use of location branding by city authorities and employer-of-choice strategy by organisations as strategic approaches in attracting and retaining SIEs. We propose expanding the HRM domain to include collaboration between employers and local authorities as a new strategy in attracting SIEs.