Chinese vs. Western business expatriates 553 International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 21 No. 7, 2000, pp. 553-565. # MCB University Press, 0143-7720 Received May 1999 Revised March 2000 Accepted May 2000 Adjustment of Chinese mainland vs. Western business expatriates assigned to Hong Kong Jan Selmer Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong Bahman P. Ebrahimi Daniels College of Business, University of Denver, Colorado, USA, and Li Mingtao China Merchants Bank, Hong Kong Keywords Expatriates, National cultures, Chinese, Hong Kong Abstract Business expatriates from the PRC mainland and Western countries assigned to Hong Kong were surveyed assessing their sociocultural and psychological adjustment. Despite their common cultural heritage, the results showed that Chinese mainland business expatriates were less well adjusted to work and life in Hong Kong than their Western counterparts. Implications of these findings are discussed and future avenues for improving and extending this kind of exploratory research are examined. Introduction China has always regarded Hong Kong as a window to the outside world and Western culture and modern thoughts were quickly imported into China through this window (Wulan, 1997). Utilizing this window of opportunity, the Chinese government has been investing in the territory for many years, which has resulted in many China-funded Enterprises (CFEs) in Hong Kong (Chan, 1996). The history of CFEs can be traced back to the establishment of China Merchant Steam Navigation Company in 1872 by the Quing government. It was the predecessor of China Merchants Group of today (Hu, 1995). The system of CFEs was established in the 1940s, and until 1978 its main purpose was to serve as a bridge and a window for China to do business with the outside world and to gather international information. This system was principally based on the ``Four Big'', which were China Resources, Bank of China, China Merchants, and China Travel. However, this picture changed dramatically in 1978 when China began its economic reforms and launched its ``Open Door Policy''. There were only 122 CFEs in Hong Kong before 1978, but at the end of 1996 there were no fewer than 1,830 CFEs operating in the territory. Aligned with that expansion of CFEs, Hong Kong has seen an increasing number of Chinese mainland business expatriates (CMBEs). Assigned to Hong Kong to perform The research register for this journal is available at http://www.mcbup.com/research_registers/tdev.asp The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emerald-library.com This study was supported by a Faculty Research Grant from the Hong Kong Baptist University.