Psychic distance in the process of internationalization: the perception of brazilian expatriates

Abstract

The aim of this article was to identify the perceptions of Brazilian expatriates concerning the psychic in the internationalization process. Although the concept of psychic distance has being explored in the literature for the analysis of processes of internationalization of companies, recently have researchers begun to examine its influence on the processes of expatriation. To this end, a review was made of the studies of psychic distance and international companies as well as of the expatriation processes that are directly influenced by the challenge of psychic distance. Brazilian expatriates ' perceptions about the psychic distance was identified through 24 interviews, in which it noted that the psychic distance tends to be high for the cultural dimension and median for business and environmental dimensions in the sample investigated. Moreover, the difficulties in the expatriation process tend to intensify the perception of high psychic distance for the Brazilian expats.

Keywords

• distância psíquica
• expatriação
• internacionalização
• cultura