'What is your self-made expat story?' Netnography of entrepreneurial re-users of a popular semantic. (2016) - Roth, Steffen
The label 'expatriate' is increasingly used by, and applied to, an increasing number of persons who do not fit classical concepts of company-driven expatriation. While relevant research is engaged in establishing interaction with smaller samples of self-initiated expatriates, the present article represents netnography of a larger, international sample of self-designated self-initiated expatriates who, independently of any research intervention, engaged in an online conversation headlined 'Self-Made Expats?' on the international expatriates platform internations.org. While key findings from this non-responsive approach to the self-disclosures of an internationally-diverse web community of self-made expatriates support certain dimensions of prevailing academic definitions, they also suggest reconsidering the so far disclaimed relevance of entrepreneurial spirit for the concept of self-initiated expatriation.