Happily (Mal)Adjusted : Cosmopolitan Identity and Expatriate Adjustment

As an increasing population identifies itself as cosmopolitan, we examine whether the cosmopolitan identity involves openness and adaptability to new environments, or instead favors maintaining a global lifestyle that persists across environments. Based on a field study of expatriates, we find that the expected duration of sojourn is a critical moderator of cosmopolitan behavior. In short duration sojourns, cosmopolitans adjust more to new environments than non-cosmopolitans. In long duration sojourns, non-cosmopolitans adjust more to the host country while cosmopolitans tend to retreat into a global lifestyle. We find that these adjustment choices are correlated with well-being, in contradiction with the existing literature on expatriates, which has suggested that adjustment should be the preferred behavior regardless of consumer identity