My role at Middlesex University focuses on developing MDX research culture and capabilities through a wide range of individual, departmental, School and Faculty-wide initiatives as well as University-wide advice on international research rankings and MDX reputation management. Originally from the Netherlands, I have 30 years of experience in academia, and before joining Middlesex I have worked at six different universities in three countries. Most recently, I was Associate Dean Research at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
In the last 30 years I have worked in the area of international management, with a focus on HQ-subsidiary relationships, international HRM and expatriate management. I have also studied topics in what is called the "Science of Science", i.e. the mechanisms underlying the "doing of Science", including gender bias in Science, evaluation of research performance, and disciplinary differences in publication and citation practices. At present my main academic passions are twofold.
In the international management area, I am interested in the role of language, drawing explicitly on the diversity & inclusion literature, sociolinguistics, and communication studies. I study the renewed emphasis on language and accent as a marker of identity in a post-Brexit and increasingly tribalist world. I focus on the interaction between native and non-native speakers of English and on designing research-based training and interventions to model effective interlingual communication behaviour.
In the Science of Science area, I am interested in understanding what drives academic misconduct and questionable research practices, but also how to shape research cultures to promote collaborative and inclusive research behaviours. I study how implicit bias and power structures interact to hinder progress of underrepresented groups in academia. With a deeper understanding of the factors that drive successful science, we can more effectively address the world's environmental, societal, and technological problems.
Here is a 1-minute video of some of my recent research.
Dutch (native), English (fluent), German (intermediate), French (intermediate), Spanish (beginners)
In the past 30 years, I have taught courses at every level in the broad field of international business, as well as a range of courses related to research methods and academic development.
As evidenced in Open Syllabus Explorer, more than 35 of my journal articles are used in teaching syllabi worldwide, seven of which between 15 and 25 times. My best-selling textbook on International Human Resource Management is currently in its 5th edition and appears more than 500 times in teaching syllabi worlwide.
Two 1-minute videos describing some of my recent research can be found here:
I have published and presented over 170 papers in international journals and conferences and am one of the world's top 1% most cited academics in Economics & Business. Below is a very small selection of my key publications in the pas decade. For a full list, see Full list of publications.
Dodourova, Mariana and Zhao, Shasha and Harzing, Anne-Wil (2023) Ambidexterity in MNC knowledge sourcing in emerging economies: a microfoundational perspective. International Business Review , 32 (2). ISSN 0969-5931
Ciuk, Sylwia and Śliwa, Martyna and Harzing, Anne-Wil (2022) Implementing the equality, diversity, and inclusion agenda in multinational companies: A framework for the management of (linguistic) diversity. Human Resource Management Journal . ISSN 0954-5395 (Published online first)
Kim, Heejin and Reiche, B. Sebastian and Harzing, Anne-Wil (2022) How does successive inpatriation contribute to subsidiary capability building and subsidiary evolution? An organizational knowledge creation perspective. Journal of International Business Studies , 53 (7). pp. 1394-1419. ISSN 0047-2506
Lee, Hyun-Jung and Yoshikawa, Katsuhiko and Harzing, Anne-Wil (2022) Cultures and institutions: dispositional and contextual explanations for country-of-origin effects in MNC 'ethnocentric' staffing practices. Organization Studies , 43 (4). pp. 497-519. ISSN 0170-8406
Fan, Shea X. and Harzing, Anne-Wil (2021) The double-edged sword of ethnic similarity for expatriates. Organizational Dynamics , 50 (4). ISSN 0090-2616
2012 - A competitive Faculty grant of A$10,000 for a project on the role and measurement of cultural distance in entry mode choice.
2008 - A competitive Faculty grant of A$19,495 for a project on language differences and the Headquarter-Subsidiary relationship.
2004 - An ARC Discovery Grant of A$191,000 for a 3-year research project entitled "Babel in Business: how language differences influence management in multinationals". This was the largest individual grant awarded for a project in Management since 2002 (no data available before that time).
2004 - (with Isabel Metz) A competitive Faculty grant of A$8,000 for a project on diversity in editorial boards of academic journals in management.
2002 - A competitive Faculty grant of A$10,000 to finalise a research project on language and culture in questionnaire research.
2001 - A competitive University of Melbourne grant of A$24,000 for a research project on headquarters-subsidiary relationships, as one of only four proposals (out of fourteen applications) to be funded by the University.
1999 - An application for a 4-year ESRC Research Fellowship for a total amount of nearly £170,000 was alpha-rated (highest rating) as one of only eleven proposals to achieve this rating (out of over forty original applications). However, only two out of the eleven alpha-rated proposals were funded; sadly, not mine.
1993-1996 - In order to secure funds for the empirical part of my doctoral research I have displayed various entrepreneurial activities related to my research results. First, professional articles were written about parts of my research and sold to a Dutch journal in the area of Personnel Management. Second, I offered specialised company reports to all companies who participated in my survey and sold reports to several companies for a total of app. £1000. A subject-coded database comprising of some 1500 references in the area of international business and management that I had accumulated during my studies was offered to colleagues in the field by means of leaflets distributed at conferences and messages to mailing lists. Nearly 200 requests for information were received and a few dozen copies were sold for app. £25 each.
2022 – Ranked #1 in the WAIB top-20 articles in global mobility, in celebration of WAIB's 20th anniversary. The persistent myth of high expatriate failure rates. Available online... - Publisher's version - Related blog post
2022 – Ranked #5 in the WAIB top-20 articles in global mobility, in celebration of WAIB's 20th anniversary. Of bears, bumble-bees and spiders: The role of expatriates in controlling foreign subsidiaries. Available online... - Publisher's version - Related blog post - WAIB award interview - Advice for Early Career researchers interview
2021 – Ranked #5 in the WAIB top-20 articles in migration and diversity, in celebration of WAIB's 20th anniversary. Host country employees' ethnic identity confirmation: Evidence from interactions with ethnically similar expatriates (with Shea Fan), Publisher's version - Related blog post - 1-minute video
2021 – Ranked 44th worldwide, 14th outside the USA, 7th in the UK and 2nd in the Netherlands in the discipline of Business & Management. See: Baas, Jeroen; Boyack, Kevin; Ioannidis, John P.A. (2021), Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators. Available online
2020 – 8th most prolific author in the MNE subsidiary literature 1990-2019. See: Managing the MNE subsidiary: Advancing a multi-level and dynamic research agenda. Available online
2019 – Elected by Women of the Future as one of 50 Leading Lights for my work with CYGNA and Middlesex University
2019 – Academy of Management Learning & Education Decade [2009-2019] award for When Knowledge Wins: Transcending the sense and nonsense of academic rankings (with Nancy Adler). Available online... - Related blogpost
2019 – Journal of International Business Studies silver medal award. Awarded to scholars with at least 5 substantive contributions in JIBS in the first 50 years
2018 – Elected as Fellow of the Academy of International Business. Fellows are a group of distinguished AIB members recognized for their outstanding contributions to the scholarly development of the field of international business
2017 – Selected as one of the 39 Springer Publishing Business & Management Stars of 2017 Do we need to distance ourselves from the distance concept? (with Markus Pudelko), Publisher's version (free access!) – Related blog post
2016 – Two articles in the top-25 most cited in expatriation 1990-2000 & 2001-2010. Kraimer, Bolino & Mead (2016): Themes in Expatriate and Repatriate Research over Four Decades
2015 – 28th most prolific author in International Strategic Management 2000-2013. Trends in International Strategic Management From 2000 to 2013: Text Mining and Bibliographic Analysis.
2014 – #32 in the top-50 of leading authors in International Business 1995-2011. Contributing Institutions and Authors in International Business Research: A Quality-Based Assessment.
2014 - The volume "Grands Auteurs en Management International" devoted an entire chapter to my contributions in International Business: Les modes de controle des relations siege-filiales. I was the youngest academic featured in the volume, which also included prominent IB researchers such as John Dunning, Peter Buckley, Christopher Bartlett, and Geert Hofstede.
Anne-Wil is on the editorial board of Journal of International Business Studies, Management International Review, International Business Review, Thunderbird International Business Review, Journal of Global Mobility, European Journal of International Management, Human Resource Management, Human Resource Development International, European Management Review, European Management Journal, and The International Journal of Management Reviews. In the past, she has also acted as Associate or Departmental Editor for Journal of International Business Studies, the International Journal of Cross Cultural Management and the Australian Journal of Management.
I am one of the founding members of CYGNA, a network of female scholars. The main objective of the group is to promote interaction among female academics based in the London area and to provide a forum for learning, support, and networking. We are organizing events that take place every two months at a London-based university. Every meeting includes a mix of presentations, focusing on specifc research topics, career perspectives, research methods, publishing and research impact.
Since 1999 Anne-Wil maintains an extensive website (https://harzing.com/). The site provides information, online papers and resources about her areas of research. It also presents resources to assist with academic publishing and the assessment of research and journal quality, as well as software to conduct citation analysis.
