Does Country of Origin Matter whilst Evaluating Candidates for Managerial Positions?

A growing number of foreign country nationals in economies worldwide challenges academics to raise a question whether one’s country of origin (COO) matters when selecting candidates for managerial positions. Thus the aim of this paper is to analyze the COO effect on the evaluation of managerial competence of a foreign individual. The analysis includes both the literature review and the empirical findings from the authors’ pilot research. A focus group interview is the method that was applied in the study. The analysis contributes to the nascent streams in international business and cross-cultural management research that concern the COO effect and the liability of foreignness (LOF) that refers to foreign newcomers (i.e. immigrants, ex/inpatriaties). It also adds some practical implications for the International Human Resource Management literature with that respect. The empirical findings suggest that COO is apparent when managerial skills are evaluated by locals.