What Motivates Expatriate Academics to Work in Uzbekistan?

The purpose of this study is to investigate what motivates expatriates academics to work in Uzbekistan. For this purpose, we interviewed 19 expatriate academics working at international universities in Tashkent. The findings showed that the motivation factors, pertaining to expatriate academics, for moving to Uzbekistan can be categorized as the four pull factors: 1) new experience and challenge; 2) financial benefits; 3) new findings in research areas; 4) contribution for developing countries. Compared to the literature on expatriates’ academics, this research found interesting results showing that motivation factors to work in Uzbekistan were only related to pull factors. Other results of our research indicated that most respondents have no problems to come to Uzbekistan. The primary problem for expatriates’ academics working in Uzbekistan is about children’s education. The main problem of expatriates’ academics working in Uzbekistan is related to children’s education. The secondary problems are concerned with living factors, such as foods and safety, and being far away from a family. In addition, this research identifies a need and prospective view for the future research on expatriate academics. This is an important and appropriate research agenda, because there remains a scarcity of research on expatriate academics in the emerging markets. Hence, a further research is necessary to shed more light on expatriate academics.