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Chapter 5 96 Hypothesis 4. Social support by host country agents has a stronger influence on expatriates’ (a) cross-cultural adjustment and (d) retention, as compared to social support by home country agents, whereas no differential influence exists on expatriates’ (b) commitment and (c) performance. 5.3.2 Criterion proximity As mentioned earlier, expatriate success has been measured using proximal and distal criteria. Expatriate adjustment is considered a proximal criterion as it resembles the individual process through which expatriates become comfortable in their new work and cultural environment, allowing them to focus, perform well and remain in their assignment. Cross-cultural adjustment thus is a mediating factor in the causal chain between social support and more distal criteria such as performance and retention (Harrison & Shaffer, 2005; Lazarova & Thomas, 2012; Thomas & Lazarova, 2006). Similarly, expatriates’ commitment to the organization is a proximal criterion as it is an early indicator of long-term retention (Aycan, 1999) and entices expatriates to perform well in order to remain (Meyer et al., 2002; Thomas & Lazarova, 2006). Because the causal link between social support and proximal criteria is closer, the direct effects are likely stronger. Hypothesis 5. Social support relates more strongly to proximal criteria of success (i.e. cross- cultural adjustment and commitment) than to distal criteria (i.e. performance and retention). 5.4 Methods 5.4.1 Search Strategy In September 2015, relevant published and unpublished studies were identified in three ways. First, the databases of Web of Science, EBSCOhost 3 , and ScienceDirect were systematically searched for relevant documents. Titles, abstracts and subject terms were searched for 130 keyword combinations (Table 5.1), resulting in 1098 references representing 709 unique documents. Second, we searched Web of Science and Google Scholar for studies that cited our included documents (i.e., “snowballing”), resulting in an additional 24 documents with potential for inclusion. Finally, leading scholars and journals were consulted in order to identify and collect unpublished documents. A request for studies was distributed via mailing lists and online fora 4 and recent issues of several journals 5 were manually searched for relevant documents. Because neither resulted in 3 Business Source Elite, PsychARTICLES, PsychINFO, Psychological and Behavioral Sciences Collection were included. 4 The Human Resources, Organizational Behavior and International Management divisions of the Academy of Management, the Academy of International Business, the SIOP, the BAM, the EURAM, the EAWOP, www.expat-research.org, and several LinkedIn groups. 5 Academy of Management Journal, International Business Review, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Global Mobility, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Journal of World Business, and Personnel Psychology.