Empowering IT expatriates: Unleashing the synergy of psychological capital, cultural intelligence, cross-cultural adjustment, and organizational citizenship behavior in a globalized tech frontier

Grounded in Conservation of Resources theory, this study examines how psychological capital influences organizational citizenship behavior among Vietnamese IT expatriates in Taiwan, focusing on the mediating role of cross-cultural adjustment and the moderating influence of cultural intelligence. Survey data from 500 participants were analyzed using PROCESS Macro and AMOS. The results show that hope, self-efficacy, and optimism significantly predict cross-cultural adjustment, whereas resilience does not. All psychological capital dimensions positively predict organizational citizenship behavior, and cross-cultural adjustment partially mediates these relationships, indicating that psychological resources promote discretionary behaviors more effectively when expatriates achieve cultural ease. Cultural intelligence significantly strengthens the psychological capital, cross-cultural adjustment link, with the strongest effects observed for self-efficacy and optimism, highlighting the importance of cultural capability in resource deployment. This study advances expatriate research by integrating psychological capital, cross-cultural adjustment, cultural intelligence, and organizational citizenship behavior into a unified model within an East Asian technology context. Practical implications include developing psychological capital-cultural intelligence training, enhancing intercultural onboarding practices, and supporting migrant professional networks to improve expatriate retention and performance.