Edstrom and Galbraith (1977) suggest three main reasons why multinational companies (MNC's) use expatriates in their foreign subsidiaries: (1) to provide technical expertise; (2) to aid in management development; and (3) for organizational development. According to Kobrin (1988), other reasons included socialization of local management to the corporate culture and the creation and control of a verbal exchange network that ties subsidiaries with corporate headquarters. The use of expatriates is not without disadvantages. Expatriates can cost three to five times an assignee's host-country salary per year--more if currency exchange rates become unfavorable (Krell, 2005). Thus, the costs and benefits of expatriates are often compared. For example, the term "return on investment of international assignments" has been defined as a measurement of expatriate effectiveness (McNulty, 2005).