This study aims to examine the effect of local experience acquired by subsidiaries on the expatriate staffing strategy of multinational corporations (MNCs) for their overseas subsidiaries, and to empirically analyze the roles played by two distinct motives in this process: the exploitation of proprietary advantages held by MNC headquarters and the exploration of new capabilities existing in host countries. By analyzing five-year panel data on foreign direct investments by Japanese MNC overseas subsidiaries across 18 countries in North America, Asia, and Europe, the empirical results of this paper are as follows. First, as the local experience acquired by MNC overseas subsidiaries increases, the proportion of expatriate executives dispatched from headquarters among subsidiary management decreases. Second, when the firm-specific competencies held by headquarters are substantial and the ownership structure takes the form of a wholly owned subsidiary with strong headquarters control, the negative relationship between overseas subsidiary local experience and the expatriate executive ratio is weakened. Third, as the host country's technological environment becomes richer, the negative relationship between overseas subsidiary local experience and the expatriate executive ratio is strengthened. Fourth, the moderating effect of headquarters characteristics was found to be stronger in the group of subsidiaries that were the first to enter a specific host country, whereas the moderating role of host country characteristics was found to be stronger in the group of subsequently entering subsidiaries. The empirical findings of this paper suggest that the two motives—exploitation of firm-specific competencies existing within MNC headquarters and exploration of new capabilities in host countries—exert opposing influences on the design of human resource strategies that reflect the local experience acquired by overseas subsidiaries. Furthermore, the findings indicate that depending on the order of entry into foreign direct investment, the characteristics of resources and competencies prioritized for the survival and adaptation of overseas subsidiaries differ between headquarters and host country attributes.