跨国公司在中国的人力资源管理策略研究

世界经济一体化使得跨国公司逐步成为世界范围配置资源的核心力量,日益开放的中国吸引了众多的跨国公司进入中国市场。跨国公司进入中国面临着复杂的经营环境,相比于传统人力资源管理,其在中国的人力资源管理面临着严峻的挑战。文章从平衡人力资源管理实践的全球整合和本土响应的角度来探讨跨国公司在中国的人力资源管理策略。     

An empirical analysis and extension of internalization theory in emerging markets: The role of firm-specific assets and asset dispersion in the multinationality-performance relationship

This study examines the relationship between firm multinationality and financial performance with a focus on firm-specific assets and dispersion of these assets for MNCs from emerging markets. Drawing upon internalization theory, the authors reveal that while the financial performance of manufacturing MNCs depends on technological assets, service MNCs are more dependent on marketing assets to succeed in international markets. Study findings further emphasize the critical role of the industry context in emerging markets as the authors demonstrate that international asset dispersion weakens the effects of internationalization on financial performance more for MNCs in manufacturing industries than for MNCs in services.     

Business Models for Frugal Innovation in Emerging Markets: The Case of the Medical Device and Laboratory Equipment Industry

This study investigates business models for frugal innovation (i.e. a specific form of resource-constrained innovation) in the medical device and laboratory equipment industry in the context of emerging markets. Based on original data from five case studies, we investigate how firms can set up value creation and value capturing mechanisms to reach new customer segments in remote rural areas with unprecedented value propositions. With this research, we contribute to the literature on frugal innovation and business models in emerging markets. It is among the first empirical studies to apply a fine-grained perspective on resource-constrained innovation in emerging markets. In doing so, we focus on its most disruptive form, which is when these innovations entail entirely new applications. We advance and detail the value proposition for frugal innovation in these industries and argue that frugal innovation create new markets. Further, we show how firms set up their value creation and value capturing mechanisms to achieve the value proposition and identify two distinct Research & Development (R&D) strategies for frugal innovation.     

Japanese multinationals in the post-bubble era: new challenges and evolving capabilities

Since the bursting of Japan's bubble economy, from 1990 onwards, Japanese multinational companies (MNCs) have faced new competitive challenges and questions about the management practices on which they had built their initial success in global markets. Japanese engagement in the international economy has undergone a number of phases. In the period before the Second World War, Japanese companies learnt from foreign MNCs in trading, shipping, and manufacturing, frequently through strategic alliances, and leveraged their capabilities to succeed in overseas and largely Asian markets. In the immediate post-war decades, during the Japanese ‘economic miracle’, there were notable examples of MNC investment in raw materials and labour intensive production, but both inward and outward foreign direct investment were not significant. Japanese companies achieved leadership in management and technology, in order to support a strategy of export-orientated industrialization. Changes in government policies in the developed economies of the US and Western Europe forced leading Japanese manufacturers to convert themselves into MNCs and to transfer their home-grown capabilities to overseas subsidiaries. The period after 1990 marked declining Japanese competitiveness and it asked questions about the ability of Japanese MNCs to be more responsive and global in their strategies, organization and capabilities.     

Examining the overseas staffing options utilized by Australian headquartered multinational corporations

MNCs need to use a range of options to manage their international operations. The aim of this study was to enhance understanding of how MNCs staff international management positions using a sample of top Australian MNCs across a range of industries. The rationales executives gave for their MNCs' staffing of international management supported selecting managers with higher competency levels for complex overseas assignments. Staffing options were chosen to reduce risks from cultural friction, divergent goals, and asymmetry in knowledge between the parent company and the host operation, chiefly through staffing by parent country nationals (i.e. long-term expatriates, Australians or Westerners already living in the host country or abroad, domestic international managers). Host country managers were used to reduce risks that arose from not being responsive to the host environment and to avoid costs, and when they were least risky to the firm. By contrast, the staffing options also served practical purposes, including deploying expatriate managers to provide skills (competencies) and, less frequently, to develop managers for future management positions in the organization.     

Human resource management in Asian subsidiaries: comparison of French and Japanese MNCs

European and Japanese multinational corporations (MNCs) have expanded their activities in Asia, usually through massive mobilization of various human resources from head offices, whether expatriated or on short-term assignments, and a reliance on diverse categories of local employees. Because expatriation is costly, difficult and often limited in its results, MNCs have developed localization strategies for management positions to support their regional development. This contribution addresses such a scenario by comparing Japanese and French MNCs in eight Asian countries, based on 53 interviews across subsidiaries of 17 MNCs. We find that Japanese MNCs have not localized management positions as much as French MNCs, but they have grown more willing to do so. To compensate for the lack of local capabilities without sending more expatriates, both French and Japanese MNCs frequently send experts on short-term assignments. Finally, though human resource practices vary widely across countries, even for a given MNC, some harmonizing principles have been introduced to regional HRM strategies recently.     

Introduction: globalizing international human resource management

In this Introduction, we have sought to explain the rationales in putting together a ‘Special Issue’ on Globalizing International Human Resource Management (IHRM). These include, first, coverage of as wide a range of regional and national cultures as possible; second, presentation of as wide a set as perspectives as possible; and last, discussion of how these may shape both theory and practice in the field.     

跨国公司与中国高校 R & D 合作中技术溢出影响因素的实证研究

探究跨国公司和中国高校R＆D合作中技术溢出的影响因素,对于增强R＆D合作,促进跨国公司向我国高校的技术溢出以及完善国家创新体系具有重要价值。在现有理论文献和调查的基础上,提出假设,通过问卷统计分析对跨国公司与中国高校R＆D合作中技术溢出的影响因素进行了实证检验,研究结果表明,现有沟通交流水平以及合作环境状况对高校科研能力获益,高校与跨国公司的合作地位差距对高校科研管理获益,以及高校与跨国公司的技术差距对高校科研资源获益均产生负面影响,但高校与跨国公司的技术差距却对高校教育功能获益产生正向影响。     

跨国公司在华竞争环境、经营状况与满意度的实证分析

本文通过对100家大型跨国公司的问卷调查,在分析中国外商投资的趋势、影响和回报的基础上,梳理了在华跨国公司及母公司的基本状况和相互关系,以及在竞争环境、经营自由度、决策权、竞争力、长期经营战略、投资满意度等方面的具体情况,总结出近年来跨国公司在华战略调整的重点,并针对中国企业提出对策建议。     

Building from below: subsidiary management moderation of employment practices in MNCs in China

The international human resource management literature has a long tradition of examining the impact of institutional differences on the employment practices adopted by multinational corporations (MNCs). The question of how actors make sense of institutional differences, however, has received less research attention. This study examines the enactment of employment practices as institutional differences are translated, contextualized and deployed by managers at subsidiaries of MNCs. Based on intensive case studies at two Japanese–Chinese joint-venture manufacturing plants, the study first shows that distinctive employment practices were adopted to manage the boundaries between employee groups. These distinctions are then explained by the institutional difference between the home country (Japan) and the host country (China) as well as the way that institutional differences were represented by the managers in the process of designing, developing and executing employment practices. The study therefore argues that country differences are not only assumed spaces, but are also a reservoir of management resources that are moderated, in the case of employment practices, by actors’ strategic choices and political actions before they are enacted in the subsidiary.