Modelling regional HRM strategies in China: An entrepreneurship perspective

Abstract

With the rapid development of organizational change and globalization in China, most Chinese firms are preparing themselves for doing business across regions and going global through effective strategic entrepreneurship and human resource management (HRM). This study examines the relationship between two general HRM practices, strategic entrepreneurship and organizational performance, in order to build up a cross-regional HRM strategy model. Participants in the study constituted 103 firms from 11 different cities and provinces. In each company, three types of surveys were distributed: an HRM practice survey (career development and performance management), a strategic entrepreneurship survey and an organizational performance survey among two human resource (HR) managers, two–three executives and two–three members of top management teams, respectively. Altogether 606 managers and executives participated from across regions in China. The results showed that performance management was positively related to organizational performance and such relationship was stronger when adaptive capability, one dimension of strategic entrepreneurship, was higher. The performance management–organizational performance relationship was also found to vary across regions. Moreover, two other dimensions of strategic entrepreneurship, proactive change and risk anticipation, were found to have effects on organizational performance. The implications of the findings are discussed.

Keywords:

• career development
• China
• HRM
• performance management
• regional analysis
• strategic entrepreneurship

Acknowledgement

The research work was supported by the NSF China Key Project (Grant No. 70732001) and the Ministry of Education China doctoral programme funds. We wish to thank the guest editor, Professor Malcolm Warner, as well as the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.