Abstract
The institutional theory suggests that multinational enterprises (MNEs) need to conform to institutional norms to gain legitimacy, thereby enhancing their survival in host countries. Conversely, from the perspective of business strategy, MNEs gain a competitive advantage by leveraging organizational capabilities worldwide. These two perspectives imply that MNEs face conflicting pressures when adopting HRM practices in their host country subsidiaries. This article discusses the rationale for why MNEs’ subsidiaries should intermediately conform to both internal and external institutional forces and adopt a combination of home and host country HRM practices. Furthermore, it suggests that intermediate conformity contributes to a higher survival rate of MNE subsidiaries in host countries through improved operational efficiency and gained legitimacy. Additionally, this article discusses the moderating role of a subsidiary’s resource dependency on the local environment, indicating that when the resource dependency is higher, the relationship between intermediate conformity, operation efficiency, legitimacy, and survival rate is weaker.
Keywords
MNEs, human resource management, legitimacy, resource dependence
Chinese Abstract
东道国人力资源管理实务的中间整合性： 它们为何及如何起作用
制度理论认为，跨国企业需要遵守制度规范以获得合法性，从而提高其在东道国的生存能力。相反，从企业战略的角度来看，跨国企业通过利用在全球布局的能力， 来获得竞争优势。这两种观点意味着跨国公司在东道国子公司实践人力资源管理时面临着相互冲突的压力。本文讨论了为什么跨国企业的子公司应该中间整合内部与外部的制度，并采用母国和东道国相结合的人力资源管理实务。此外，文章还指出，中间整合有助于提高跨国企业子公司在东道国的存活率，因为它提高了运营效率并获得了合法性。另外，本文还讨论了子公司对当地环境的资源依赖性的调节作用，指出当资源依赖性较高时，中间整合性、营运效率、合法性和存活率之间的关系较弱。
关键词: 跨国企业、人力资源管理、合法性、资源依赖性
ORCID Identifiers
Wenjuan Guo: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8438-5910
DOI
https://www.doi.org/10.5038/2640-6489.9.2.1286
Recommended Citation
Guo, W. (2024). Intermediate conformity of HRM practices in host countries: Why and how they work. Journal of Global Business Insights, 9(2), 117-130. https://www.doi.org/https://www.doi.org/10.5038/2640-6489.9.2.1286
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
