Japanese and British Retail Multinationals’ Subsidiaries in China: Are National Business Differences Evident in their Approach to HRM?

摘要

This paper compares the employment regime in Japanese and United Kingdom multinational retail firms’ subsidiaries in China. From a theoretical perspective, UK and Japanese firms are constituted by significantly different institutional and business logics. While Japanese firms are considered to have a long-term orientation, with labour regarded as a fixed cost, extensive training and strong internal labour markets, the UK system is typically characterised by firms operating on a more short-term basis with high labour mobility and limited investments in human resource development. Drawing upon survey data from 859 staff and managers, this paper examines and compares the extent to which such differences are apparent in the subsidiaries of UK and Japanese retail multinational firms in China. The findings indicate little support for the effect of the anticipated ‘national models’, instead while some results are contrary to our expectations most are characterised by lack of consistency.