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Human resources have become a key issue in relation to the strong competition between service firms. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between high-performance human resource management (HRM) within this field to firm performance, making a useful attempt to explore the “black box” of enterprise human resources management effect on firm performance.

In order to validate the relationship between high-performance HRM and firm performance, Chinese service industry samples were collected. Structural equation modeling and regression are adopted to estimate the direct effect of high-performance HRM on firm performance and the mediating role of innovation.

The results show that the impacts of high-performance HRM on firm performance are significant. Moreover, innovation plays a partial mediating role between them. Training, work analysis and employee participation has a significantly positive impact on firm performance, while effects of profit sharing, employee development and performance evaluation on enterprise performance is not significant. The results strongly support the hypothesis that innovation holds intermediary variables between high-performance HRM and firm performance.

Studying the relationship between high-performance HRM and firm performance can help Chinese enterprises more reasonable and effective learning foreign advanced management ideas and methods. And then can help Chinese enterprises to establish a high-performance HRM system that is suitable for Chinese enterprises; the research can help enterprises to identify meaningful practice of human resources management, outstanding keys, and perfect the HRM system of enterprises; research on innovation and innovative thinking is conducive to develop employees’ innovation motive, promote employee’ innovative behavior, and improve firm performance.

This paper takes innovation as a mediating variable into the model and studies the intermediary role of innovation.

Despite a growing literature on human resource management (HRM) in emerging economies, evidence from Pakistan is limited. There is scant information on both the human resource (HR) practices that indigenous workplaces adopt and their associations with HR-related outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to fill that gap by examining whether universalistic assumptions about the applicability of “high-performance” HR practices are valid in Pakistan, a country with religious values and organizational traditions that differ to those in the west.

This study draws on the, to date, most comprehensive survey of indigenous establishments in Pakistan. The authors use logistic regressions to analyze the data.

Workplaces, in general, adopt several “high-performance” HR practices, such as extensive training, career breaks, rigorous pre-employment candidate assessment, and the sharing of strategic information with employees. Attitude surveys and the provision of training in a variety of jobs to non-managerial employees are consistently associated with better HR-related outcomes (absenteeism, quit rates, and labour productivity). Overall, the paper finds some limited support for the applicability and efficacy of high-performance HRM practices in Pakistan. Such practices conform to Islamic principles. The results also indicate, however, that cultural traits play a role in how those practices are implemented.

Increased adoption of certain HR practices by establishments in Pakistan may help to improve the working conditions and employment prospects of employees and may also ameliorate the country’s sluggish economic growth rates.

HRM in Pakistani establishments has received relatively scant attention. Existing research either focuses on a relatively small number of firms, assesses HR in MNC subsidiaries, or examines a limited range of HR practices. Understanding the HR practices that are (and are not) adopted and their associations with performance outcomes will not just enhance the knowledge of HR in emerging economies, but will also provide insights into how to improve establishment performance and economic growth rates.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on human resource practices contribution to retail SMEs performance through its role in developing organizational learning capability (OLC).

A cross-sectional design was adopted, where data were collected from a sample of 214 managers of retail SMEs, utilizing a survey questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships.

The results indicate that incentive reward has the strongest significance on firm performance with a stronger influence on economic performance. Performance appraisal has the greatest effect on system perspective, followed by the impact of employee selection on managerial commitment (MC). MC strongly affects firm performance while openness and experimentation influences satisfaction performance. Additionally, OLC fully mediates the relationship between high-performance human resource management (HRM) practices and firm performance.

It did not include large organizations nor consider other SME contextual variables which may otherwise exert significant impact on OLC.

A profound understanding of distinctive high-performance HRM practices effect on firm performance and the needed employee capabilities that would assist organizations to implement strategies to attain sustainable competitive advantage.

The study advances knowledge on HRM practices among SMEs by proposing that distinctive high-performance HRM practices can leverage OLC to enhance firm performance.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the strategic human resources management (HRM) literature from the points of view of both general management and hospitality and tourism.

The paper provides a critical, qualitative and comparative review of the strategic HRM research literature in the fields of general management and hospitality and tourism, providing insights into emerging research trends and pointing to the gaps in the literature.

The results of the review showed six streams of research from the hospitality and tourism literature: human capital and firm performance, high-performance HRM practices and performance, international/global issues and strategic HRM, individual HRM practices and performance, qualitative reviews of the hospitality and tourism HRM literature and country-specific strategic HRM. This review also points to the gaps between the two bodies of literature and gives recommendations for future research.

The current conceptual model provides a useful framework for examining how strategic HRM practices impact firm performance through macro (organizational) and micro (individual) levels. The current review illustrates the important role that frontline managers have in delivering HRM practices.

This review provides a conceptual model for future research and practical implications.

Despite the importance, no study exists which investigates the role of human resource (HR) in supply chain (SC) learning. This study aims to investigate the effects of high-performance human resource management (HRM) practices on different types of the SC learning (i.e. supplier, customer and internal learning) and innovation performance.

This study applies structural equation modeling to test the conceptual model based on data collected from 213 manufacturing firms in China.

The findings indicate that empowerment improves all three dimensions of SC learning, whereas training improves supplier and internal learning and teamwork is not related to any dimension of SC learning. These HRM practices also interactively influence SC learning dimensions. Moreover, customer and internal learning are directly related to innovation performance, while supplier leaning has a complementary effect with internal leaning but a substitutional effect with customer learning to innovation performance.

This study only selects training, teamwork and empowerment to manifest high-performance HRM practices. The impacts of high-performance HRM practices on different dimensions of SC learning and innovation performance are tested empirically with cross sectional-data collected only from manufacturing firms in China.

The findings suggest that managers can promote SC learning through the empowerment and training of their employees. Moreover, managers should place more emphasis on customer and internal learning to improve innovation performance.

Combining HRM and supply chain management (SCM) fields, this study offers a new framework to understand linkages between high-performance HRM practices, SC learning and innovation performance by using an empirical method.

The purpose of this paper is to examine sustainable human resource management (HRM) based on the synthesis and simultaneous effects of high-performance work systems (HPWS) on organisational performance and employee harm in five Asia Pacific countries.

Data collected using the CRANET survey instrument was analysed using two canonical correlation analyses.

This study found flexible high-performance work arrangements (FHPWA), such as tele-working and compressed working week could have a negative effect on organisational performance. However, it also found that employee benefits and trade union influence have a moderating effect on the impact of FHPWA resulting in improved organisational profitability and reduction of employee harm.

Limitations include the aggregation of the data from the five countries and consequently the neglect of national institutional factors on the impact of HPWS on outcomes. A limited number of factors were used as indicators of HPWS, organisational performance and employee wellbeing/employee harm.

This study indicates particular HRM policies considered as part of a HPWS have different impacts on organisational profitability and employee wellbeing. There is a need for further research to determine the impact of particular policies and to also examine the interaction and moderating effects of high-performance work practices and trade unions.

This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on sustainable HRM by examining the impact of HPWS on organisational performance and employee wellbeing. It is the first time this has been examined in Asian pacific countries.

Existing work on convergence/divergence among HRM practices in MNCs and local firms mainly focuses on Europe and the USA. Limited research examines these organizations in Pakistan, hindering our understanding of what policies MNCs are likely to adopt there as well as the extent of any differences between HRM in MNC subsidiaries and local firms. The purpose of this paper is to examine the similarities and differences between the HRM practices of MNC subsidiaries and domestic firms to assess if there is evidence for convergence or divergence.

The authors targeted MNC subsidiaries and domestically owned firms working in the banking, information technology and pharmaceutical sectors in Pakistan. These sectors have enjoyed a steady inflow of foreign direct investment and have a sizeable number of MNC subsidiaries. Out of 1,081 companies, some 392 participated in a face-to-face survey (response rate of 36.4 percent). The authors ran a series of binary logistic regression models to test the hypothesized relationships between HR practices and nationality of ownership.

The authors reveal that a small minority of both types of firm use some practices, such as high compensation contingent on performance and performance review, appraisal and career development. However, domestic firms use some practices, such as extensive training, performance appraisals and performance-related pay significantly less than their multinational counterparts. The authors argue that these differences reflect institutional influences in Pakistan as well as a potential opportunity for local firms to change their HRM practices. In other areas, such as recruitment and employee involvement, there are no differences between the two groups.

The authors deepen our understanding of the types of HR practices that local companies in an emerging economy are likely to adopt as well as those that they are unlikely to adopt. Existing research has tended to downplay HRM in Pakistan and the different use of individual HRM practices among MNC subsidiaries and local firms. This research reveals that some companies in Pakistan have sophisticated HRM practices in place in some areas; however, MNC subsidiaries make greater use of some HR practices, reflecting different cultural norms between the two groups.

This paper contributes to the theory of the relationship between human resource management (HRM) and innovation at small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by conducting a conceptual analysis of the question why Germany boasts by far the highest number of “Hidden Champion” SMEs. This is done by case studies from the army and public financial management of aid disbursal in developing countries. Implications for HRM at SMEs are discussed.

Conceptual analysis using case studies.

Contributing towards filling the gap concerning theoretical underpinnings of the link between HRM and innovation, we suggest that interdisciplinary work from relevant organisational case studies indicates that the concept of institutional design to provide motivational incentives may be relevant, especially concerning high performance systems with bundles of HRM practices. Specifically, the fundamental principle of subsidiarity is found to be important.

The research is broadly applicable to organisations of all kinds, as the diverse case studies indicate. We point towards tentative implications for the firms that account for the majority of the work force, namely SMEs, and among them the most successful ones, the so-called “Hidden Champions”.

HR managers can improve motivation, performance and innovation by decentralising decision-making as far as possible, while ensuring the overall organisational goals are well understood and shared, and resources are dedicated to train and educate staff. Additionally, the conception of rank-order competitions complements the institutional design.

Greater productivity and material performance as well as greater job satisfaction via larger autonomy and decision-making power on the local level can be achieved by the application of subsidiarity as key HRM configuration. This can be employed at SMEs, as discussed, but also other organisations. Further, the principle of subsidiarity and the greater emphasis on staff training and education may help reduce inequality.

Our paper contributes towards filling the gap in the literature on the link between HRM and innovation, by identifying the role of subsidiarity. We introduce an interdisciplinary perspective, with contributions from economics and psychology, among others. We also contribute to the history of HRM.