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Offshoring has been studied widely in the literature on strategic management and international business. However, apart from its consideration as an administrative activity, scant attention has been paid to the offshoring of the human resource (HR) function. Research in this regard has instead focussed on outsourcing (Reichel and Lazarova, 2013). The purpose of this paper is to achieve a better understanding of companies’ decisions to offshore HR activities. It adapts the outsourcing model of Baron and Kreps (1999) by including the HR offshoring phenomenon and a dynamic perspective.

While the analysis is mostly conceptual, the authors ground the author’s arguments in offshoring data from the Offshoring Research Network, to explore whether the drivers for offshoring HR differ from the drivers for offshoring other administrative activities. The idiosyncrasy of the HR function is supported by the authors’ exploratory analysis and also by the descriptive case of a multinational and its experience with offshoring.

A coevolutionary model is proposed for understanding the behaviour of companies offshoring their HR activities. This study contends that companies should address their decision to offshore HR activities from a dynamic perspective, being aware of three processes that are in constant change: the evolution of the HR function, the evolution of service providers, and the evolution of offshoring decisions.

This study seeks to make a threefold contribution to the international business, strategy, and HR management disciplines.

The present study aims to provide an empirical evaluation of job satisfaction among expatriates, repatriates, and domestic employees with no international experience.

The study was conducted on a large sample of employees from a Spanish multinational construction company. One‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Scheffe test were employed to analyse the data.

After controlling for hierarchical status, the results indicated that, among these three groups of employees, there are some significant differences in the satisfaction ratings on job characteristics, career prospects, and internal communication. The authors did not, however, find differences in the mean satisfaction rating on general job satisfaction. Findings are discussed, as are limitations and suggestions for future research.

The study contributes to the literature on job satisfaction.

Many studies have analyzed the retail and distribution systems in transitional economies, either from a general perspective or by analyzing specific countries. However, only a few, if any, have analyzed the situation and changes taking place in the Cuban market. The purpose of this paper is to provide a current overview of Cuban wholesaling distribution and retailing for consumer products. It examines the challenges that are taking place in the wholesale and retail distribution system in the country and describes the sharp contrast between the state of retailing in Cuba before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The research is principally exploratory, based on fieldwork and in‐depth interviews carried out in Cuba during the first semester of 2003.

The analysis presents a fast‐paced evolution process in the Cuban distribution system. Cuban retail durable and non‐durable consumer goods market presents two different distribution structures: one in Cuban pesos, formed by the traditional socialist retail system, and a growing second structure formed by the new stores and wholesalers operating in US dollars. The dollar market encompasses many semi‐autonomous government‐owned and operated companies, vertically integrated, with store sales totaling over $1.4 billion in 2002.

The paper concludes by discussing the current and future opportunities for brand manufacturers and exporters, and the close relationship between Cuban retailing and tourism.

HR practices are only effective if they are well accepted by employees. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of two forms of support on the acceptance of newly introduced HR practices (NHRPs): that of top managers and of supervisors. In addition, the authors analyze how these two forms of support work in conjunction with one another. The authors argue that a lack of consistency between the two impairs NHRP acceptance. The authors also explore variations in acceptance under different organizational climates.

The analysis is based on an original sample of 307 employees from nine multinational companies operating in Spain. Multilevel regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses.

The authors found that top management support, supervisor support, and innovation climate are all predictors of NHRP acceptance. The authors also found that low supervisor support reduces the effect of top management support. Finally, the authors found that innovation climate is not a substitute for management and supervisor support.

The findings suggest that top management and supervisor behavior is critical to gaining employee acceptance of NHRPs, no matter how well designed such practices are or how well they address the needs of the organization and its employees. The findings also indicate that top managers and supervisors should coordinate the introduction of NHRPs, since employees perceive support signals from these two agents not only individually but also in conjunction.

Recognizing that employee acceptance is an important determinant of the effectiveness of HR practices, the authors make a unique contribution to the literature by investigating some critical contextual enablers of acceptance.

The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the management challenges faced by international hotel operators when applying universally accepted management principles to the Cuban hospitality market.

The authors use both secondary and primary research sources based on fieldwork carried out in Cuba during the first semester of 2003 and a later visit during the months of December 2003 and January 2004. Eight in‐depth interviews were conducted with senior executives of Cuban, Spanish and French hotel corporations.

The paper presents a scenario where the state's role in the protection of the socialist revolutionary principles, combined with the need to adopt some market‐based management practices, constitutes a singular case in the world of hotel management. In the current Cuban institutional context, the implementation of some western best management practices can produce significant results, while others produce negative outcomes, and therefore, should be held back until the institutional context is changed.

The paper has implications for managers in suggesting that from a hotel perspective, the application of universally accepted best management practices must be carried out practice by practice and country by country.

This paper contributes to increased knowledge about the dilemmas of managing hotels in a still highly centralised socialist country but with an increasingly market‐based economy.