Global Convergence, Human Resources Best Practices, and Firm Performance: A Paradox

In view of rapid globalization and the subsequent heightened competitive pressure, it is imperative to investigate whether, as the convergence thesis has suggested, globalization is leading towards a universal adoption of Human Resource best practices (HRBP).Based on Barney’s (1991) argument that a firm’s competence needs to be unique, rare, and hard to imitate, if firms are increasingly adopting the same set of HRBP, these practices can no longer provide the competitive advantage for them.In this paper, we integrate the globalization argument with institutional theory and resourced-based view to formulate several hypotheses to test the extent of convergence in HRBP and the subsequent effect on firm performance on a sample of 248 firms operating in Hong Kong.