In China, research on HPWS–performance link has been conducted by scholars (Zhu,
Thomson and Cieri 2008; Cooke 2009). Bjorkman and Fan (2002) reported that HPWS is
significantly and positively related to firm performance measures of FIEs. Zhang and Zhao
(2006) showed that high-performance HR practices are positively associated with HR
outcomes in small- and medium-sized firms in China. Sun, Aryee and Law (2007)
demonstrated that high-performance work practices were positively associated with
employee retention and productivity, using data from the hotel industry in a southern
province of mainland China. Li et al. (2008) reported that companies relying on an internal
labour market achieved higher profits and market share than those relying on the external
labour market. Certain studies have, however, failed to find supportive evidence of
HPWS–performance linkage. Chow (2003), for example, did not observe clear and strong
relationships between HPWS and organizational outcomes in the context of three Asian
countries. Liu, Zhou and Chao (2005), meanwhile, found partial support for the positive
impact of HPWS in their researched firms. Zhang (2006) tested the relationship between
high-performance work practices and firms’ performances based on multi-industry data
collected in mainland China, but failed to find a significant relationship. Chow, Huang and Liu (2008) found that in their firms, HR practices had no significant impact on sales
growth, profit growth and overall outcomes, when linking HRM practices directly to
organizational outcomes. Chang and Chen’s (2011) research indicated that employee
affective commitment and employee human capital mediated the relationship between
HPWS and employee job performance. Using 27-item HR practices developed by Sun
et al. (2007) under the Chinese context, Sun and Pan (2011) found that HPWS significantly
promoted firm performance, and employee commitment significantly moderated this
relationship. As Kim et al. (2010) concluded: