a b s t r a c tIn the strategic human resource management (SHRM) field three approaches have dominated, namely, theuniversal or best-practice, best-fit or contingency and resource-based view (RBV). This study investigatesevidence for the simultaneous or mixed adoption of these approaches by eight case study firms in theinternational hotel industry. Findings suggest there is considerable evidence of the combined use ofthe first two approaches but that the SHRM RBV approach was difficult to achieve by all companies.Overall, gaining differentiation through SHRM practices was found to be challenging due to specificindustry forces. The study identifies that where companies derive some competitive advantage fromtheir human resources and HRM practices they have closely aligned their managers’ expertise with theircorporate market entry mode expertise and developed some distinctive, complex and integrated HRMinterventions, which have a mutually reinforcing effect.