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In this paper, we respond to the calls for context-specific scholarship and research on human resource management (HRM) in Asia. We provide an overview of and key insights into HRM in five Asian countries, representing five key regions: China (East Asia), India (South Asia), Kazakhstan (Central Asia), United Arab Emirates (West Asia), and Vietnam (Southeast Asia). Based on our comprehensive, pan-Asian review, we develop a reflective, comparative, and relational understanding of HRM practices. In doing so, we group the myriad contextual influences on the shaping of HRM practices at three broad levels: macro-, meso-, and microlevel influences. Specifically, we propose that influences from regionalization of economies, national business systems, industry, multinational enterprises, and individual-level predispositions collectively shape and variously influence the nature and extent of HRM practices. By considering the findings of prior research on convergence and divergence, we offer a nuanced perspective wherein each country and region in Asia possesses a distinct amalgam of national business systems, and where HRM practices respond to multilevel influences in varied ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustained growth and importance of Asia as a hub of economic, social and political activity has attracted significant foreign direct investment and opportunities for economies from the West and other parts of the world to invest in this fast growing region. Regional headquarters and global innovation hubs of large multinational corporations (MNCs) are evidence of an Asian century phenomenon. The proliferation of tax havens in the region or the use of tax havens by firms in the Asian region is no surprise. This is evidenced through a complex and systematic policy choice by power coalitions, to facilitate their interests as well as trade and growth in the region. This proliferation has also had an impact on the changing identity of Asian MNCs in Asia. In this paper, we highlight this new and pervasive trend by presenting findings from recent research in the region on the topic of tax havens and identities of Asian MNCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]