IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ausman/v35y2010i3p245-263.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

HR environment and regional attraction: An empirical study of industrial clusters in China

Author

Listed:
  • Qingxiong Weng

    (Xi'an Jiaotong University, Fuzhou Command College of the CAPF, P.R. China, wqx886@126.com)

  • James C. McElroy

    (Iowa State University, USA)

Abstract

This study seeks to explain why talent tends to gravitate to industrial clusters (ICs) and how the human resources (HR) environment affects regional attraction and retention of talent. Regional attraction is defined as a region’s ability to attract and retain workers and immigrants. Data were collected from four ICs in China. A region’s HR environment was measured at five levels. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), hierarchical regression, and the structural equation modeling (SEM) were conducted to analyse the data. The results of the one-way ANOVA showed that there were statistically significant differences in the regional attraction of the four ICs in this study. The results of the hierarchical regression and SEM suggest that elements in the macro-HR environment directly affect talent growth and regional attraction, and talent growth partly mediates the relation between three levels of the HR environment (economic environment, HR policy environment, and the enterprise’s HR management) and regional attraction. The results infer that the HR environment in an IC is the ultimate cause of talent concentrating to a given IC. This paper helps us understand why talent clusters to ICs and offers theoretical support for how governments can make policies and programs to attract talent. This study illustrates how the HR environment affects talent growth. It also examines the immediate role of talent growth in the relationship between HR environment and regional attraction. These findings enhance the literature on HR environments, regional attraction, and the concentration of talent.

Suggested Citation

  • Qingxiong Weng & James C. McElroy, 2010. "HR environment and regional attraction: An empirical study of industrial clusters in China," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 35(3), pages 245-263, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:35:y:2010:i:3:p:245-263
    DOI: 10.1177/0312896210384679
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0312896210384679
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0312896210384679?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Romer, Paul M, 1986. "Increasing Returns and Long-run Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(5), pages 1002-1037, October.
    2. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Duranton, Gilles, 2006. "Labour pooling, labour poaching, and spatial clustering," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 1-28, January.
    3. Dominique M. Gross & Nicolas Schmitt, 2003. "The Role of Cultural Clustering in Attracting New Immigrants," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(2), pages 295-318, May.
    4. Orsagh, Thomas J & Mooney, Peter J, 1970. "A Model for the Dispersion of the Migrant Labor Force and Some Results for the United States, 1880-1920," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 52(3), pages 306-312, August.
    5. Robert J. Barro, 1991. "Economic Growth in a Cross Section of Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 407-443.
    6. Toulemonde, Eric, 2006. "Acquisition of skills, labor subsidies, and agglomeration of firms," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 420-439, May.
    7. Edward L. Glaeser, 1998. "Are Cities Dying?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 139-160, Spring.
    8. Philip McCann & Daniel Shefer, 2005. "Agglomeration, economic geography and regional growth," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 84(3), pages 301-309, August.
    9. Rauch James E., 1993. "Productivity Gains from Geographic Concentration of Human Capital: Evidence from the Cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 380-400, November.
    10. Duncan Black & Vernon Henderson, 1999. "A Theory of Urban Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(2), pages 252-284, April.
    11. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
    12. Høgni Kalsø, Hansen & Vang, Jan & Asheim, Bjørn, 2005. "The Creative Class and Regional Growth: Towards a Knowledge Based Approach," Papers in Innovation Studies 2005/15, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    13. Kenneth Arrow, 1962. "Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention," NBER Chapters, in: The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity: Economic and Social Factors, pages 609-626, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Buckley, F. H., 1996. "The political economy of immigration policies," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 81-99, March.
    15. Luthans, Fred & Stajkovic, Alexander D. & Ibrayeva, Elina, 2000. "Environmental and psychological challenges facing entrepreneurial development in transitional economies," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 95-110, April.
    16. Daniel C. Monchuk & John A. Miranowski & Dermot J. Hayes & Bruce A. Babcock, 2007. "An Analysis of Regional Economic Growth in the U.S. Midwest," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 29(1), pages 17-39.
    17. Simon, Curtis J. & Nardinelli, Clark, 1996. "The Talk of the Town: Human Capital, Information, and the Growth of English Cities, 1861 to 1961," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 384-413, July.
    18. J. R. Hicks, 1963. "The Theory of Wages," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-00189-7, December.
    19. Qingxiong Weng, 2008. "The influence of Industrial Clusters' character on the growth of talents: an empirical research in four industrial clusters in China," International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 8(1/2), pages 150-162.
    20. Michael Storper & Allen J. Scott, 2009. "Rethinking human capital, creativity and urban growth," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 147-167, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lianying Yao & Xuewen Li & Rongrong Zheng & Yiye Zhang, 2022. "The Impact of Air Pollution Perception on Urban Settlement Intentions of Young Talent in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-16, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Duranton, Gilles & Puga, Diego, 2014. "The Growth of Cities," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 5, pages 781-853, Elsevier.
    2. Jos� Lobo & Charlotta Mellander & Kevin Stolarick & Deborah Strumsky, 2014. "The Inventive, the Educated and the Creative: How Do They Affect Metropolitan Productivity?," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 155-177, February.
    3. Carlino, Gerald & Kerr, William R., 2015. "Agglomeration and Innovation," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 349-404, Elsevier.
    4. Aurélie LALANNE & Guillaume POUYANNE, 2012. "Ten years of metropolization in economics: a bibliometric approach (In French)," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2012-11, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    5. Richard Florida & Charlotta Mellander & Patrick Adler, 2011. "The Creative Class Paradigm," Chapters, in: David Emanuel Andersson & Åke E. Andersson & Charlotta Mellander (ed.), Handbook of Creative Cities, chapter 3, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Mario Polèse, 2005. "Cities and National Economic Growth: A Reappraisal," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(8), pages 1429-1451, July.
    7. repec:bof:bofrdp:urn:nbn:fi:bof-201512111472 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Pablo COTO-MILLÁN & Miguel Ángel PESQUERA & Pedro CASARES-HONTAÑÓN & Pablo DE CASTRO, 2011. "Serempathy: A New Approach To Innovation. An Application To Forty-Six Regions Of Atlantic Arc Countries," Journal of Knowledge Management, Economics and Information Technology, ScientificPapers.org, vol. 1(6), pages 1-26, October.
    9. repec:zbw:bofrdp:urn:nbn:fi:bof-201512111472 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Shanzi Ke, 2010. "Agglomeration, productivity, and spatial spillovers across Chinese cities," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 45(1), pages 157-179, August.
    11. Mao, Guanfeng & Hu, Bei & Song, Hong, 2009. "Exploring talent flow in Wuhan automotive industry cluster at China," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(1), pages 395-402, November.
    12. Beeson, Patricia E. & DeJong, David N. & Troesken, Werner, 2001. "Population growth in U.S. counties, 1840-1990," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 669-699, November.
    13. Carlino, Gerald & Kerr, William R., 2015. "Agglomeration and Innovation," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 349-404, Elsevier.
    14. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2015_027 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Matthias Firgo & Peter Mayerhofer, 2015. "Wissens-Spillovers und regionale Entwicklung - welche strukturpolitische Ausrichtung optimiert des Wachstum?," Working Paper Reihe der AK Wien - Materialien zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 144, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik.
    16. Berliant, Marcus & Reed III, Robert R. & Wang, Ping, 2006. "Knowledge exchange, matching, and agglomeration," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 69-95, July.
    17. Ayhan KULOĞLU & Eyyup ECEVİT, 2017. "The Relationship Between Health Development Index And Financial Development Index: Evidence From High Income Countries," Journal of Research in Economics, Politics & Finance, Ersan ERSOY, vol. 2(2), pages 83-95.
    18. Eaton, Jonathan & Eckstein, Zvi, 1997. "Cities and growth: Theory and evidence from France and Japan," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4-5), pages 443-474, August.
    19. Richard Florida & Charlotta Mellander & Kevin Stolarick, 2016. "Human capital in cities and suburbs," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 57(1), pages 91-123, July.
    20. Antonio Ciccone & Giovanni Peri, "undated". "Human Capital and Externalities in Cities," Working Papers 172, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    21. Allen J. Scott, 2010. "Space‐Time Variations of Human Capital Assets Across U.S. Metropolitan Areas, 1980 to 2000," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 86(3), pages 233-250, July.
    22. Siddiki, Jalal Uddin & Auerbach, Paul, 2000. "Economic development, finance and liberalisation: a survey and some unresolved issues," Economics Discussion Papers 2000-6, School of Economics, Kingston University London.
    23. Elsie Echeverri‐Carroll & Sofia G. Ayala, 2009. "Wage differentials and the spatial concentration of high‐technology industries," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(3), pages 623-641, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:35:y:2010:i:3:p:245-263. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.agsm.edu.au .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.