Comparative analysis of product architecture and human resource management in East Asian Firms

本研究考察了日本、韩国和中国的产品开发与人力资源管理（HRM）实践之间的关系。我们首先提出以下三个假设：(1)企业在考虑内部管理资源和外部产品市场条件等因素的情况下，战略性地选择产品架构；(2)企业对产品开发组织设计的战略选择反映了企业对产品架构的选择；(3)所选择的产品架构与人力资源管理实践之间存在互补关系。接下来，我们从案例研究中提出我们的发现，重点关注生产相同产品（手机、液晶电视和信息系统）的公司，然后分析通过对三国制造业和软件业公司进行问卷调查获得的数据。我们的发现大体上支持这三个假设。

This research examines the relationship between product development and human resource management (HRM) practices in Japan, Korea, and China. We first posit the following three hypotheses: (1) Firms strategically choose their product architecture, taking into account factors such as internal management resources and external product market conditions; (2) Firms strategically choose their organizational design for product development reflecting their choice of product architecture; (3) There is a complementary relationship between the chosen product architecture on the one hand and HRM practices on the other. Next, we present our findings from case studies, focusing on firms making the same products (cellular phones, liquid crystal televisions, and information systems), followed by an analysis of the data obtained through a questionnaire survey of firms in the manufacturing and software industries in the three countries. Our findings generally support the three hypotheses.