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Evidence from
How do MNCs translate corporate MNCs in
talent management strategies into Thailand

their subsidiaries? Evidence

from MNCs in Thailand 537
Chaturong Napathorn Received 17 April 2020
Revised 25 June 2020
Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy, Department of Entrepreneurship, 1 July 2020
Organization and Human Resource Management, 5 September 2020
19 September 2020
Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand Accepted 20 September 2020

Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to contribute to the literature on global talent management by examining how
multinational corporations (MNCs) from developed and emerging economies manage talented employees in
other emerging economies. Specifically, it aims to understand why MNCs from developed economies are likely
to face lower levels of challenge than MNCs from emerging economies when translating corporate-level talent
management strategies to their subsidiaries located in emerging economies and how local contextual factors
influence the translation processes.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper undertakes a matched-case comparison of two MNCs, one
from a developed economy and the other from an emerging economy, that operate in the emerging economy of
Thailand. Evidence was obtained from semi-structured interviews field visits and a review of archival
documents and Web resources.
Findings – Based on the obtained evidence, this paper proposes that MNCs from developed economies tend
to face challenges in terms of skill shortages, and these challenges affect their translation of talent
management strategies to the subsidiary level. By contrast, MNCs from emerging economies tend to face
challenges in terms of both skill shortages and the liability of origin (LOR) (i.e. weak employer branding) in
the translation process. Both groups of MNCs are likely to develop talent management practices at the
subsidiary level to address the challenge of successfully competing in the context of emerging economies.
Research limitations/implications – One limitation of this research is its methodology. Because this
research is based on a matched-case comparison of an MNC from a developed economy and an MNC from an
emerging economy, both of which operate in the emerging economy of Thailand, it does not claim
generalizability to all MNCs and to other emerging economies. Rather, the results of this research should lead
to further discussion of how MNCs from developed and emerging economies translate corporate-level talent
management strategies into subsidiary-level practices to survive in other emerging economies. However, one
important issue here is that there may be a tension between the use of expatriates and local top managers at
MNCs’ subsidiaries located in other emerging economies as drivers for knowledge sourcing in that the
importance of expatriates may diminish over time as the subsidiaries located in those economies age (Dahms,
2019). In this regard, future research in the area of global talent management should pay special attention to
this issue. The other important issue here is that it is possible that the two case study MNCs are very different
from one another because of their organizational development stage, history and current globalization stage.
Thus, this issue may also influence the types of talent management strategies and practices that the two case
study MNCs have developed in different countries. In particular, MNCs from emerging economies (ICBC) may
not have developed their global HR strategies, as they have not yet operated globally as in the case of MNCs
from developed economies (Citibank). This can be another important issue for future research. Additionally,
both MNCs examined in this research operate in the banking industry. This study, therefore, omits MNCs that
Review of International Business
operate in other industries such as the automobile industry and the hotel and resort industry. Future and Strategy
Vol. 30 No. 4, 2020
pp. 537-560
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2059-6014
This study was funded by Thammasat Business School at Thammasat University. DOI 10.1108/RIBS-04-2020-0043
RIBS researchers can explore how both groups of MNCs in other industries translate their talent management
strategies into practices when they operate in other emerging economies. Moreover, this study focuses only on
30,4 two primary contextual factors, the skill-shortage problem and LOR; future research can explore other local
contextual factors, such as the national culture, and their impact on the translation of talent management
strategies into practices. Furthermore, quantitative studies that use large sample sizes of both groups of
MNCs across industries might be useful in deepening our understanding of talent management. Finally, a
comparison of talent management strategies and practices between Japanese MNCs and European MNCs that
operate in Thailand would also be interesting.
538 Practical implications – The HR professionals and managers of MNCs that operate in emerging
economies or of companies that aim to internationalize their business to emerging economies must pay
attention to local institutional structures, including national skill formation systems, to successfully
implement talent management practices in emerging economies. Additionally, in the case of MNCs from
emerging economies, HR professionals and managers must understand the concept of LOR and look for ways
to alleviate this problem to ensure the success of talent management in both developed economies and other
emerging economies.
Social implications – This paper provides policy implications for the government in Thailand and in
other emerging economies where the skill-shortage problem is particularly severe. Specifically, these
governments should pay attention to solving the problem of occupation-level skill shortages to alleviate the
severe competition for talented candidates among firms in the labor market.
Originality/value – This paper contributes to the prior literature on talent management in several ways.
First, this paper is among the first empirical, qualitative papers that aim to extend the literature on global
talent management by focusing on how MNCs from different groups of countries (i.e. developed economies
and emerging economies) manage talented employees in the emerging economy of Thailand. Second, this
paper demonstrates that the institutional structures of emerging economies play an important role in shaping
the talent management practices adopted by the subsidiaries of MNCs that operate in these countries. In this
regard, comparative institutionalism theory helps explain the importance of recognizing institutional
structures in emerging economies for the purpose of developing effective talent management practices.
Finally, there is scarce research on talent management in the underresearched country of Thailand. This
study should, therefore, assist managers who wish to implement corporate-to-subsidiary translation
strategies in Thailand and other emerging economies.
Keywords Qualitative research, Skill shortage, Liability of origin, Talent management,
MNCs from developed economies, MNCs from emerging economies, Institutional structures
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
Multinational corporations (MNCs) from both developed and emerging economies are
increasingly conducting business in emerging economies, which is an important driver of
growth in the global economy (Beamond et al., 2016). Emerging economies here refer to
“countries with high potential for economic growth, political liberalization, and market
transitions in the 1980s and 1990s” (Luo et al., 2009, p. 444) and include several countries in
the Asia-Pacific region, including Thailand (Beamond et al., 2016). Given their substantial
population and increasing income, these emerging economies provide a large market for
MNCs’ goods and services. In these economies, the effective talent management of managers
and professional employees is strategically important for the success and sustainability of
organizations because they typically face a lack of qualified candidates to meet the demand
for talent during periods of economic expansion, corporate growth and moderate-to-low
unemployment (Beamond et al., 2016; Ooi and Richardson, 2019).
The talent management research, however, has typically been limited to North American
(Thunnissen et al., 2013) and developed-economy perspectives. Developed economies and
emerging economies are very different from one another, especially in terms of institutional
structures, regulations, levels of economic development and fluctuations in the marketplace
(Beamond et al., 2016). Thus, it is likely that talent management is different in developed and Evidence from
emerging economies. In this regard, talent management research conducted in emerging MNCs in
economies is needed to obtain a better understanding of how MNCs’ subsidiaries in Thailand
emerging economies manage their talented employees.
Additionally, to date, the relatively small amount of literature on talent management
has focused on the translation of MNCs’ talent management strategies at the corporate
level to their subsidiaries located in emerging economies (Beamond et al., 2016). Even less 539
empirical research has focused on how MNCs from both developed economies and
emerging economies translate corporate talent management strategies from the top to the
subsidiary level in other emerging economies and whether the two groups of MNCs face
different challenges (in terms of local institutional factors) in this process. Furthermore,
among the scarce research on talent management in emerging economies, scholars have
focused on China and India; thus, further empirical research on talent management
should be undertaken in emerging economies beyond these two countries (Beamond et al.,
2016).
This paper aims to address this research gap by focusing on the following research
questions: How do MNCs from developed economies and emerging economies translate their
corporate talent management strategies to their subsidiaries in other emerging economies?
Do MNCs from developed economies face challenges that are different from those faced by
MNCs from emerging economies in this translation process?
The empirical findings presented in this paper help address the need for a better
understanding of talent management in several ways. First, this paper is among the first
empirical, qualitative papers to focus on how MNCs from different groups of countries
(i.e. developed economies and emerging economies) manage talented employees in the
emerging economy of Thailand. The findings should thus extend the literature on global
talent management (Beamond et al., 2016; Collings and Scullion, 2008; Farndale et al.,
2010) by focusing on why MNCs from developed economies are likely to face lower levels
of challenge than MNCs from emerging economies when translating corporate-level
talent management strategies to their subsidiaries located in emerging economies and
how local contextual factors influence the translation processes. Second, this paper
demonstrates that the institutional structures of emerging economies play an important
role in shaping the talent management practices adopted by the subsidiaries of MNCs
that operate in these countries. In this regard, comparative institutionalism theory helps
explain the importance of recognizing institutional structures in emerging economies for
effective talent management practices. Finally, there is scarce research on talent
management in the under-researched country of Thailand. This study should, therefore,
assist managers who wish to implement corporate-to-subsidiary translation strategies in
Thailand and other emerging economies.

Theory and framework

To develop the theoretical framework used in this paper, the following two main theoretical
constructs are needed:
(1) global talent management including the country-of-origin (COO) effects
(considering this issue from a new perspective is the author’s conceptual
contribution); and
(2) the translation of corporate-level talent management strategies to subsidiary-level
talent management practices.
RIBS Global talent management and country-of-origin effects
30,4 Talent management has been found to be one of the most important factors for business
success in today’s world (Al Ariss et al., 2014). Previously, the academic field of talent
management has been characterized by a lack of clear definitions and theoretical
frameworks (Nijs et al., 2014). However, more precise definitions of talent management have
emerged as the field of human resource management (HRM) has developed over the years
540 (Al Ariss et al., 2014; Cooke et al., 2014).
As businesses have internationalized their operations in foreign countries, global talent
management has emerged (Vaiman et al., 2012). The academic field of talent management in
general, and global talent management in particular, as noted by Gallardo-Gallardo et al.
(2015), has been dominated by several main theories (Beamond et al., 2016), including an
institutional theory (Aguilera and Grøgaard, 2019; Kostova et al., 2019).
Within institutional theory, there are three schools of thought: organizational
institutionalism, institutional economics and comparative institutionalism (Aguilera and
Grøgaard, 2019; Kostova et al., 2019). Comparative institutionalism theory (Hall and Soskice,
2001; Streeck and Thelen, 2005; Whitley, 1999), the main theoretical framework applied in
this paper, pays attention to the role of institutions in each country in shaping the behaviors
of actors at lower levels, including MNCs from developed economies and MNCs from
emerging economies, within them. One popular framework under the comparative
institutionalism theory is the varieties of capitalism (VoC) framework (Hall and Soskice,
2001). Hall and Soskice suggested that to develop and coordinate core competencies, both
groups of MNCs must maintain various relationships within five institutional structures
including the national skill formation system. These institutional structures are the source
of divergence or variation in firms’ HRM practices across countries/economies, and, of
course, they can influence the translation of corporate-level talent management strategies to
subsidiary-level practices in each country/economy (Hitt, 2016).
The national skill formation system plays a crucial role in alleviating the problem of skill
shortage in the labor market of each country/economy. Specifically, in countries of liberal
market economies, such as the USA, the UK and Canada, the system offers formal education
that focuses on general skills. Firms in these countries tend to be relucto develop managerial
and professional employees internally and to invest in firm-specific training (Hall and
Soskice, 2001). By contrast, countries of coordinated market economies, such as Germany,
provide workers with firm- or industry-specific skills (Finegold and Wagner, 2002).
Therefore, overall, firms pay more attention to firm-specific training instead of general
training. In this regard, the national skill formation system plays a supporting role in
supplying a skilled workforce that responds to the needs of industries and firms and in
alleviating the country’s skill shortage problems (Finegold et al., 2000).
However, skill-shortage problems are particularly severe in emerging market economies
(Kuruvilla and Ranganathan, 2008) including Thailand. That is, firms in these economies
typically have difficulty recruiting individuals with a particular skill set from the external
labor market because of a low number of applicants (Cappelli, 2015). In cases of skill
shortages in the labor market, deficiencies in a country’s national skill formation system
should influence the translation of corporate-level talent management strategies to
subsidiary-level practices in emerging economies (Beamond et al., 2016). This is because an
effective talent management strategy is an important component of the success or failure of
the firms that operate in emerging market economies, where a talent shortage is one of the
primary challenges faced by such firms (Farndale et al., 2010).
Accordingly, both groups of MNCs operating in an emerging economy tend to face the
challenge of skill shortage. However, in fact, these two groups of MNCs are different from
each other in some respects. Specifically, compared with MNCs from developed economies, Evidence from
MNCs from emerging economies are likely to be smaller and have less international MNCs in
experience and available resources (Thite, 2016). Additionally, one of the differences
between MNCs from developed economies and MNCs from emerging economies is that
Thailand
MNCs from emerging economies typically face higher levels of liability of origin (LOR) than
MNCs from developed economies when internationalizing their business operations to other
countries (Barlett and Ghoshal, 2000; Thite et al., 2016). The LOR is a disadvantage incurred
by MNCs as a consequence of their nation of origin (i.e. developing economies or emerging 541
economies) (Ramachandran and Pant, 2010). Consumers are likely to evaluate product
quality or value based on the level of economic development and institutional structure of
the producer country (Cordell, 1992). That is, consumers pay special attention to the
producer country – or COO – when purchasing products manufactured in other countries
(Roth and Romeo, 1992). The literature on COO effects began with the seminal work by
Schooler (1965) and was later extended by several other researchers such as Cordell (1992),
Verlegh and Steenkamp (1999) and Fetscherin and Toncar (2010). The main idea of the prior
literature is that consumers generally believe that products that originate from developing
or emerging economies are lower in quality and are associated with larger performance risks
and customer dissatisfaction. Although most of the prior literature demonstrates the linkage
between COO effects and product image, it is possible that COO effects are relevant in
evaluating the employer attractiveness (the so-called employer branding) (Backhaus and
Tikoo, 2004) of MNCs from developed and emerging economies, leading to the
implementation of different talent management practices between both groups of MNCs.
However, relatively little research has focused on how MNCs from developed economies and
emerging economies develop talent management practices at the subsidiary level to
specifically address the challenges they face in an emerging economy of Thailand.

Translation of corporate-level talent management strategies into subsidiary-level talent

management practices
When MNCs from developed and emerging economies manage talented employees in
another emerging economy, they must translate their corporate-level talent management
strategies into practices at the subsidiary level (Beamond et al., 2016). Translation here
refers to the fact that management ideas/concepts are transferred from one place to another
and are simultaneously transformed into new types of objects and then into actions
(Czarniawska, 2009). Conceptually, through translation, management ideas are changed by
key contextual factors as they move from one context to another (Guo et al., 2020). In this
regard, talent management strategies developed at the corporate headquarters located in one
country are transferred to subsidiaries located in another country. Simultaneously, these
strategies are transformed into talent management practices at the subsidiary level in
accordance with the key contextual factors that influence the success of talent management
in these countries such that these practices can be successfully implemented.
In particular, within the macro-level talent management literature, prior research has
focused on the strategy formulation and implementation of talent management (Beamond
et al., 2016). Upon implementing talent management strategies in emerging market
economies, these MNCs must recognize local contextual factors and adapt their strategies to
local conditions to respond to institutional voids and avoid negative outcomes (Beugelsdijk
et al., 2018; Yakubu, 2020). In this regard, MNCs must consider several context-specific
factors, including skill formation systems, in emerging market economies before translating
talent management strategies into practices at the subsidiary level (Vaiman et al., 2012).
That is, deficiencies in the skill formation system in terms of skill shortages in emerging
RIBS market economies influence the implementation of MNCs’ talent management practices in
30,4 these countries (Beamond et al., 2016). Talent management practices here primarily refer to
both talent attraction practices (i.e. the attraction and selection of talented candidates to
firms and the organization’s effort to promote its employer branding) and talent investment
practices (i.e. the development, management and retention of talented employees over time).
Therefore, MNCs must develop subsidiary-level talent attraction and talent investment
542 practices to respond to the skill-shortage problem in emerging economies.
However, relatively little research has examined how MNCs from both developed and
emerging market economies translate corporate-level talent management strategies to the
subsidiary level in emerging market economies when they face deficiencies in the
institutional structure, i.e. skill-shortage problems, in those economies. MNCs from
developed and emerging market economies may face similar or different types of challenges
in attracting, managing and retaining talented employees in emerging market economies.
They both face a skill-shortage problem when translating corporate-level talent
management strategies to the subsidiary level in emerging market economies (Napathorn,
2018a). Nevertheless, only emerging economy MNCs face the LOR problem when they
operate businesses in foreign countries. Such LOR may influence the translation of talent
management strategies when emerging economy MNCs operate their businesses in
emerging market economies. That is, it is possible that emerging economy MNCs may face
greater challenges (in terms of skill shortages and weak employer branding based on LOR)
than MNCs from developed economies when translating talent management practices to the
subsidiary level.
In this regard, MNCs from emerging economies may have to develop talent management
practices at the subsidiary level that will help them address the challenges of both skill
shortages and weak employer branding (based on LOR). For instance, it is possible that
MNCs from emerging economies may implement talent attraction practices such as the use
of substream or alternative recruitment channels or a focus on job candidates who are not
members of primary talent pools (Napathorn, 2018b). By contrast, MNCs from developed
economies may develop talent management practices at the subsidiary level to help them
overcome only the challenge of skill shortages. For instance, it is possible that MNCs from
developed economies may implement typical talent attraction practices found in the HR
literature such as the use of various recruitment channels to attract qualified candidates and
a focus on job candidates who are members of primary talent pools (Napathorn, 2018a,
2018b).
Thus, this paper intends to extend the literature on global talent management by
examining how MNCs from developed countries and MNCs from emerging economies
translate their corporate-level talent management strategies to practices at the subsidiary
level in other emerging economies and by exploring the different types of challenges that
they face in this process.

Research setting and methodology

Research setting
Thailand is an appropriate site for research on the translation of MNCs’ corporate-level
talent management strategies to subsidiary-level practices because it is the host country for
MNCs from several countries across the globe and because it is an under-researched
emerging market economy in the global talent management literature (Beamond et al., 2016).
MNCs from several developed countries, including newly industrialized countries, have
relocated to Thailand (United Nations, 2005). Those MNCs chose Thailand as the new
production site for labor-intensive products because it was costly for them to manufacture
these products in their own countries. Those MNCs have also played an important role in the Evidence from
rapid economic and export growth of Thailand by fostering knowledge transfer, promoting MNCs in
investment in machinery and infrastructure, and creating and increasing the number of jobs
available for Thai people in the labor market. MNCs from both developed and emerging
Thailand
market economies have operated their businesses in a variety of industries in Thailand
including the banking industry.
The banking industry plays an important role in supporting businesses and firms in
Thailand because those businesses and firms heavily depend on bank loans as their major 543
source of capital. Thus, the financial system in Thailand can be classified as a bank-based
system (Zysman, 1983). Several foreign-owned banks, including Citibank (the US), CIMB
Thai Bank (Malaysia), UOB Bank (Singapore), Standard Chartered (Thai) Bank (the UK) and
ICBC (Thai) Bank (China), have long conducted business operations in this industry. These
banks, including domestic (local) banks, have faced serious shortages of qualified and
skilled employees, which is one of the major problems in Thailand’s skill formation system
(Suehiro and Yabushita, 2014), especially since the Asian financial crisis in 1997. In
particular, the majority of companies, including banks, in Thailand take several months to
fill vacancies (Bangkok Post, 2019). One of the main reasons for the skill shortages in
Thailand in general, and in the banking industry in particular, is the rapid aging of
Thailand’s population. Thailand has become an “aging society” much faster than its
neighboring countries (Bank of Thailand, 2018). In this regard, the proportion of aging
people has steadily increased, whereas the proportion of working age population has
sharply decreased, leading to the problem of skill shortage in the Thai labor market (Bank of
Thailand, 2018). During the period of the COVID-19 crisis, the situation of skill shortage is
still severe, especially in industries that require migrant workers from neighboring countries
who may have fear and anxiety with regard to COVID-19 and want to return to their home
countries (Nationthailand, 2020).
It is thus interesting to explore the similarities and/or differences in how banks from
developed and emerging market economies translate their corporate-level talent
management strategies into practices at the subsidiary level to overcome the skill shortage
in the banking industry.

Research methodology
Research design. Batt and Hermans (2012) note that several studies have used the matched-
case comparison approach to explain why and how, despite similar competitive conditions,
two firms express different behaviors. Therefore, in this paper, a matched-case comparison
of two MNCs in the Thai banking industry – Citibank from the USA (a developed economy)
and ICBC from China (an emerging market economy) – is applied to examine the similarities
and/or differences in how these two case study MNCs translate their corporate-level talent
management strategies into practices when they operate in the host country of Thailand.
This paper uses a qualitative approach because the study is exploratory, and the author
aims to establish the status quo (Patton, 2002); moreover, the author aims to collect
comprehensive and holistic data (Eisenhardt, 1989) on the two MNCs. This approach allows
for a deep exploration of how the institutional contexts of an emerging market economy
(Thailand), in which MNCs from developed and emerging economies operate, inform the
ways in which the two MNCs manage talented employees. Additionally, this approach
allows for an exploration of the interactions of several actors at different levels of analysis
(Cooke, 2012). An advantage of the case study approach is its use of multiple data collection
methods, including semi-structured interviews, field observations and archival document
analysis (Yin, 2009), all of which facilitate the theory-building process (Zhu et al., 2012) and
RIBS should help mitigate the problem of single-source bias that may occur when an author relies
30,4 on only one data source. This study may also provide data for more extensive research and
hypothesis testing as part of the ongoing research on global talent management.
Sample. This paper uses purposive sampling (Teddlie and Tashakkori, 2009) to choose
the two MNCs: one MNC is from a developed economy, and the other MNC is from an
emerging market economy. These two MNCs should help us understand the phenomena
544 examined in this study, i.e. how MNCs from developed and emerging economies translate
their corporate talent management strategies to their subsidiaries when operating in an
emerging economy with a severe skill-shortage problem and the similarities/differences in
the challenges faced by these two types of MNCs in the translation process.
Data collection. The data collection for the study occurred in three periods, specifically,
August–September 2016, May–June 2017 and September–October 2017. Time and budget
constraints were the key reasons why the author was not able to collect the entire dataset at
one point in time. The research included a total of 18 semi-structured interviews (ten with
top managers, HR managers, HR professionals working in the area of HRM and ex-
employees; eight with scholars or individuals not connected with either MNC); four visits to
corporate headquarters in Bangkok; approximately 8 h of nonparticipant observation; and
research conducted in company archives and with Web-based resources such as annual
reports, newspaper articles and interview reports (see Table 1 for a list of interviewees).
Among the ten interviewees who were top managers, HR managers, HR professionals
working in the area of HRM and ex-employees, their tenure ranged between 5 and 20 years.
The author conducted interviews with eight additional individuals to obtain independent
opinions about the two MNCs to further evaluate and triangulate some of the issues raised
by the ten interviewees and to increase the reliability of the data obtained from the ten
interviewees. All of these eight additional interviewees were scholars or independent
consultants in the fields of HRM and/or HR development at several well-known institutes in
Thailand. Nonparticipant observation occurred during the pre-interview, interview and
post-interview phases in the two MNCs to help triangulate the results obtained from the
interviews with top managers, HR managers, HR professionals working in the area of HRM
and ex-employees.
The author prepared and submitted a formal letter to the two MNCs via fax and email to
ask for permission to conduct interviews with top managers, HR managers and/or assigned

No. Position/Organization Gender Date

1–2 Top HR managers/Citibank (Thailand) Female August 14, 2016/October 3, 2017

3–5 Ex-employees/Citibank (Thailand) Male and Female September 13, 2017/September
20, 2017/September 25, 2017
6 Top manager/ICBC (Thai) Male September 28, 2016
7 Top HR manager/ICBC (Thai) Male September 15, 2017
8–10 HR professionals/ICBC (Thai) Female September 22, 2017
11–12 Independent HR scholars and Male and Female May 3, 2017
consultants
13–14 HR scholars/Thammasat University Female May 7, 2017
15–16 Macro HR scholars/Thailand Male June 16, 2017
Development Research Institute
17 HR scholar/Asian Institute of Female October 21, 2017
Technology
Table 1. 18 HR scholar/National Institute of Female October 25, 2017
List of interviewees Development Administration
HR professionals working in the area of HRM. The author gained access to interviewees Evidence from
who were ex-employees of the two MNCs using the author’s personal network. The top MNCs in
managers, HR managers and/or assigned HR professionals working in the area of HRM
subsequently permitted the author to schedule and conduct interviews with them at their
Thailand
corresponding headquarters located in Bangkok.
Each of the 18 semi-structured interviews lasted between 1 and 3.5 h. They were
conducted in Thai through one-on-one, face-to-face meetings. The interviews were digitally
voice-recorded, and the author took field notes during the interviews to help facilitate 545
transcription. The author used the same interview protocols for the two MNCs. Based on
these interview protocols, the author asked questions about the history and background of
the two MNCs in Thailand, the problems/challenges faced by the two MNCs when
managing talented employees in Thailand, how these challenges and institutional structures
influence talent management practices in Thailand, the role of the corporate-level HR
department in talent management, the role of country-level HR departments in talent
management and how the MNCs translate talent management policies assigned by
headquarters into practices.
Data analysis. The author used thematic analysis (Teddlie and Tashakkori, 2009) (via
ATLAS.ti) to pinpoint, examine and record the patterns or themes found in the data.
Specifically, the author categorized the raw data into empirical themes and consolidated
empirical themes into the conceptual categories used in the paper (Besharov, 2014) (see
Table 2 for an example of these steps and Table 3 for the frequency of each empirical theme).
The analysis presented in this paper consisted of a review of the interview transcripts,
multiple readings of the field notes, nonparticipant observation of the characteristics and
behaviors of employees during company visits, archival analysis and an assessment of the
interviewees’ attitudes toward the two MNCs (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). Finally, the
number of semi-structured interviews in this paper (18) may be considered to be relatively

Raw data Empirical themes Conceptual category

“In terms of recruiting talented candidates from Weak employer branding Liability of origin
the external market, we offer the management
trainee program. We, however, have not been
successful in attracting talented Thai candidates
in the Thai labor market. Thus, we aim to
recruit Chinese students who are now studying
in universities in Thailand, including
Assumption University and Siam University, or
Thai graduates who intend to pursue their
master’s degree in China”
“Citibank in Thailand has not been able to find Skill shortage Institutional context in an
qualified candidates for key positions within a emerging economy
short period of time. In fact, Citibank in
Thailand needs to set a very high standard for
their talented employees so that these employees
are able to compete with other talented
employees around the world, who come from the
top 5 world-class universities or Ivy League
universities. Talented employees at Citibank are
not recognized only at the national level. By Table 2.
contrast, they are widely recognized at the Example of the data
global level” structure
RIBS small. However, this number should be understandable given that the number of studies on
30,4 talent management in emerging economies, especially in Thailand, is very limited, and most
of the prior studies in the emerging field of talent management have adopted a qualitative
approach and used a small number of respondents and firms as case studies (Cooke et al.,
2014). Additionally, 18 interviewees should at least be sufficient for robust research because
beyond this number, no new themes were identified, no new insights were obtained and no
546 issues arose regarding the data categories (Sarkar et al., 2016).

Empirical findings
The empirical findings show that MNCs from developed economies are likely to face a lower
level of challenges than MNCs from emerging economies when they translate corporate-level
talent management strategies to the subsidiary level in Thailand. MNCs from developed
economies (i.e. Citibank) are likely to face challenges in terms of skill shortages; however,
MNCs from emerging economies (i.e. ICBC) are likely to face challenges in terms of both skill
shortages and LOR (i.e. weak employer branding). In this regard, both groups of MNCs must
develop talent management practices at the subsidiary level that respond to the challenges
they face so that they can survive in emerging economies. The detailed case studies below
provide empirical evidence to support these findings.

Citibank
Background. Citibank has long-performed business operations in Thailand. Its first branch
in Bangkok was formally opened to retail customers on November 1, 1985 (Citibank, 2017).
In 2019, Citibank (Thailand) had a net profit of 5,149m Baht (Citibank (Thailand) Annual
Report, 2019). Currently, Citibank (Thailand) has approximately 2,500 employees (Rabbit
Finance, 2020). Many of the HR practices at Citibank (Thailand) have been centralized
including recruitment and selection, training and development, career development and
talent management. Citibank (Thailand) has been regarded by many Thai banks as one of
the best corporate banking universities in Thailand (Observation). Many Thai banks have
recruited or poached internally developed professional employees and managers from
Citibank (Interview #1).
Talent management. The main philosophy of talent management at Citibank (Thailand)
is that it needs the best people to drive revenue for the organization. Its talent management
is an annual exercise at the country level. Annual talent management assignments come
directly from Citibank headquarters in New York City every year. Headquarters has strict
guidelines for talent management (i.e. talent attraction and investment); therefore, the HR
department of Citibank (Thailand) must educate line managers to rate talented employees
according to the guidelines. That is, the HR department must work closely with line
managers to identify talented employees and to ensure that the succession planning and
talent management practices are in accordance with one another. In this respect, the HR

Empirical theme Frequency

Weak employer branding 17

Skill shortages 15
MNCs from developed economies 13
Table 3. MNCS from emerging economies 12
Frequency of each Talent management practices 12
empirical theme Translation of corporate-level talent management strategies into practices 11
department acts as a coach for line managers. Typically, after New Year’s Day, Citibank Evidence from
(Thailand) finishes the process of identifying talented employees and submits the list of MNCs in
talented employees to the ASEAN Citibank Cluster, which consists of Citibank subsidiaries
in Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Then, the ASEAN Cluster
Thailand
considers the list of talented employees from each country in the cluster before submitting it
to the Asia-Pacific region and to headquarters in New York City. Finally, in June–July of
each year, top managers at the corporate level (headquarters) make final decisions regarding
who the talented employees in each country are and inform Citibank (Thailand) of the final 547
decision. Most of Citibank’s talented employees at the global level are the heads of business
units (Interview #2).
The main challenge for talented employees at Citibank, especially high-potential
employees, is that they must be able to adapt to their new roles. For instance, one of Citibank
(Thailand)’s home-grown talented employees with extensive experience in supervising
wholesale/corporate customers was assigned without notice to supervise retail customers.
This person must prove that he or she can do the job by quickly adapting to the new role.
This is considered to be a stretch assignment (Interview #2).
In translating the strict guidelines for talent management from headquarters into
practices at the subsidiary level in Thailand, the institutional structure in this country plays
an important role, especially in terms of talent identification practices (the practices of
attracting and selecting talented employees).
Translation of corporate-level strategies into talent attraction practices. The deficiencies
in the skill formation system in Thailand, specifically, the skill-shortage problem in the
labor market, is a crucial factor in the translation process. That is, the national skill
formation system cannot produce a sufficient number of qualified candidates for the
banking industry (Interviews #11 and 12; Interviews #13–18). Citibank (Thailand) has not
been able to find qualified candidates for key positions within a short period of time (within
three months). The company needs to set very high standards for talented employees so that
such employees can compete with other talented employees around the world, who come
from either the top five world-class universities or Ivy League universities. Talented
employees at Citibank are recognized not only at the national level but also at the global
level. Thus, the skill-shortage problem in Thailand may limit the opportunity for Citibank
(Thailand) to find talented employees at the country level. In this case, the company must
implement talent attraction practices that are appropriate for the country’s institutional
context.
Because of its reputation and employer branding worldwide, Citibank (Thailand) has
actually not had problems attracting and selecting talented employees in Thailand. There
are hundreds of famous alumni of Citibank (Thailand), and most of them are top executives
at local banks in Thailand. As mentioned above, Citibank (Thailand) is considered one of the
best corporate universities in Thailand. Almost every qualified candidate wants to be a part
of Citibank at some point in their working life because Citibank provides extensive
knowledge and experience to its employees through continuous training, individual
development plans and development opportunities. The main problem, however, is the skill
shortage in the Thai labor market, which makes it difficult for Citibank to search for
talented candidates with world-class qualifications there. Thus, Citibank (Thailand) must
adapt its corporate-level policy and strategies to practices at the subsidiary level to respond
to this problem and be able to generate an effective talent pipeline in Thailand for the next
3–5 years (Interviews #1 and 2).
To respond to the skill-shortage problem, Citibank (Thailand) must implement a variety
of talent attraction practices. First, it must generate awareness among university students
RIBS so that qualified candidates will come directly to Citibank (Thailand) after graduation.
30,4 Accordingly, Citibank created a new course entitled “Citi101” and invited sophomore Thai
students from well-known universities in both Thailand and foreign countries to attend the
course. These students can be students in any field who are interested in learning about the
banking industry, what banks do and what Citibank does in particular. To attend this one-
week course, students must pass a rather competitive selection process; typically, there are
548 approximately 200 candidates, and only 30–40 are accepted. In addition to teaching content
about the banking industry, this course teaches students about important soft skills such as
presentation skills, interviewing skills and resume-writing skills. Students who attend the
course are required to analyze real case studies and present their ideas to senior managers.
For instance, students are assigned to analyze a case study on the differences between
fintech and banks and on digital banking. Then, senior managers listen to the presentation
of the case studies to determine whether the students’ ideas are applicable. In this way, the
company can obtain new ideas for further implementation in the firm (Interviews #1 and 2).
If any students who pass the Citi101 course demonstrate high potential for career
advancement at Citibank (Thailand), the company offers them a summer internship.
According to an informant:
The length of the summer internship program is 2 months. Students are able to gain hands-on
experience in every department at Citibank (Thailand) during this program. Typically, Citibank
has to assign proper projects to each student. After completing the project, students are required
to present their experience gained during the project to senior managers. Then, senior managers
have to evaluate the performance of these students. If the performance of students is above the
standard, they may be recruited and selected to become permanent employees at Citibank in
Thailand in the future (Interview #2).
Second, Citibank (Thailand) has offered the management trainee program to recent
graduates or students who are about to graduate from both Thai universities or foreign
universities. This program is a very effective strategy in attracting talented people to
become permanent employees considering the skill shortage in the Thai labor market.
These people are likely to become future leaders of Citibank both in Thailand and across
the globe. The main target of Citibank (Thailand) for its management trainee program is
students or recent graduates of bachelor’s of business administration programs (in
English) in top-tier universities in Thailand. To join this program, these students must
pass several tests including a test developed by Saville and Holdsworth Limited called
the Occupational Personality Questionnaire. Then, the candidates for the management
trainee program must be interviewed by HR professionals and a panel of senior
executives. During the interview with Citibank (Thailand)’s senior executives, the
candidates are assigned to analyze case studies and deliver a presentation on their
thoughts about the case studies to the panel. Citibank (Thailand) aims to recruit three to
five trainees to the program each year. This group of trainees will automatically become
permanent employees after passing the program. During the program, these trainees will
also be able to attend trainings in several areas in foreign countries including the USA,
Hong Kong and Singapore (Interviews #1 and 2).
In addition to attracting recent graduates, Citibank (Thailand) has attempted to recruit
talented midcareer employees from other external firms. It has implemented various
strategies in this regard. According to an informant:
In terms of midcareers, we have to seriously consider the reputation of candidates in the industry.
We pay special attention to peers’ recommendations. We ask our talented employees to
recommend candidates working at other firms in the industry. If their recommendation is
successful, our employees (recommender) will earn an award from Citibank [. . .] Additionally, we
 ask for a recommendation of talented employees from our customers. Because our customers Evidence from
typically obtain financial services from several banks, including Citibank, we ask them to
recommend talented candidates working at other banks. Finally, headhunters are used to recruit MNCs in
talented candidates working at other firms in the banking industry or in other related industries. Thailand
All of [these steps] are [part of] our high-rise strategy at the country level (Interview #2).
In some cases, Citibank must recruit talented candidates from other countries because of the
skill shortage in the Thai labor market. Nevertheless, foreigners are prohibited from being
hired for certain jobs in Thailand. Citibank (Thailand) thus cannot recruit talented non-Thai
549
employees from other countries to work in these jobs. Therefore, talented non-Thai
employees must work remotely from Singapore. This is how Citibank (Thailand) translates
its talent management strategies into practices at the subsidiary level (Interview #2).
However, Citibank (Thailand) has not focused only on attracting talented employees
from external labor markets; it has also attempted to retain its talented employees via
internal labor markets. The company has promoted its talented employees from within by
strongly relying on succession plans. The HR department, together with line managers, has
regularly evaluated the readiness of talented employees at each level to determine when they
will be ready to be promoted to the next level. When there is a vacant position, talented
employees in the pipeline are considered for the position first. That is, Citibank (Thailand)
has attempted to promote talented employees who are developed internally, i.e. from
Citibank (Thailand), before searching for candidates developed externally, i.e. from Citibank
in other countries or from other firms. In this regard, diversity is an important issue for
Citibank throughout the world when promoting its managers. Fortunately, in contrast to
South Korea and some Middle Eastern countries, diversity is not a significant problem in
Thailand. Talented female employees at Citibank (Thailand) have the same opportunity as
talented male employees to be promoted to top managers. This is reflected by the recent
promotion of a home-grown talented female employee to the position of senior executive vice
president, which is a role that involves supervising the group of retail customers in Thailand
(Interviews #1 and 2; Interviews #3–5; Observation).
Accordingly, Citibank (Thailand) tends to face a severe skill-shortage problem that may
negatively affect business operations in the local context. Therefore, it must adapt its talent
attraction and investment strategies assigned by headquarters to the context of Thailand to
ensure that it has a sufficient number of talented employees in the pipeline over the years.
Specifically, talented employees at Citibank (Thailand) must be comparable to talented
employees at Citibank headquarters who graduate from the top five world-class universities
or Ivy League universities. High-potential talented employees at Citibank (Thailand) must
also be accepted at the global level, not only at the country level. The qualifications of
talented employees at Citibank (Thailand) are, of course, very high. Thus, Citibank
(Thailand) has had to implement various talent attraction and investment practices to be
able to attract talented candidates from both top-tier Thai and foreign universities.

ICBC
Background. ICBC was established in China on January 1, 1984. On April 21, 2010, ICBC
became the major shareholder in Sin Asia Bank in Thailand through a cross-border merger
and acquisition (Liou et al., 2017), and its name was changed to ICBC (Thai) Public Company
Limited (ICBC (Thai), 2017). In 2019, ICBC (Thai) had a net profit of 2,145m Baht (ICBC
(Thai) Annual Report, 2019). Currently, ICBC (Thai) has more than 1,000 employees,
including over 30 expatriates from China (Work Venture, 2020; ICBC (Thai) Annual Report,
2019). The retirement age of employees at ICBC (Thai) is 55 years, which is lower than the
retirement age of the employees of other banks in the Thai banking industry. Many of the
RIBS HR practices at ICBC (Thai) have to some extent been centralized as has also been done by a
30,4 number of expatriates from China at almost every level in the organization, from top
managers to section heads (Interview #6; Observation; Sorndee et al., 2017). However, in
contrast to the case of expatriates in some Japanese or Singaporean banks, these expatriates
do not primarily focus on controlling the business operations of the subsidiary. Rather, they
are likely to come to Thailand to improve their management skills, foster employees’
550 performance and change employees’ mindset. Currently, expatriates from China work in
almost every area of ICBC (Thai) (Observation). Their typical length of service in Thailand
is three years; however, their contracts are renewable (Interview #7).
Talent management. Talent management is a newly developed process at ICBC (Thai).
The company has faced the problems of skill shortages and employer branding at the
Thailand subsidiary for some time. In particular, deficiencies in the national skill formation
system concerning the skill shortage in the labor market play an important role in attracting
qualified candidates to ICBC (Thai). There is a short supply of qualified graduates and
professionals in the labor market. Additionally, talented Thai candidates in the Thai labor
market do not devote sufficient consideration to working for ICBC (Thai). Although ICBC
does not have any problem regarding its employer branding outside Thailand, ICBC (Thai)
struggles to recruit talented Thai candidates in the Thai labor market. Thus, ICBC (Thai)
has attempted to implement talent management practices to recruit talented candidates
(Interview #7). In this case, talent management can be understood as a tool to foster
employer branding at the subsidiary level.
In addition to the employer branding problem in Thailand, ICBC (Thai) has faced the
problem of a large gap between top managers and junior employees in the organization.
There is a short supply of qualified middle managers and first-line managers at ICBC (Thai).
Talented candidates from the talent management program should help the bank fill this gap
(Interview #7). Thus, there are two main objectives of talent management at ICBC (Thai),
specifically, to improve its employer branding in the Thai labor market and to fill some
positions that currently have shortages, especially middle manager and first-line manager
positions. According to an interviewee:
In China, if ICBC posts job advertisements for 200 positions, there are more than 20,000 applicants
for these positions. In Thailand, however, the situation is quite different. We definitely have
problems with employer branding. Our main competitors in the Thai labor market are local banks
and banks from other countries. We believe that our employer branding in Thailand is not good
enough. Thus, the talent management program should play a role in improving our brand [. . .].
Our organization has had a large gap between top managers and junior employees. We are in
short supply of middle and first-line managers. Thus, our talent management program should
help us fill this gap (Interview #7).
Typically, headquarters in China assigns HR policies, including talent management policies,
to the subsidiary level, and the HR department at ICBC (Thai) plays an important role in the
translation of HR policies into practices, including talent management practices, at the
subsidiary level. Regarding talent management, ICBC (Thai) has not identified talented
employees independently; rather, its HR department works with external consultants to
identify talented employees. Talented employees at ICBC (Thai) must have the
qualifications of integrity, humanity, prudence, creativity and knowledge about the Chinese
language and culture. Talented employees must be at the level of department head or above,
and they should be no more than 40–45 years of age. They must be able to handle job
rotation, job enlargement and job enrichment. They must have both in-depth and general
knowledge across areas in the organization, and they must possess management skills. One
interesting qualification requirement for talented employees at ICBC (Thai) is that they must
be able to work across areas within the bank. For instance, credit analysts, operations Evidence from
managers at the branch level and credit operations managers must be able to work as MNCs in
relationship managers who take care of corporate/wholesale customers. This qualification is Thailand
in accordance with Chinese corporate culture. Every expatriate sent directly from
headquarters to the Thai subsidiary must also have this qualification (Interview #6;
Interview #7; Interviews #8–10).
In practice, the translation of talent management policies into practices at the subsidiary 551
level in Thailand has been likely to be heavily influenced by the institutional structures in
terms of the skill shortage in the labor market and by the lack of employer branding
resulting from ICBC’s (Thai) status as an emerging market MNC. In this regard, top
managers at ICBC (Thai) have had to implement talent management practices that are
suitable for the institutional context and the status of the firm.
Translation of corporate-level strategies into talent attraction practices. At the subsidiary
level, ICBC (Thai) has faced a skill-shortage problem in the Thai labor market, especially in
the key positions of internal auditors, compliance officers, risk management officers and
relationship managers (corporate banking). Additionally, there is a short supply of middle
managers and front-line managers at ICBC (Thai) (Interview #7). Moreover, the status of
ICBC (Thai) as an emerging market MNC has led to an LOR problem. Talent management
practices at ICBC (Thai) have thus had to address this problem.
In particular, ICBC (Thai) has a management trainee program to recruit talented
candidates from the external market to work in key positions. However, the company has
not been successful in attracting talented Thai candidates in the Thai labor market because
its employer branding in Thailand is not sufficiently strong. Thus, it has changed its
primary talent pool to Chinese students who are now studying in second-tier universities in
Thailand or Thai people who have a plan to pursue a master’s degree in China. This should
help alleviate the employer branding problem because these groups of students likely know
the ICBC brand, which has long operated in China (Interview #7). Additionally, this
program should help solve the skill-shortage problem in the Thai labor market, where most
local banks and foreign banks typically compete with one another to attract talented Thai
graduates from various well-recognized universities instead of these two groups of
candidates (Interviews #11 and 12; Interviews #13–18).
The management trainee program primarily consists of soft and hard skills training for a
period of approximately 1.5 years. ICBC (Thai) intends to allocate a large budget for this
training. The trainees in this program must also be rotated to work in different functions at
the branch level, including relationship management, back office operations, credit analysis
and legal and compliance, for approximately 6 months to determine whether they can work
in real working contexts (Interview #7; Interviews #8–10). According to an informant:
We have not been successful in attracting talented Thai candidates in the Thai labor market.
Thus, we aim to recruit Chinese students who are now studying in universities in Thailand,
including Assumption University and Siam University, or Thai graduates who intend to pursue
their master’s degree in China. We are willing to support these Thai graduates to pursue their
master’s degree in China, but they have to return to work with us after graduation. Typically,
there are 7-8 trainees in the program each year. We believe that these two groups of talented
candidates are better able to accept and adapt themselves to the Chinese culture than Thai
students or Thai graduates who do not know Chinese culture. After training these management
trainees for 1.5 years, these trainees have to work across different functions for about half a year
[. . .] Our management trainees work in key positions and have better career paths, compensation,
and benefit packages than other, normal employees (Interview #7).
RIBS However, ICBC (Thai) has not only paid attention to attracting talented employees from
30,4 external labor markets but also attempted to retain its talented employees via internal labor
markets, although there is currently a short supply of internal talented employees.
Typically, internal talented employees must have a breadth and depth of knowledge and
skills across different functions. They must be well-trained and be able to serve as
successors in various key positions according to the firm’s succession plan (Interview #7).
552 After working at ICBC (Thai) for a while, talented employees who are Chinese students
studying at universities in Thailand are eligible to transfer to work at the headquarters in
China in the future. This is one of the benefits of being a talented employee at ICBC (Thai).
Consistently, talented employees who are Thai graduates and intend to pursue their
master’s degree in China may have career paths outside Thailand if they continuously
contribute outstanding work performance (Interview #7; Interviews #8–10).
Accordingly, ICBC (Thai) tends to face a severe skill-shortage problem and LOR, which
may negatively affect its business operations in the local context. Therefore, it must
translate its talent attraction and investment strategies identified by headquarters into
practices at the subsidiary level in Thailand to ensure that it has a sufficient number of
talented employees in the pipeline over time. However, because of the status of emerging
economy MNCs, which leads to LOR, ICBC (Thai) has implemented talent attraction and
investment practices that focus on talented candidates who are Chinese students currently
studying in second-tier universities in Thailand or Thai graduates who intend to pursue
their master’s degree in China instead of the typical candidates from well-known, first-tier
universities. Table 4 summarizes the challenges faced and talent management practices
used by the two groups of MNCs when operating in Thailand’s emerging economy.
Thus, based on the literature review of relevant theoretical perspectives of global talent
management, qualitative data obtained from in-depth interviews with a variety of
stakeholders, data from nonparticipant observations and a review of archival documents
and Web-based resources, four propositions are proposed as follows:

P1. MNCs from developed economies tend to face a lower level of challenges than MNCs
from emerging economies when they translate corporate-level talent management
strategies to the subsidiary level.
P2. MNCs from developed economies tend to face challenges in terms of skill shortages,
and those challenges affect the translation process.
P3. MNCs from emerging economies tend to face challenges in terms of both skill
shortages and LOR (i.e. weak employer branding) in the translation process.

Groups of MNCs Challenges Talent management practices

Table 4. MNCs from developed Skill shortages Use several talent management programs/
Challenges faced and economies practices to target talented candidates who
talent management graduate from well-known, first-tier universities
in Thailand and foreign countries
practices used by the
MNCs from emerging Skill shortages and Use talent management programs/practices to
two groups of MNCs economies the liability of origin target talented candidates who are Chinese
when operating in students studying in second-tier universities in
the emerging Thailand or Thai graduates who intend to
economy of Thailand pursue their master’s degree in China
 P4. Both groups of MNCs should develop talent management practices at the subsidiary Evidence from
level that respond to the challenges they face so that they can survive in emerging MNCs in
market economies.
Thailand
Discussion
Based on the matched-case comparison of the empirical findings and the four propositions
above, this paper finds support for the following arguments. First, MNCs from developed 553
economies (i.e. Citibank) tend to face a problem with Thailand’s institutional structure (i.e. a
skill-shortage problem) when operating their business there. It is, therefore, difficult for
Citibank (Thailand) to find talented candidates to fill vacant positions within a period of
three months. This challenge is a context-specific factor that forces Citibank to apply
various talent attraction and investment practices, such as management trainee programs,
to conform with the institutional structure and to ensure that it has a sufficient number of
talented employees in key positions over the years. However, Citibank (Thailand) is different
from ICBC (Thai). Citibank (Thailand) has long been viewed as a corporate university for
bankers in Thailand, and many current bankers across local and international banks and
securities companies in Thailand are Citibank (Thailand) alumni. Thus, because of its
strong employer branding and status as a well-recognized MNC from a developed economy,
Citibank (Thailand) has not had any problem attracting talented candidates from well-
known, first-class Thai and foreign universities. Nevertheless, Citibank does not admit
every talented candidate who has graduated from these well-known universities. Rather, it
screens job candidates to ensure that their qualifications are sufficiently high and
comparable with the qualifications of candidates at Citibank headquarters and in other
developed economies who graduated from Ivy League or world-class universities. That is,
Citibank (Thailand) must ensure that the qualifications of its talented employees are at the
world-class level. For this reason, it has implemented talent attraction and investment
practices to address two primary objectives: to alleviate the skill-shortage problem, which
may interrupt its business operations, and to ensure that the firm has a pool of world-class,
high-quality talented employees for key positions.
Second, MNCs from emerging economies (i.e. ICBC) tend to face the challenge of both the
institutional structure (i.e. the skill shortage) and LOR (i.e. weak employer branding) when
they operate their business in the host country of Thailand. ICBC (Thai) has not been able to
find qualified candidates from the labor market to fill vacancies within a reasonable amount
of time. Additionally, talented graduates from several well-known, first-tier Thai
universities do not sufficiently consider working for ICBC (Thai). Thus, ICBC (Thai) has
faced a problem in attracting talented Thai candidates in Thailand’s labor market. This
problem may be attributed to the status of the bank as an emerging economy MNC. It is
possible that talented graduates from well-known, first-tier universities in Thailand perceive
the status of an emerging economy MNC to be weaker than the status of a developed
economy MNC such as Citibank. This result may be an effect of LOR. Therefore, ICBC (Thai)
has had to apply talent attraction and investment practices to different groups of talented
candidates. In particular, to alleviate the LOR problem, ICBC (Thai) has targeted talented
candidates who are Chinese students studying at second-tier universities in Thailand or
Thai graduates who aim to pursue their master’s degree in China. In this respect, the skill-
shortage problem is not the only factor that affects the translation of corporate-level talent
management strategies into practices at the subsidiary level. Rather, emerging market
MNCs must pay attention to the LOR problem when they translate corporate-level talent
management strategies into practices.
RIBS Third, for MNCs from developed and emerging economies, the process of translating
30,4 corporate-level talent management strategies into subsidiary-level practices in an emerging
economy, such as Thailand, is likely to be similar. MNCs from both developed and emerging
economies have attempted to find suitable talented candidates in the labor market to fill key
positions. According to comparative institutionalism theory and, more specifically, the VoC
approach, as well as the prior literature on the translation of corporate-level talent
554 management strategies into subsidiary-level talent management practices, both MNCs
adapt their corporate-level HR policies to talent management practices that fit with the
institutional structures, i.e. the skill formation system and skill shortages in the labor
market, of the host country of Thailand (Hoskisson et al., 2000). For instance, they have
implemented programs/practices, including management trainee programs, to ensure that
they will have talented employees in the pipeline for the future. However, because MNCs
from emerging economies face an additional LOR problem, which makes them weaker in
employer branding than MNCs from developed countries, these MNCs [i.e. ICBC (Thai)]
must target different groups of talented candidates in the labor market. Thus, MNCs from
emerging economies are unlikely to pay much attention to the academic qualifications of
talented candidates because they may not be able to compete with MNCs from developed
economies in attracting talented candidates who graduate from well-known, first-tier
universities in Thailand. Rather, they devote their attention to whether such talented
candidates have the qualifications, knowledge and skills that are in accordance with Chinese
culture and business practices. Therefore, they look for this group of candidates in second-
tier universities in Thailand.
Fourth, although the two MNCs target different groups of talented candidates, they are
both likely to develop internal labor markets within their firms. That is, it is possible that
both groups of MNCs have attempted to avoid the skill-shortage problem in the labor
market by implementing talent management practices/programs to facilitate the internal
development of their own employees over time. The main argument regarding the
development of an internal labor market (Doeringer and Piore, 1971) within an organization
is that the pricing of the labor market and its allocation occur within a firm or an
establishment (Osterman, 1984). In this respect, the market consists of rules that limit the
hiring of new employees to the entry level alone. Administrative rules and procedures
specify who is eligible for promotion. People outside the firm are not eligible to be hired
directly into higher positions. Large firms typically develop internal labor markets within
their organizations (Weber, 1947) because they have sufficient resources and skills to
establish promotion ladders (Oi, 1983). In the case of Citibank (Thailand) and ICBC (Thai),
talent management programs/practices, such as management trainee programs, that recruit
talented candidates who have just graduated from universities to work at the bank at the
entry level and that develop/groom them over time to serve as top managers or to work in
key positions, have facilitated the development of internal labor markets within the
organizations. One of the reasons why these two MNCs have attempted to develop internal
labor markets is that they do not want to face the skill-shortage problem in the labor market,
which may interrupt their business operations; skill shortages are a major factor in firm
failure. Moreover, skill shortages are typically one of the serious problems that MNCs may
face when they operate in emerging economies such as Thailand. Additionally, the
development of an internal labor market through the implementation of talent management
practices/programs also plays an important role in fostering positive employer branding
among these firms in emerging economies.
Accordingly, MNCs from developed economies tend to face a lower level of challenges
than MNCs from emerging economies when they translate corporate-level talent
management strategies into practices at the subsidiary level in Thailand. On the one hand, Evidence from
MNCs from developed economies (i.e. Citibank) tend to face challenges in terms of skill MNCs in
shortages, and these challenges affect their translation of talent management strategies into
subsidiary-level practices. On the other hand, MNCs from emerging economies (i.e. ICBC)
Thailand
tend to face challenges in terms of both skill shortages and LOR (i.e. weak employer
branding) in this translation process. However, this process tends not to be different
between two MNCs. Nevertheless, each MNC may have to target different groups of talented
candidates to respond to the challenges that they face so they can survive in emerging
555
economies. Finally, talent management practices implemented by both groups of MNCs are
likely to foster the development of an internal labor market within the organization and
promote positive employer branding.

Conclusions
Theoretical contributions
This paper contributes to the literature on talent management in several ways. First, the
findings of this paper should extend the literature on global talent management by focusing
on why MNCs from developed economies face a lower level of challenges than MNCs from
emerging economies when translating corporate-level talent management strategies into
subsidiary-level practices in an emerging economy and how local contextual factors, i.e. skill
shortages and LOR, influence the translation process. Second, this paper contributes to
comparative institutionalism theory, specifically the VoC approach, by explaining the
importance of recognizing institutional structures in emerging economies for effective talent
management practices. Finally, this study should assist managers who wish to implement
the translation of corporate talent management strategies to their subsidiaries in Thailand
and other emerging economies.

Managerial implications
This paper provides managerial implications for the HR professionals and managers of
MNCs that operate in emerging economies or of companies that aim to internationalize their
business to emerging economies. These HR professionals and managers must pay attention
to local institutional structures, including skill-shortage problems and national skill
formation systems, to successfully implement talent management practices in emerging
economies. Additionally, in the case of MNCs from emerging economies, HR professionals
and managers must understand the concept of LOR and look for ways to alleviate this
problem to ensure the success of talent management in both developed economies and other
emerging economies.

Policy implications
This paper provides policy implications for the government in Thailand and in other emerging
economies where the skill-shortage problem is particularly severe. Specifically, these
governments should pay attention to solving the problem of occupation-level skill shortages to
alleviate the severe competition for talented candidates among firms in the labor market.

Limitations and directions for future research

One limitation of this research is its methodology. Because this research is based on a
matched-case comparison of an MNC from a developed economy and an MNC from an
emerging economy, both of which operate in the emerging economy of Thailand, it does not
claim generalizability to all MNCs and to other emerging economies. Rather, the results of
RIBS this research should lead to further discussion of how MNCs from developed and emerging
30,4 economies translate corporate-level talent management strategies into subsidiary-level
practices to survive in other emerging economies. However, one important issue here is that
there may be a tension between the use of expatriates and local top managers at MNCs’
subsidiaries located in other emerging economies as drivers for knowledge sourcing in that
the importance of expatriates may diminish over time as the subsidiaries located in those
556 economies age (Dahms, 2019). In this regard, future research in the area of global talent
management should pay special attention to this issue. The other important issue here is
that it is possible that the two case study MNCs are very different from one another because
of their organizational development stage, history and current globalization stage. Thus,
this issue may also influence the types of talent management strategies and practices that
the two case study MNCs have developed in different countries. In particular, MNCs from
emerging economies (ICBC) may not have developed their global HR strategies as they have
not yet operated globally as in the case of MNCs from developed economies (Citibank). This
can be another important issue for future research. Additionally, both MNCs examined in
this research operate in the banking industry. This study, therefore, omits MNCs that
operate in other industries such as the automobile industry and the hotel and resort
industry. Future researchers can explore how both groups of MNCs in other industries
translate their talent management strategies into practices when they operate in other
emerging economies. Moreover, this study focuses only on two primary contextual factors,
the skill-shortage problem and LOR; future research can explore other local contextual
factors, such as the national culture and their impact on the translation of talent
management strategies into practices. Furthermore, quantitative studies that use large
sample sizes of both groups of MNCs across industries might be useful in deepening our
understanding of talent management. Finally, a comparison of talent management
strategies and practices between Japanese MNCs and European MNCs that operate in
Thailand would also be interesting.

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Corresponding author
Chaturong Napathorn can be contacted at: chaturong@tbs.tu.ac.th

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