The Human Resource Issues and their Impact on Firm Growth in Small E-Businesses in China

Abstract

This paper studies the human resource issues in small e-businesses in China through questionnaire survey about online shoppers and current employees in e-commerce companies, interviews with human resource managers who are now working in successful e-commerce firms and those who have worked before in the broken e-business websites. E-businesses inevitably confront with the human resource dilemma, especially when they rely on high-quality service for differentiation. In order to deliver infinite scalability, these firms need to reduce their dependence on human resource. However insufficient human resource investment impedes the firm growth. Analyzing how these issues impede the firm growth, by developing the case study of comparing two Chinese B2C websites, Jindong, one of the leading B2C websites, and Vipshop, one of the small e-businesses struggling to tip in the market, recommendations are given to small e-businesses to improve their human resource and promote the firm growth.