Coping with the Asian economic crisis: the rightsizing strategies of small- and medium-sized enterprises
研究了香港中小企业在经济衰退中如何通过分阶段的人力资源调整策略（限制招聘、精简运营、主动招聘）来应对危机，并提出了一个规模调整策略的初步模型。
Hong Kong has been, over the last two years, experiencing the worst economic downturn in decades. What small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have done to overcome the setback, and how and to what extent, remains unknown. Given the apparent importance of retrenchment to the survival of small firms for success in economic turmoil, this paper examines the processes of the rightsizing strategies of Chinese-owned small and medium-sized firms in Hong Kong. The research results suggest that SMEs in Hong Kong follow different human resources practices at different stages. In the 'restricting stage', SMEs reduce or stop hiring new staff and restrict overtime for the existing staff to deal with decreases in sales and the oversupply of manpower. In the 'trimming stage', SMEs scale down or streamline their operations. In the 'proactive stage', SMEs employ existing staff in overtime work and start to hire new staff at lower pay but with higher technological competencies to prepare for recovery. A tentative model for rightsizing strategies of Chinese small and medium-sized firms in Hong Kong is proposed.