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Competitiveness is vital to attracting FDI into a country, which has led us to investigate the determinants of FDI in the top 15 most competitive countries in the Asia Pacific region.

We have analysed political stability alongside other commonly studied determinants of FDI. We have employed a panel data fixed-effect model on a 14-year sample data (2000-2013) involving the top 15 most competitive Asia Pacific countries. The Global Competitiveness Index was taken as the yardstick to identify these countries. We have used fixed effect, GMM-system, and Panel ARDL tests for robust results.

The GDP, trade openness and political stability positively influenced FDI inflows while inflation rate negatively impacted FDI inflows in the selected countries. Political stability was the most influential variable in the presence of other indicators. GDP, openness, and political stability exhibit significant long-run relationship with FDI inflows.

To increase FDI flows, regulators should focus on building the image of the country, and possibly the region, by ensuring stable economic and political environment, maintaining macroeconomic stability through bi- and multi-lateral arrangements with neighbouring countries.

Regional relationships with neighbouring countries can be considered as the building blocks for attracting FDIs. These relationships can be strengthened based on liberal trade policies, openness in capital control, and cooperation in terms of political actions. One such recent issue in regional political cooperation include actions to reduce terrorism and corruption that help boost the confidence of the investors.

The purpose of this study is to provide deeper and broader insights into human resource outsourcing (HRO) trends and practices specific to the Malaysian context.

Data were collected from HR managers through a questionnaire-based survey, using convenient sampling with random selection.

HRO practices were found to have evolved into second-generation outsourcing, with considerable potential to grow further in the future. Firm size and sector had little or no effect on the degree of HRO. Both cost benefits and resourced-based benefits were key drivers of HRO decisions, with a majority of the firms reporting having achieved these benefits equally and positively. Most of the functions outsourced were traditional-transactional HR functions. Slightly more than half of the HRO decisions were made by top management without the involvement of HR managers. More than half of the firms surveyed intended to do more outsourcing in the near future (i.e. within the next two to five years), including firms that had previously experienced HRO failure.

While convenience sampling limits the generalisability of the findings, it is suitable for a study like this, especially as there is no pre-established list of firms outsourcing HR available in Malaysia. The study did not cover trends in either HR shared services or insourcing – either of which could potentially affect future HRO trends in the future. The findings also serve as a warning to future HRO researchers about the importance of contextual knowledge to strengthen the validity of their findings.

The findings provide both practitioners and service providers with insights into HRO practices and trends in Malaysia, which are comprehensively discussed in the paper.

This paper presents a broad, yet up-to-date, overview of HRO practices and trends specific to the Malaysian context. It covers aspects and details of HRO not explored or explicitly discussed before.