iBusiness, 2013, 5, 168-174
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ib.2013.53B036 Published Online September 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ib)
Empirical Research on Influencing Factors of Human
Resources Management Outsourcing Degree*
Lihua Zhao1, Jiang Li2, J ing Li1
1Economics and Management School, Tianjin University of Technology and Education, Tianjin, China; 2Economics and Manage-
ment School, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China.
Received 2013
ABSTRACT
In this paper we review the human resources management outsourcing research in domestic and overseas, establish a
model and then propose research hypotheses. With the empirical research method, we take the questionnaire investiga-
tion and research on enterpr ise human resources department manage r or staff, and then take statistical analysis to them
with SPSS software. From the research results, we come to a conclusion that top intervention, strategic position of the
function and the asset specificity has more significant impact to enterprise human resources management outsourcing
degree, thus, provid ing reference opinions for enterprise human resources outsourcing.
Keywords: Human Resources Management Outsourcing; Outsourcing Degree; Influence Factor
1. Introduction
With the increasingly fierce market competition, the en-
terprise faces more complex and dynamic business envi-
ronment, if it wants to get the survival and development
space, the enterprise must focus on its resources, develop
its core business and make enterprise's core competitive
ability. Therefore, many enterprises have broken tradi-
tional organization structure which is large and all inclu-
sive; they complete some non-core business using the
outside resources, so outsourcing arises at the historic
moment. At one time an organization may have many
different human resources activities so that it is hard to
divide it just with all outsourcing or all not outsourcing,
therefore, in our view it has more practical meaning to
research on outsourcing degree other than studying
whether it is outsourcing.
2. Literature Review
2.1. Human Resources Management
Outsourcing
For human resources outsourcing, different scholars have
different points of view. Switser (1997) points out that
the trend of human resources management outsourcing is
from the previous view of cost savings to obtain com-
petitive advantage; he forecasts that outsourcing is the
only the biggest growth opportunities of the professional
services company in the next 10 years. Lever defines the
human resource functions outsourcing as “act that enter-
prise let certain human resource functions to external
service providers complete ". GreeL Younghlood and
Gray hold the view that: "the human resource functions
outsourcing is that human resources tasks are repeated by
external partners. Mary. F. Cook defines human resource
functions outsourcing as: "let the third party service pro-
vider or services seller provide a continuous supply of
human resources management service, in the past this
management activities is usually taken by enterprise in-
ternal departments concerned. Service provid ers will sign
contract to manage a particular human resources activity,
they provide the scheduled service and charge estab-
lished service fee. Domestic scholars Liu Bang put for-
ward the concept: “human resource functions outsourc-
ing is maintaining a long-term contract of new human
resources operational model to get certain HR business
service from outside specialized service suppliers". An
Yingmin thinks: "so-called human resource functions
outsourcing is that the enterprise puts more energy on the
core of human resources management work, and out-
sources some complex and procedural strong daily rou-
tine work of human resources management to the profes-
sional human resources management service agencies."
In our view the human resources management out-
sourcing is one management mode that the enterprise
outsources some repetitive, complex affairs of human
*Philosophy Social Science Project: Tian Jin college graduates em-
p
loyment stability study based on the perspective of psychological
capital in occupation adaptation period ( TJSR11 - 003 ).

Empirical Research on Influencing Factors of Human Resources Management Outsourcing Degree 169
resources management to professional institutions to re-
duce cost, and makes human resource managers can
concentrate on the enterprise human resources manage-
ment planning and policy from the strategy angle.
2.2. Human Resources Management
Outsourcing Degree
At one time an organization may have many different
human resources activities so that it is hard to divide it
just with all outsourcing or all not outsourcing. Organi-
zations should choose scale of human resources man-
agement outsourcing depending on different demands.
Therefore, it is more realistic to replace whether it is with
outsourcing degree. Human resources management out-
sourcing degree is degree that one enterprise entrusts
human resource management functions to the external
professional organization. in the classification of Grow-
eretal way the level of management, namely to be meas-
ured by enterprise human resources management activi-
ties decision-making power belongs to contractors or the
external enterprise as well as the degree of outsourcing
comparing to other enterprise.
High transaction costs, internalization, low transaction
costs, different degree of outsourcing; The asset specific-
ity is high, the internalization degree is higher, low level
of outsourcing (Alpar&Sallaria, Anbertetal, DeLoff,
Klepper & Jones); Mcfarlan, Nolan thinks cost, quality,
service departments provide, competitive pressure, busi-
ness restructuring are influence factors of outsourcing
degree. High business structure, high difference and dis-
cretion between functions and organization, enterprise
experience and management ability will lead to high
outsourcing degree. Lacity, Wilcocks, Feeny thinks the
contribution to enterprise status and enterprise operation
can influent the outsourcing degree. Business that have
little contribution to enterprise status can be outsourced
integrality or partly according to the contribution to the
enterprise operation; Michacl. Earl thinks performance
level of department operation also influents enterprise
degree. Poor performance level, low outsourcing degree.
Based on the summary and induction of predecessors'
achievements, Ji Zhijian Su Jingqin and other scholars
conclude the degree of influence factors of outsourcing
in their paper: subject (enterprise) ability strength and
object (business) nature. The research results indicate
that: all kinds of size enterprise can adopt outsourcing
strategy, if enterprise asset specificity is high and ability
level is low, the outsourcing level should not be too big;
when the enterprise ability develops to a certain height,
its constraint to the outsourcing degree will reach the
steady state.
3. Study Method and Data Colleting
3.1. Model Establishment
Although there are many documents for human resources
management outsourcing research in domestic and inter-
national, but they mainly focus on outsourcing mode,
risks and performance. They rarely pay attention to the
outsourcing degree. Therefore, in this paper we want to
have an empirical analysis of the influencing factors of
human resource management outsourcing degree through
questionnaire investigation to the enterprise human re-
sources department supervisor or staff and establish the
model that can reflect influencing factors of human re-
source management outsourcing degree on the basis of
previous studie s.
This model uses Ji Zhijian and Su Jingqin (2006) the
idea for reference and summarizes the influencing factors
of human resources management outsourcing for the
main factors and object factors. On one hand, according
to the tran sac tion co st th eory as well as the cor e comp eti-
tiveness theory, set the transaction characteristics (un-
certainty, the asset specificity and trade frequency), and
business characteristics (strategic positio n of business) as
object influencing factors; On the other hand, in this pa-
per we adopt some research results of Xu Qiyi (1999) ,
set the company size, attention level of managers and
outsourcing experience as the main influencing factors,
thus construct the model framework. From the influenc-
ing factors many previous studies involved. In this paper
we select some typical and high testability factors ac-
cording to its theory roots, research purpose as well as
characteristics of human resource management field, and
then classify and investigate them. On the other hand,
previous similar empirical researches mainly use unary
or multiple linear regression method to test that, while
we use multiple econometrics mode l to test it trying to
draw higher fitting degree model to make the final con-
clusion more accurate.
Figure 1. Human resource management outsourcing degree influe nc ing fac t or s mode l.

Empirical Research on Influencing Factors of Human Resources Management Outsourcing Degree
170
3.2. Proposing Research Problem and
Hypothesis
Based on the transaction cost theory, core competitive-
ness theory and related theory of outsourcing degree, in
this paper we propose hypothesis about the different in-
flections of kinds of influencing factors on human re-
source management outsourcing degree mainly from
three aspects, trading characteristics, business character-
istics and enterprise features, then we construct the
model:
1) Influence of trading characteristics on outsourcing
degree
According to the transaction cost theory, transaction
characteristics can be measured from three aspects, asset
specificity, uncertainty and trade frequency. Transaction
costs increase as asset specificity level and uncertainty
level increase, regular trading is likely to reduce transac-
tion costs. From that point, in order to study the influence
of asset specificity, unc ertainty and transaction frequ ency
on the enterprise human resources management out-
sourcing, we put forward the following research prob-
lems and hypothesis:
Problem1: Study the influence of transaction charac-
teristics on the enterprise human resources management
outsourcing
Hypothesis 1: transaction characteristics of enterprise
human resources management outsourcing has signifi-
cant correlation with its information system outsourcing
degree
Hl1:Asset specificity of enterprise human resources
management system has significant correlation with its
human resource functions outsourcing degrees
H12:Uncertainty of enterprise human resources man-
agement environment has significant correlation with its
human resource functions outsourcing degrees
H13:Outsourcing frequency of enterprise human re-
sources management function has significant correlation
with its human resource fun c tions outsourcing degrees
2) Influence of business characteristics on the out-
sourcing degree
Here the business characteristics refer to the strategic
position of a human resources management function in
the company. That is the degree of its core capability.
Generally speaking, we judge a business core compe-
tence degree depending on three characteristics, namely
the uniqueness, valuable and ductility. In light of this,
studying influence of strategic position of enterprise hu-
man resources management business on human resources
management outsourcing degree, we put forward the
following research pr oblems and hypothesis:
problem2: study the influence of business characteris-
tics on the enterprise human resources management out-
sourcing degree
Hypothesis 2: Strategic position of enterprise human
resources management functions has significant correla-
tion with its information system outsourcing degrees
H21: Strategic position of enterprise human resources
management functions has significant correlation with its
information system outsourcing degrees
3) Influence of enterprise characteristics on out-
sourcing degree
A outsourcing decision is not only influenced by the
business itself, that is the effect of outsourcing o bject , but
also influenced by the main body from outsourcing,
therefore, as an enterprise's strategic decision, outsourc-
ing degrees strategy is in a great extent influenced by
the enterprise itself characteristics. According to the
topic of this paper and measurable request, in this re-
search we use enterprise scale, manager attention level
and outsourcing experience to describe the characteristics
of the enterprise. Firstly, allocations of human resource
management will influent the enterprise outsourcing de-
gree. Secondly, the degree of top managers’ intervention
indicates value degree and the strength of the execution.
Outsourcing experience is also a factor an enterprise
must take into account when it makes the outsourcing
decision, studying the influence on human resources
management outsourcing degree; we put forward the
following research pr oblem and hypothesis:
problem3: study the influence of business characteris-
tics on its human resources management outsourcing
degree
Hypothesis 3: Strategic position of enterprise human
resources management functions has significant correla-
tion with its information system outsourcing degree
H31: Enterprise scale has significant correlation with
its information system outsourcing degree
H32: The degree of top managers’ intervention to hu-
man resources management activity has significant cor-
relation with outsourcing degree
H33: Outsourcing experience of enterprise has sigini-
ficant correlation with its human resources management
outsourcin g degree
3.3. Questionnaire Design and Data Analysis
1) Questionnaire design
In the form Questionnaire mainly takes Richter (Ukcrt)
five-point scale for reference. According to the different
levels of investigated-things, they are divided into five
levels to let the objects choose. As for the contents we
take part of Xu Qiyi’s scale for reference and make some
modification for practical needs. The questionnaire is
mainly divided into three p arts, including Enterprise cur-
rent situation, subject factors and object factors. Enter-
prise situation: including enterprise basic information,
the main reason of enterprise human resources manage-
ment outsourcing. Subject factors: including outsourcing
degree, manager intervention degree and outsourcing

Empirical Research on Influencing Factors of Human Resources Management Outsourcing Degree 171
experience. The object factors: including outsourcing
degree, asset specificity, uncertainty and strategic posi-
tion of busine ss.
The enterprises we survey are mainly more than 100
people’s large and medium-sized enterprises. Most of
them have been established for five years. We give out
150 questionnaires in the study and recycle 72, of which
the effective questionnaires are 67; the recovery is 48%,
and the effective rate is 44.7%.
2) The reliability and validity analysis and related
analysis of the scale
According to Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and reli-
ability table (Table 1, Table 2)，we can see that the a
coefficient of these factors and the whole a coefficient
are in a reliable range.
From the different validity of the tables show (Ta bl e 3 ,
Table 4), we can learn that correlation coefficient be-
tween two factors is mainly low to moderate, that is to
say said it is really different between the two.
3) The validation of the hypoth esis
In this paper we mainly apply multiple linear regres-
sion models, totally elastic model and h alf elastic models
of multiple regression analysis model to analyze the data,
the following is variable Setting:
Subject factors regression model includes following
variables: Outsourcing degree(Y1), Enterprise scale (x1),
manager intervention degree(x2), Outsourcing experi-
ence(x3)
Object factors regression model includes following
variables: Outsourcing degree (Y2)、Asset specificity(a1),
Uncertainty(a2), Frequency(a3), Strategic position(a4)
the regression equations of subject factors and object
factors of this paper can be respectively written as:
Y7=h0+h1Inxl+h2Inx2+h3Inx3
Y8=i0+i1Ina1+i2ina2+i3Ina3+i4Ina4
According to the results of regression (Table 5 and
Table 6) through the inspection top intervention accesses
into the linear equation, and the other two variables are
rejected. After the adjustment the multiple decision coef-
ficients R2 is 0.339, showing that regression equation
can reveal 33.9% of the total variance in outsourcing
degrees; F test and t test both achieve significant level,
illustrating that linear regression equation of the model
has statistical significance, the standard regression equa-
tion is:
Human resources management outsourcing degree =
0.591 × top executives intervention degree
Table 1. Reliability test results of subject factors.
after deleting this question
the average of the Scale after deleting this question the variance of the scale after deleting this question the a coefficient of the scale
Outsourcing degree
Enterprise scale
manager intervention
Outsourcingexperience
10.3731
8.8657
9.4478
9.7761
5.2981
6.2999
5.0389
7.2673
0.5674
0.6302
0.5695
0.7835
Reliability coefficien: 0.7124
Table 2. Reliability test results of object factors.
after deleting this question
the average of the Scale after deleting this question the variance of the scale after deleting this question the a coefficient of the scale
Outsourcingdegree
Asset specificity
Uncertainty
Frequency
Strategic position
11.1433
9.7761
9.6418
9.5463
10.9134
6.1231
5.3240
7.1527
5.5300
7.1991
0.5415
0.4836
0.6846
0.4954
0.6494
Reliability coefficien:0.6341
Table 3. Correlation analysis of subject factors.
Enterprise scale Manager
intervention Outsourcing experience
Enterprise scale 1.000
Manager
intervention 0.5709（*） 1.000
Outsourcing
experience 0.146 0.200 1.000
Table 4. The correlation analysis of object factors.
Asset
specificity Uncertainty Frequency Strategic position
Asset specificity1.000
Uncertainty 0.100 1.000
Frequency 0.823（**） 0.131（*） 1.000
Strategic position0.086 0.116（*） 0.051 1.000
* Related significance when signifi cant level is 0.05; * * Related si g n ificance when significant level is 0.01.

Empirical Research on Influencing Factors of Human Resources Management Outsourcing Degree
172
The results of regression analysis suggest that the in-
tervention of enterprise top executives to human re-
sources management outsourcing activities will have
positive influence for the outsourcing degree, that is to
say enterprise human resources management outsourcing
degree largely depends on top manager's attitude, its de-
cision-making power is more concentrated, and the
course is from up to down. On the other hand, the enter-
prise scale and outsourcing experience these two factors
are refused, showing that the development of human re-
sources management outsourcing has not only confined
to large enterprises to participate in; all kinds of scale
enterprise gradually begin to recognize its value and sig-
nificance and take different strategies of outsourcing de-
gree according to its practical needs.
According to SPSS data of Table 7 and Table 8, after
the adjustment decision coefficient R2 of model 1 (mul-
tiple linear regression model) is the highest, that is the
best fitting degree. So we choose analysis results of the
mode to test hypothesis of this paper. According to the
results of gradual regression, strategic position and the
asset specificity of single human resources management
business pass the inspection into the linear equation,
while the other two variables are rejected. After the ad-
justment multiple decision coefficients R2 is 0.374,
showing that regression equation can reveal 37.4% of the
total variance in outsourcing degrees; F test and t test
both achieve significant level, illustrating that linear re-
gression equation of the mode l has statistical sign ificance,
the standard regression equation is:
Human resources management outsourcing degree
=0.382×Strategic position+0.332xAsset specificity
Table 5. Regression analysis results of subject factors.
Model subject factor standard
Enterprise
scale（x1） Top manager intervention（x2）
Outsourcing
experience（x3） Regression standard
a1=0 is refused a2=0.591 a3=0 is refused
mode11(multiple linear
regression model Y1=0.591 x2
c1=0 is refused c2=0.572 c3=0 is refused
mode12(Bi-logarithm
model) InY3=0.572Inx2
f1=0 is refused f2=0.587 f3=0 is refused
mode13(logarithm-Linear
model) InY5=0.587x2
h1=0 is refused h2=0.562 h3=0 is refused
mode14(linear-logarithm
model) Y7=0.562Inx2
The standard Into the equation is: statistic
probable value of F should<=0.050; the
standard to remove is:>= 0.100
Table 6. Regression analysis coefficients of subject factors.
Multiple related
coefficient R determination coefficientR2 determination coefficient
after adjusted R2 F value F significant T value T significant
model1* 0.591 0.349 0.339 34.922 0.000 5.909 0.000
model2 0.572 0.327 0.317 31.630 0.000 5.624 0.000
model3 0.587 0.344 0.334 34.085 0.000 5.838 0.000
model4 0.562 0.316 0.305 29.992 0.000 5.476 0.000
Table 7. Regression analysis coefficients of object factors.
model object factors standard
Asset specificity uncertainty frequency Strategic position Regression standard
b1=0.332 b2=0is refused b3=0 is refusedb4=0.382
Mode model1 (multiple
linear regression model) Y2=0.332a1+0.382a4
d1=0.312 d2=0 is refusedd3=0 is refusedd4=0.356
model 2
(Bi-logarithm model)) InY4=0.312Ina1+0.356Ina4
g1=0.332 g2=0 is refusedg3=0 is refusedg4=0.365
model 3 (loga rithm
——Linear model) InY6=0.332a1+0.365a4
i1=0.309 i2=0 is refused i3=0 is refusedi4=0.371
model 4 (lin e a r
——Logarithm model) Y8=0.309Ina1+0.371Ina4
the standard into the equation
is: Probability value of statis-
tics Fshould<= 0.050; the
standard to remove is>=.100

Empirical Research on Influencing Factors of Human Resources Management Outsourcing Degree 173
4) Hypothesis testing results
Testing results Table 9.
As in the questionnaire design, outsourcing degrees
are low to high (1 - 5 points), and the asset specificity is
by the unique to the general (1- 5 points); Strategic posi-
tion is also a high to low scores (1 -5 points), therefore,
there is a negative correlation between the asset specific-
ity and strategic position two factors and human re-
sources management outsourcing degree, namely the
asset specificity and the strategic position are high, out-
sourcing degree is low; The asset specificity is low and
strategic position is low, the outsourcing degree is high.
The results show that when making the human resources
management outsourcing decision the enterprise will
firstly consider the importance of strategic position of
certain management function; outsourcing business that
greatly contributes to core competence will increase op-
erational rise of enterprise, therefore, the enterprise is
more inclined to deal it with endogenous, th is choice also
accord with the original intention of enterprise outsourc-
ing, that is centralizing resource to develop core com-
petitiveness. On the other hand, the high asset specificity
business often cause larger risk and high cost when en-
terprise transforming the supplier. Therefore, that must
be taken into consideration when the enterprise makes
human resources management outsourcing decision.
Here to add is, according to the results of the survey, the
investigation objects think the asset specificity of human
resources management functions from high to low are:
job enthusiasm, performance evaluation, position design,
salary design and personnel selection; Strategic position
from high to low are sorting as: the employees' participa-
tion, position design, performance evaluation, personnel
selection, salary design.
4. Conclusion and Management
Enlightenment
4.1. Research Conclusion
Human resources management outsourcing is a complex
system, which involves many problem and co mplex rela-
tions so that we need take a long-term and in-depth re-
search. In this paper we summarize related theories of
human resources management outsourcing, on the basis
Table 8. Regression analysis coefficients of object factors.
R R2 after adjusted R2 F value F significantT value t significant
Strategic position 8.160 0.000
Model1* specificity 0.627 0.378 0.374 63.910 0.000 7.092 0.000
Strategic position 7.421 0.000
Model2 specificity 0.489 0.239 0.234 52.060 0.000 6.501 0.000
Strategic position 7.717 0.000
Model3 specificity 0.514 0.264 0.259 59.487 0.000 7.014 0.000
Model4 Strateg ic po s it i on 0.498 0.248 0.243 54.734 0.000 7.781
6.468 0.000 0.000
Table 9. Conclusion.
Pass or not Hypothes contents
Yes H11 Asset sp ecificity of enterprise human resources management system has significant correlation with human
resource functions outsourcing degree.
No H12 Uncertainty of enterprise human resources ma nagement environment has significant correl a t i on w i t h h uman
resource functions outsourcing degree.
No H13 Outsourcing frequency of enterprise human resources management function has significant correlation with
human resource functions outsourcing degree.
Yes H21 Strategic position of enterpr i se human resources mana geme nt fu nction h as significant correlation with its
outsourcing degree.
No H31 Enterprise scale has significant correlation with human resources management outsourcing degree.
Yes H32 Top in tervention degree in human resources managem ent activity has significant correlation with
outsourcing degrees
No H33 Outsourcing experience of enterprise human resources management has significant correlation h uman
resources management outsourcing degree

Empirical Research on Influencing Factors of Human Resources Management Outsourcing Degree
174
of which we establish a research model of enterprise hu-
man resources management outsourcing degree and in-
fluencing factors, and prove them through the empirical
method; after an econometric analysis, two of subject
influencing factors of human resources management
outsourcing are refused, and only "top intervention"
passes the verification; and two of object factors are re-
fused; "strategic position" and "asset specificity “of the
human resources management function respectively pass
the inspection.
4.2. Management Enlightenment
First, the intervention of top manager to human resources
management outsourcing activities will have positive
influence to outsourcing degree, that is to say enterprise
human resources management outsourcing degree de-
pends largely on top manager's attitude, its decision-
making power is more concentrated, and the course is
from up to down.
Second, enterprise scale and the past outsourcing ex-
perience of enterprise have little influence on human
resources management outsourcing decision. A ll kinds of
scale enterprise gradually begin to recognize the value
and significance, and take different degree of outsourcing
strategies according its practical needs.
Third, outsourcing is to pass the non-core business to
enterprise external experts to operate; it can save the re-
sources on non-core business to concentrate on the de-
velopment of the core competitiveness, that viewpoint
has been confirmed again in this study. In the field of
human resource management outsourcing is also effec-
tive, enterprise is more inclined to outsource those low
core strength or low strategic position business out.
Fourth, in the three characteristics of trade, the influ-
ence of asset specificity on human resources manage-
ment outsourcing degree is obvious, because human re-
sources management changes at a slower speed relative
to the change of outsourcing areas of information tech-
nology management and other areas, and it has close
contact with the enterprise culture, and enterprise tradi-
tion. Therefore, for that human resources management
business whose asset specificity is higher and has more
enterprise characteristics, if it is outsourced, suppliers
may not be able to fully understand the rules and culture
in a short time, so outsourcing risk is higher.
Fifth, from the definition of the variables in this re-
search, we can find that there is duplication in concept of
peculiarity in the three characteristics of asset specificity
and measure of business strategic position of an out-
sourcing deal, and our empirical test proves that the asset
specificity also presents the features except business
strategic position and the human resources management
outsourcin g de gree have negat i ve correla ti o n.
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