International HRM has focused on the MNC and its control and compliance mechanisms, particularly the tension between `internationalizing' practices and normative host-country practices. This contingency approach does not capture the complexity of MNC interactions in the local environment, however, particularly with regard to international joint ventures (IJVs). Partners to the IJV may wish to impose their own practices, and use contractual and non-contractual resource power, internationalization expertise and operational consistency requirements to gain relative decisional advantage. Case studies of four Sino-Western IJVs illustrate the dynamics of IHRM development under conditions of weak socio-legal constraint and high cultural distance between partners.