An exploratory bibliometric analysis of the evolution of HR analytics as a popular management concept

Abstract

Human resource (HR) analytics is one of the hottest concepts in the field of HR management. In recent years, it has also started to attract the attention of academic researchers. In this paper, we carry out an exploratory bibliometric analysis to map the emerging academic field of HR analytics. By doing this, we provide more insight into the role of academic researchers in the evolution of HR analytics as a popular management concept. The bibliometric analysis draws on data extracted from the Scopus database, and analyses of the overall publication volume and growth trajectory, influential documents, authors, journals, and countries are performed. The results show that the academic discourse around HR analytics emerged relatively late and several years after the initial debate based on the practitioner-based literature. The findings are discussed in relation to the literature about the emergence and evolution of popular management concepts.