Unravelling HRM Research in entrepreneurial firms: A literature review

Abstract

This study reviews and analyzes the literature on human resource management in entrepreneurial firms; and identifies the theoretical gaps requiring further work. It will contribute by providing an understanding of how the field of human resource management in entrepreneurial firms evolved, shedding light on the points of consensus and divergences among scholars and diagnosing whether the intellectual structure within the discourse of a given theme has been properly discussed in the field. A systematic review method was adopted in order to identify, critically evaluate and integrate the findings of articles about human resource management in entrepreneurial firms and SMEs in particular; published from 1999 to August 2016 in the main journals in the fields of general management, entrepreneurship, and human resource management.