Human Resource Development in SMEs – Review of the Literature

Human Resource Development (HRD) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is a significant area of scholarship. However, the cumulativeness of research on HRD in SMEs remains relatively low when compared to HRD generally.

This paper reports a systematic literature review (SLR) to synthesise research in this area. A disciplined screening process resulted in a final sample of 117 papers published in 31 journals from 1995 to 2014. The synthesis of these empirical and theoretical studies revealed that:

(a) the literature utilises a narrow range of theoretical and conceptual perspectives;

(b) HRD is being investigated across a variety of SME contexts, themes and units of analysis;

(c) researchers define HRD in multiple ways and use a diverse set of measures of HRD activity;

(d) there is significant potential for future research across the SME and HRD disciplines, SME settings and beyond existing theoretical perspectives.

We offer suggestions for further advancing the development of this area of research in terms of theory, content and methodology.