Conclusions
There has been an increasing research interest in the area of talent management in the past decade, mainly focussed on American and Anglo – Saxon countries (Cascio & Boudreau, 2016; Farndale et al., 2014; Sparrow et al., 2014). In addition, most research on talent management has been carried out in large multinationals enterprises. It has been suggested that there is a need to examine TM in different contexts (Scullion et al., 2016; Scullion & Collings, 2011). To date there is a real dearth of conceptual and theoretical research on talent management in SMEs and we need to know more about the distinctive challenges and TM practices in the specific context of SMEs. In this article we address this research gap and seek to stimulate research in the neglected area of talent management in SMEs drawing on a range of literature streams such as talent management, HRM in SMEs, employee selection and organizational life stages. The main contributions of this paper are set out below: First, the paper advances the theoretical understanding on the impact of organizational size on HR and talent management practices. We specifically look at the challenges and opportunities for SMEs through the various theoretical lenses and suggest that while there are challenges when viewed through the legitimacy, economic and resource dependence perspective there are unique contextual features that help attract talent to SMEs.
