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Talent Management in SMEs: Unraveling the Role of Contextual Factors

Franca Cantoni et al.

Human Resource Development Quarterly2025https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21566article
AJG 2ABDC A
Weight
0.46

Abstract

Employing a multiple case study analysis, this paper explores the contextual factors—internal, external, and relational—that affect small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in designing their approaches to talent management (TM). Results underscore the significance of two prominent internal variables—namely, organizational size and ownership structure—alongside an external determinant represented by the industry/sector within which the company operates. The study also revealed that the economic and social context in which the company is situated is not only a geographical characteristic (thus constituting an external factor) but also furnishes valuable relational resources subsequently influencing the approaches to TM. Additionally, we found that while industry/sector simply dictates competency needs (hard or soft), the size of the company (affecting TM resource availability) combined with the ownership structure (affecting TM scope and level of formalization) generates specificities in TM practices. Relational factors—namely “local embeddedness”—appear to assume a pervasive role.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21566

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@article{franca2025,
  title        = {{Talent Management in SMEs: Unraveling the Role of Contextual Factors}},
  author       = {Franca Cantoni et al.},
  journal      = {Human Resource Development Quarterly},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21566},
}

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Evidence weight

0.46

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.37 × 0.4 = 0.15
M · momentum0.60 × 0.15 = 0.09
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.