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This study aims to review all frameworks of strategic international human resource management (SIHRM) published between 1990 and 2022 to ascertain their relevance in the current context with a focus on methodologies and theories in the post-pandemic era.

In this study a pool of 69 papers published in 16 journals was considered for full-text evaluation using a set of relevant keywords and pre-defined inclusion/exclusion criteria.

The number of qualitative research papers is the highest (90%) and theoretical perspectives are dominated by research-based (17%), institutional (17%) and SIHRM (14%) theories that emphasize competitive advantage, resource dependence and multiple SIHRM frameworks.

This research incorporates dominant theoretical perspectives and methodologies within an integrated SIHRM framework which accommodates the post-pandemic era.

The integrated SIHRM framework reinforces the alignment of multiple contexts, dimensions, models and proportions to enable effective decisions for mitigating the current crisis and future research.

This research integrated a hybrid model of SIHRM by aligning the relevant existing SIHRM frameworks, which management can choose from to leverage the benefits that distributed remote work in an international context and decide what is most suitable for their businesses as they prepare for the future.

This paper aims to contribute toward the extension and further development of the social exchange theory. It provides conceptual insights on social networks in geographically dispersed organizations, and how intra-organizational social interactions influence organizational behavior, employees relationship exchange inclination and innovation drive.

A thematic literature review method was used to conduct an extensive review of relevant literature.

Guided by the tenets of the social exchange theory, the authors’ analysis and discussions elucidate how intra-organizational social network architecture can be developed, supported and utilized to drive innovations in geographically dispersed organizations.

A general limitation and perhaps also a strength of this type of conceptual paper is that it is a synthesis (thematic discursive analysis) of existing theory and published research. Thus, there are no primary empirical content. However, the issue of empirical evidence is nevertheless mediated by the fact that the discussions and argumentation process generate key propositions which could be validated in subsequent research endeavors. Also, the selection of relevant literature is restricted specifically to the topic of the study. The authors strived to ensure rigor through a robust and comprehensive literature review which was organized thematically according to all the key words in the main and sub-topics covered in Section 2.

The insights presented suggest that management should pay serious attention to organizational design – that is, not only from the conventional contractual obligations point of view, but rather, the increasing importance of social capital should also be given some priority when thinking of resilient ways to encourage collaborations and efficient knowledge management. In other words, intra-organizational social network architecture should be considered as organizational capability and utilized as a toolset for the SIHRM to harness knowledge flow and unleash innovation.

As both bonding and bridging ties are not only critical for success of project teams but also intensify knowledge symmetry across different units of the organization, they are a major conduit for sustainable open innovation culture within organization. To develop competitive capabilities throughout the organization, it is important for the SIHRM to be involved in global networking, and as a network leader, the human resource management function must have an awareness of leading trends and developments in social networking. The ability to mobilize the appropriate resources and a sense of timing and context in implementing such architecture within the geographically spread organization is crucial.

The novel contribution of this paper is twofold. First, the study provides an implementable framework which scholars and practitioners could use to develop and test the actualization of an intra-organizational social network architecture in a geographically dispersed organization. Second, the study has provided some key propositions and a well-grounded direction for further research to inspire further development/extension of the social exchange theory.

This article aims to explore how understanding the challenges faced by companies' attempts to create competitive advantage through their human resources and HRM practices can be enhanced by insights into the concept of strategic groups within industries. Based within the international hotel industry, this study identifies how strategic groups emerge in the analysis of HRM practices and approaches. It sheds light on the value of strategic groups as a way of readdressing the focus on firm and industry level analyses.

Senior human resource executives and their teams across eight international hotel companies (IHCs) were interviewed in corporate and regional headquarters, with observations and the collection of company documentation complementing the interviews.

The findings demonstrate that strategic groups emerge from analysis of the HRM practices and strategies used to develop hotel general managers (HGMs) as strategic human resources in the international hotel industry. The value of understanding industry structures and dynamics and intermediary levels of analysis are apparent where specific industries place occupational constraints on their managerial resources and limit the range of strategies and expansion modes companies can adopt.

This study indicates that further research on strategic groups will enhance the theoretical understanding of strategic human resource management and specifically the forces that act to constrain the achievement of competitive advantage through human resources. A limitation of this study is the dependence on the human resource divisions' perspectives on realising international expansion ambitions in the hotel industry.

This study has implications for companies' engagement with their executives' perceptions of opportunities and threats, and suggests companies will struggle to achieve competitive advantage where such perceptions are consistent with their competitors.

Developments in strategic human resource management have relied on the conceptual and theoretical developments in strategic management, however, an understanding of the impact of strategic groups and their shaping of SHRM has not been previously explored.

This article aims at reviewing existing theories relevant to human resource management (HRM) and providing theoretical contexts to explain the importance of managing people across borders for emerging Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs).

Based on a literature review approach, the author examines the phenomenon of emerging Chinese MNEs from the lenses of three streams of theories: organisation‐based view; resource‐based view; and institution‐based view.

Existing theories offer sufficient insights to explore differences between emerging and established MNEs, particularly in strategic international HRM research. First, Chinese EMNEs were driven to internationalising by different motives, thus creating impact on the strategic choice and global HRM policy consideration. Second, Chinese EMNEs are operating under constantly changing institutional environments, both at home and in host countries. As a result, they are required to balance and rebalance the choices made in formulating and implementing IHRM strategies. Third, there will be different internationalisation outcomes pursued by Chinese EMNEs. Therefore, IHRM policies and practices are to achieve individual, organisational and societal well‐being.

The article has important implications for HRM theory and research. It may lead to developing relevant analytical frameworks for future research in Chinese human resource management. It is also beneficial to understand the formation and implementation of HRM policy and practices in EMNEs originated not only in China, but in other developing countries.

This article contributes to the international HRM literature in relation to Chinese emerging MNEs from a theoretical perspective. Synthesizing existing core theories with examples from Chinese MNEs, it proposes future research directions for analysing further development of such enterprises.

The purpose of this paper is to aim at proposing a research agenda in the intersection of strategic supply chain management and logistics (SCML) of global organizations from the perspective of international human resource management (IHRM).

To disclose the intellectual structure of research to date across both fields, the content of up to 280 articles dealing with IHRM and 174 papers addressing challenges in SCML in global organizations from a human resource management (HRM) viewpoint were analyzed. A stepwise hierarchical cluster and discriminant analysis were conducted to map a joint research agenda. Approaches from Upper Echelons theory and Co-Evolutionary theory of global organizations were adopted.

Top management teams (TMT) are crucial to manage SCML successfully in today’s global organizations. Research on this intersection should draw attention to find antecedents, consequences and the process showing how those talented people grouped in dispersed teams can be a source of competitive advantage. Six different areas of research are proposed. It is proposed that future research should focus on the human capital (HC); meaning those key individuals of an organization that make things happen. In the near future, the global organization’s competitiveness will be shaped by how the organization manages its HC in SCML. Methodologies such as meta-analysis are suggested to summarize the extant literature on IHRM when applied to SCML in global organizations.

The search was conducted in SSCI-ISIWoK and Scopus databases. As a limitation, some articles and other scientific contributions not abstracted there were not included. Nevertheless, both searches enabled obtaining balanced results between scope and richness of content.

Only a marginal portion of literature reviews have been conducted by using mixed methods in the fields of IHRM and SCML. The results will be useful for scholars of both fields in their attempts to enlarge the knowledge boundaries in these areas. From a practitioner’s viewpoint, this research may provide an integrative framework for global organizations to build a competitive advantage based on managing HC and its SCML strategically.

In the past two decades, the way enterprises in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) manage their human resources has changed dramatically. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) have entered into the “strategic investor” phase, where now the integration of PRC operations into the MNE network receives growing attention. For these companies HRM is often of high strategic importance. This article seeks to explore how differences in HRM practices in such businesses vary with their ownership forms. The study is based on in‐depth interviews with HRM managers – on the PRC country‐level – in 12 MNEs. The large majority of the participating companies clearly stated that today the HRM function is of high strategic importance for their operations in the PRC and is predominantly controlled by the MNE partner. Although equity ownership stake is an important variable influencing HRM policies and practices, it is shown that it needs to be seen in conjunction with other possibly non‐equity control‐mechanisms.

This paper introduces this special issue.

The paper examines some of the key themes in global human resource management.

By reviewing, briefly, the existing literature in these areas, the paper outlines a limited but crucial research agenda and sets the papers in this special issue in context.

This paper presents some new empirically‐based work on human resource development.

Drawing on a range of literature, this paper develops a theoretical model of the cross‐national transfer of HRM practices in multinational corporations (MNCs). This model integrates the significant research on transferability, transfer mechanisms, effects of transfer, and reverse transfer to produce a comprehensive analytical framework. A three‐fold analysis of transferability is presented to include national, company and HRM practice level. The transfer mechanisms are categorized into direct and indirect methods. The analysis of reverse transfer is not only a complement to the forward transfer but also an important part of the integrated model. The model reflects the complexity of cross‐national transfer HRM practices in MNCs. The propositions presented and suggestions for future research serve to aid further practical studies.

Globalization of organizations necessitates the development of a network organizational configuration. This new form of organization requires managers to become boundary spanners between the various organizations aligned in the global business network. The question becomes how are these boundary‐spanning managers going to be identified and selected for global assignments. This paper examines the staffing options for marketing managers of integrative (i.e. relational) and market (i.e. transactional) modes of norm‐based control of global channels of distribution. Both transaction cost analysis and focus theory are used to identify which control mechanism would be most appropriate for each inter‐organizational situation.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive framework that identifies thematic clusters and their interconnections within Global Talent Management (GTM), global careers and talent management (TM).

In this paper, this study conducted a co-citation analysis using bibliographic data to unveil the intellectual connections and relationships among thematic articles related to GTM sourced from the Web of Science.

This review highlights three key research themes: experiences working abroad, TM approaches and the complex nature of GTM as a living system.

The main limitation of this research is the sample itself. Content analysis based on the co-citation method resulted in some more recent releases being omitted.

The practical implications of the paper include providing a structured framework for understanding the complexities of GTM.

Research into the academic literature in this area is divided into various clusters, empirically demonstrating how GTM and global mobility are intertwined, revealing the need for us to more thoroughly comprehend the social ramifications of GTM practices and activities and the need to further analyse the influencing social aspects in a GTM strategy, like diversity, increased mobility and virtual reality.

The analysis revealed the emergence of three distinct thematic groups: (1) global work experiences, (2) TM approaches and (3) GTM.