Exploring the relationship between human resource management, entrepreneurial orientation, and firm performance: a systematic literature review

As a growing field of analysis in management studies, several scholars have been looking at the role of human resource management (HRM) practices in boosting a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation (Tansky et al., 2009). On the other hand, entrepreneurial orientation has been repeatedly proven to positively impact firm performance both at the organizational level, but also at the level of enterprise clusters. This means that within high-entrepreneurial orientation firm clusters, both the overall cluster and the firms’ individual performances are positively affected (Yao et al., 2009). However, existing literature provides little guidance on how HRM practices could help firms improve their performance through fostering entrepreneurial orientation. This paper aims to shed more light on how human resource management could become a major driver of firm performance while leveraging on learning to translate individual and collective abilities into value adding entrepreneurial actions. For this purpose, this paper follows a systematic literature review as a recognized evidence-based tool for theory building (Tranfield et al., 2003). The objective is to develop an integrative theoretical framework that explains how HRM practices provide firms with superior performance, using entrepreneurial orientation as an intermediate construct. A ‘grounded theory’ approach was used to build higher-order theoretical constructs and the assumptions underpinning their relationships (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). We therefore followed an inductive process based on a comparative analysis to synthesize the gathered information from the systematic literature review, build on to emphasize the meaning of each concept, and then develop the propositions underpinning the relationships between the studied constructs, which in turn form the foundations of the integrative theoretical framework.