ABSTRACT
At the end of the 1990s research on human resource management (HRM) was ignored in many writings on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (Wilkinson 1999). However, that situation has now changed and HRM within smaller contexts has attracted considerable research interest (Bacon and Hoque 2005). First of all, the theoretical foundations in general were concentrated on by researchers and academics (e.g., Hornsby and Kuratko 1990, 2003; Bacon et al. 1996; Heneman et al. 2000; Nguen and Bryant 2004; Cardon and Stevens 2004; Bacon and Hoque 2005; Harney and Dundon 2006; Marlow 2006), as were the unique features of small but growing fi rms (Mazzarol 2003; Kotey and Sheridan 2004; Kotey and Slade 2005; Barrett and Mayson 2007). Questions about recruitment and staffing have since become one of the most studied SME topics (e.g., Carroll et al. 1999; Taylor 2006; Kotey and Folker 2007; Barrett et al. 2007). This growing interest can also be seen in the fact that special issues of academic journals have been devoted solely to the discussion of HRM in SMEs (e.g., Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice [Fall 2000] and Human Resource Management Review 16 [2006]).
