Talent management and dynamic view of talent in small and medium enterprises

•Theoretical rationale for the impact of organizational size on talent management practices•Talent management differs in SMEs due to distinct institutional and structural factors.•SMEs would have an inclusive approach to talent management.•SMEs would target a different talent pool for its recruitment and selection.•Factors representing organizational life stages provide dynamism to the notion of talent.

Talent Management (TM) has become one of the key strategic issues for leaders in global organizations and the majority of research on TM focuses on the large multinational enterprise (MNE) context. Despite the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), research in the area of talent management in this context is scarce, particularly conceptual research. This paper tries to address this gap by a) providing a theoretical rationale for the difference between large and SME firms in their talent management and human resource practices; b) exploring the applicability of the notion of talent management conceptualised in large firms to the SME context. c) Proposing a framework that helps identify the characteristics of talent in SMEs. We are critical of the best practices approach and we argue that the notion of talent management is likely to be different in SMEs compared with large firms mainly due to distinct institutional and structural factors.