Crossing the streams: HRM in multinational enterprises and comparative HRM

•The two dominant streams in the international HRM literature seldom cross.•HRM in MNEs focuses on standardisation–differentiation and practice transfer.•Comparative HRM looks at differences in HRM across different countries or regions.•We argue that there is still much to be gained from crossing these streams.•A research agenda is proposed based around the issues of time, process and context.

This paper examines the differences between the stream of international HRM that focuses on comparative HRM and the one that focuses on HRM in multinational enterprises (MNEs). More specifically, we review how the aspects of time, process and context have been treated within the two streams and argue that the streams have largely developed in isolation as opposed to informing one another. Drawing on this analysis we propose a research agenda that illustrates how the crossing of these streams can advance theory and empirical research in both HRM in MNEs and comparative HRM, to the benefit of both.