The Anatomy of an International Research Collaboration: Building Cumulative Comparative Knowledge in Human Resource Management

Comparative human resource management (HRM) has an established pedigree in the management and organization literature. However, the generation of novel contextual understanding to enhance theory building, deepen our appreciation of embedded management practices in more diverse territories, and open up new lines of enquiry was, and remains, challenging social science research. Increasingly, international academic research networks that bring together scholars from different countries in the co-production of knowledge represent a key approach to rising to this challenge. In this issue, we document aspects of the development of one such network, namely the Cranet Network on International Human Resource Management, and we provide an exposition of a series of recent articles from the network. The contributions highlight, inter alia, the limits to convergence in HRM as a result of contextual determinism, the role of institutional actors, markets and work regulation in accounting for variations in people management practices, the contextual specificities and dynamics at play in transition economies, along with key methodological challenges that arise when seeking to build cumulative comparative knowledge via network collaborations of this nature.