Discovering and nurturing local key stakeholders’ talent in emerging economies: using fsQCA to test the external human resources approach

In the global talent management (TM) field, scholars are calling for distinct and extended human resource (HR) architecture and systems facilitating the management of local talent. To answer to these calls, we adopted a stakeholder theory perspective that responds to five main criticisms of talent management in emerging markets (EMs). Based on that, we identified five main characteristics (purpose-driven organisation; translation attitude; empowerment-based engagement; cross-country relationship network; external HR approach) that could facilitate effective discovery and nurturing of local talent. Our study aimed to investigate if and what configuration of characteristics exists to enable MNEs to develop an effective talent management strategy of key local stakeholders for broader economic, social and environmental value creation, supported by the strategic HR management literature. We performed a fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis of 20 training projects addressed to local key stakeholders in various industries and emerging countries. We demonstrate that the successful path for effective TM in EMs includes all five characteristics and our novelty lies in the discovery that to achieve effective TM in EMs, MNEs must consider local key suppliers and contractors as part of the organisation, forging what we call an external HR approach.