Conceptual and methodological issues in comparative HRM research: The Cranet project as an example

Abstract The “Cranfield Project on International Strategic Human Resource Management” (Cranet) is an international research network which regularly conducts a survey of human resource management (HRM) issues in more than 40 countries. As a result, Cranet provides rich data on the institutionalization, practices, and organizational characteristics of HRM. Whereas scholars in other research fields (e.g., organizational behavior and marketing) have intensively discussed scientific standards for cross-national and cross-cultural studies, a more comprehensive discussion on the subject in the HRM field is necessary. The present article discusses four methodological challenges of comparative research (i.e., survey administration, sampling strategies and non-response bias, equivalence of constructs and measurement, and analytical techniques) and illustrates these issues based on the design and methodology of the Cranet project.

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