Mapping the Landscape of Talent Management and Organizational Performance: A Bibliometric Study

Purpose: This study undertakes a rigorous and systematic bibliometric analysis of the existing literature on talent management and organizational performance, with the aim of tracing the conceptual evolution and trajectory of this paradigm within the business and management disciplines since its inception. This paper intends to present a comprehensive assessment of the existing scientific corpus on how talent management bears an impact on organizational performance by examining the peculiarities of the existing scientific production on this subject. Methods: The Meta data from two amalgamated datasets (WoS and Scopus) were subjected to a bibliometric study leveraging the bibliometrix R-tool. The performance and scientific mapping analysis (SMA) are the two main techniques of research or subject areas that fall under the umbrella of bibliometrics. Findings/Results: Based on a final sample of 87 articles published between 2009 and 2024 examined using a bibliometric approach, the findings reveal that only a few articles focused on talent management and organizational performance have been published in the last two decades (87 articles), with the lion’s share appearing (86%) in the last decade. The literature is dominated by RBV-based theorization, and the exclusive perspective relies heavily on quantitative methods, and remains geographically and theoretically concentrated, indicating that despite the burgeoning interest in talent management, the field is still far from reaching the level of research analysis with respect to its influence on the performance of the firm in which it has been implemented. Application: The findings provide a valuable reference for researchers, highlighting unexplored contexts, and future directions for advancing scholarship in talent management. Originality/Innovation: This paper pioneers a systematic analysis of talent management and organizational performance literature, one of the first dual-database bibliometric mappings, offering a unique cartography of the field's performance and intellectual structure and revealing novel insights into its conceptual evolution and growth.