Insider econometrics meets people analytics and strategic human resource management

Researchers in the field of HRM and Strategic HRM have for several decades engaged in research endeavours to identify the link between HR investments and firm performance. Despite this, the field still has some way to go to definitively demonstrate this causal relationship; partly due to the cross-sectional nature of much of this research. In the current paper, we give a brief overview of the SHRM field and the benefits that the new subfield of People Analytics (PA) might bring to the area. We also conduct a brief survey of research in Insider Econometrics, an approach used in Personnel Economics to produce empirical estimates of the value of HR practices, to highlight longitudinal intra-firm research in economics that could provide insights to research exploring the HR investment-performance link (important in both SHRM and PA fields). We discuss the value of combining the business impact perspective of People Analytics that has a unique ‘inside’ (intra-firm) position, with the longitudinal intra-firm analysis approaches utilized in Insider Econometrics. We suggest that People Analytics researchers, who are able to draw on the theoretical developments in HRM field, would benefit from exploring existing research insights and methodological techniques used within the field of Insider Econometrics.