The role of technology, calculative and collaborative HRM and social trust in driving human resource analytics in European firms

Purpose Research on the adoption of human resource analytics (HRA) is dominated mainly by qualitative case studies and by evidence based on the individual perspective using limited samples of workers. This perspective does not consider contextual factors within and outside the firm that could promote or impede the adoption of HRA. This paper tries to overcome this gap by offering empirical evidence on the contextual factors associated with the use of HRA in European countries. Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of more than 10,000 European establishments, we focus on the influence of two internal company factors (general-purpose technologies (GPTs) and human resource management (HRM)) and one external factor (social trust in the country) on the incidence of HRA. Findings Results show that HRA is more likely to be used in countries with low generalized trust and in firms where collaborative and calculative HRM practices and technologies, such as robots and general-purpose data analytics, are implemented. Originality/value The research contributes to ongoing debates in the field by providing empirical evidence on the significance of contextual factors related to the adoption of HRA in European companies. Specifically, this is achieved by including variables that have not been examined in previous literature, such as collaborative and calculative HRM practices and GPTs (computers, robots and data analytics technologies) at the company level as well as the impact of social trust (an external factor) at the country level.