HRM Practices in the Video Game Industry:: Industry or Country Contingent?

The following piece of work looks at the HRM policies of companies operating in the video game sector but forms part of a wider body of work studying employment relationships in this industry. By studying "employment relationships", we aim to clarify the interaction between HRM practice, the career path of individuals involved in this industry and the procedures and institutions of the employment market in question. Our intention over time is to use this programme framework to explore how these interactions affect the performance of companies: does the organization of HRM practices, the career paths of those involved and the employment market institutions encourage the creation and accumulation of skills? Do they enable this industry to confront the multitude of instabilities it faces? However, the present article will mainly start out by trying to ascertain whether leaders in the video games sector feature employment relationships that owe more to the national origins of the firms involved than to their sectorial embeddedness.