“…Three research questions were raised: With regard to the first question, our results illustrated that overall, the SMEs portrayed in this study do not participate intensively in HRD activities, a result in line with the studies of Almeida and Aterido (2015), Johnson (2002), Nolan and Garavan (2016a) and Webster et al (2005). Our results showed HRD activities that are mostly informal and on-the-job, with learning by doing and task training as the most frequently chosen training activities, in line with the studies of Bélanger and Hart (2012), Deschênes (2021) and Sims et al (2015). HCT premises would have suggested that when HC resources are scarce, as in the context of a labor shortage, the value of developing them internally, rather than trying to acquire them externally, is expected to increase (Lepak and Snell, 1999).…”