Evolving Research on the Roles and Competencies of Technology-Innovation Professionals (Tech-Talent) Across Technological Innovation Paradigms: A Bibliometric and Topic-Modeling Analysis of Tech-HRM Research, 1995–2025

The diffusion of digital transformation (DX) and artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping human resource management within management of technology (MOT). This study maps the intellectual structure of technology-oriented human resource management (Tech-HRM) research on technology-innovation professionals (Tech-Talent), measures how its themes moved over three decades, and identifies the agenda they point toward. We screened 1296 articles published in 11 global MOT journals in a database search conducted through February 2026 and analyzed the 1259 published between 1995 and 2025, the last complete publication year; five methods were then applied in sequence: bibliometric analysis, bibliographic coupling, a clustering-based topic model (CTM), a generalized Dirichlet–multinomial regression (GDMR) topic model, and burst detection. Core themes shifted from research and development (R&D) and new product development, through human capital, absorptive capacity, and open collaboration, toward AI, digital transformation, and sustainability. Reading through the study’s role framework, this shift is consistent with an expansion of Tech-Talent roles from Engineer to Innovator, Knowledge Creator, and Collaborator, and further to DX/AX Strategist (AX: AI transformation); because roles were inferred rather than measured, this mapping is an interpretation, not a measured trajectory. Tech-HRM emerges as a coherent stream within MOT, its separation from general HRM is untested without a comparison corpus, and its core agenda is moving toward a sustainable Tech-HRM that encompasses human–AI collaboration, continuous reskilling, and sustainable innovation capability.