While talent management (TM) continues to attract significant attention, research exploring TM practices within emerging markets and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remains limited. This qualitative study investigates how TM is practiced and talent is conceptualized in Turkish SMEs and large organizations, drawing on the strategy-as-practice (SAP) and HRM-as-practice perspectives. The findings reveal significant contextual variation: SMEs predominantly adopt informal, relational, and strategically adaptive TM practices, such as culturally embedded festive bonuses, apprenticeship-based training, and informal recognition, reflecting the local economic constraints and cultural norms. In contrast, large organizations utilize formalized TM practices, including structured career models, universal leadership development, and performance evaluations (for example, Nine-Box Grid), though these are actively adapted to local cultural expectations emphasizing inclusivity and collectivism. Talent conceptualization also diverges notably, with SMEs emphasizing loyalty, trust, and critical operational skills (exclusive-stable approach), whereas large firms prioritize broader, development-oriented views of talent (inclusive-developable approach). By demonstrating these nuanced, practice-based variations, the study challenges prevailing assumptions in TM literature derived predominantly from large Western enterprises, highlighting the critical influence of local institutional contexts and cultural factors. The study contributes theoretically by offering an integrative, practice-based perspective on TM and talent, calling for a more dynamic understanding of TM as socially constructed and contextually embedded. © 2025 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.