In an age of war for talent, cultivating employer brand can be a very effective strategy to attract and retain the talented employees in an organization. This paper seeks to investigate the role that early recruitment practices play in building the employer brand image amongst students of business schools in India. Based on the analysis of data collected from 124 students from five different business schools located in different parts of the country, the study reveals that media presence/publicity is the only early recruitment practice that has an impact on the employer brand image. Recruitment advertisements, sponsorships and corporate-institute relation building are not significantly related to either the ‘perceived job attributes’ or ‘attitudes’ dimensions of employer brand image.
AakerD.A. (1996), Building Strong Brands, Free Press, New York, NY.
2.
AgrawalR. K.JosephM. (2010), “Early Recruitment Practices in Indian B-school Campuses and Application Intentions: Role of Word-of-mouth Endorsements”, International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, Vol. 3 (6), pp. 684–701.
3.
AgrawalR. K.SwaroopP. (2009), “Effect of Employer Brand Image on Application Intentions of B-School Undergraduates”, Vision-The Journal of Business Perspectives, Vol. 13 (3), pp. 41–49.
4.
AmblerT.BarrowS. (1996), “The Employer Brand”, Journal of Brand Management, Vol. 4 (3), pp. 185–206.
5.
AndersonJ. R. (1983), The Architecture of Cognition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
6.
AnholtS. (2003), Brand New Justice: The Upside of Global Branding, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford.
7.
BackhausK.TikooS. (2004), “Conceptualizing and Researching Employer Branding”, Career Development International, Vol. 9 (5), pp. 501–517.
8.
BarberA. E. (1998), Recruiting Employees: Individual and Organizational Perspectives, SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.
9.
BarneyJ. (1991), “Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage”, Journal of Management, Vol. 17, pp. 99–120.
10.
BerthonP.EwingM.IahL. L. I. (2005), “Captivating Company: Dimensions of Attractiveness in Employer Branding”, International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 24 (2), pp. 151–172.
11.
CableD. M.TurbanD. B. (2001), “Establishing the Dimensions, Sources and Value of Job Seekers' Employer Knowledge During Recruitment.” In: FerrisG.E. (Ed.), Research in Personnel and Human Resource Management, Elsevier Science, New York, NY.
12.
CableD. M.TurbanD. B. (2003), “The Value of Organizational Reputation in the Recruitment Context: A Brand-Equity Perspective”, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Vol. 33 (11), pp. 2244–2266.
13.
CollinsC. J. (2007), “The Interactive Effects of Recruitment Practices and Product Awareness on Job Seekers' Employer Knowledge and Application Behaviors”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 92 (1), pp. 180–190.
14.
CollinsC. J.HanJ. (2004), “Exploring Applicant Pool Quantity and Quality: The Effects of Early Recruitment Practice Strategies, Corporate Advertising, and Firm Reputation”, Personnel Psychology, Vol. 57, pp. 685–717.
15.
CollinsC. J.StevensC. K. (2002), “The Relationship between Early Recruitment-Related Activities and the Application Decisions of New Labor-Market Entrants: A Brand Equity Approach to Recruitment”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 87 (6), pp. 1121–1133.
16.
HarrisF.de ChernatonyL. (2001), “Corporate Branding and Corporate Brand Performance”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 35 (3/4), pp. 441–451.
17.
HarrisM. MFinkL. S. (1987), “A Field Study of Applicant Reactions to Employment Opportunities: Does the Recruiter Make A Difference”, Personnel Psychology, Vol. 40, pp. 765–786.
18.
HieronimusF.SchaeferK.SchroderJ. (2005), “Using Branding to Attract Talent”, The McKinsey Quarterly, Vol. 3, pp 12–14.
19.
IndN. (2004), A Brand of Enlightenment. In: IndN. (Ed). Beyond Branding. Kogan Page India, New Delhi.
20.
JacobyJ.SyzbilloG.Busato-SehachJ. (1977), Information Acquisition Behavior in Brand Choice Situations, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 3 (4), pp. 209–216.
21.
JoharG. V.PhamM. T. (1999), “Relatedness, Prominence, and Constructive Sponsor Identification”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 36, pp. 299–312.
22.
JohnsonS. (2006), Elements of Employer Brand Building, Human Capital Institute (Executive Briefing).
23.
KellerK. L. (1993), “Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Managing Customer-based Brand Equity”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 57, pp. 1–22.
24.
KotlerP.KellerK. L. (2007), Marketing Management, Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi.
25.
LievensF.HighhouseS. (2003), The Relation of Instrumental and Symbolic Attributes to A Company's Attractiveness as an Employer, Personnel Psychology, Vol. 56, pp. 75–102.
26.
LloydS. (2002). Branding From the Inside Out, BRW, Vol. 24 (10), pp. 64–66.
27.
LoughlinC.BarlingJ. (2001), “Young Workers' Work Values, Attitudes, and Behaviours”, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 74, pp. 543–558.
28.
MayK. (1998), “Work in the 21st century: Recruiting in a Tight Labor Market”, The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist (TIP), pp. 39–41. [Quoted in Collins and Stevens (2002)].
29.
MichaelsE.Handfield-JonesH.AxelrodB. (2001), The War for Talent. Harvard Business School Press, Harvard.
30.
MuralidharanT.ShenoyR. K. N. (2006), Employer Branding on Campus. Human Capital, November pp. 20–27.
31.
NgE. S. W.BurkeR. J. (2006), “The Next Generation at Work — Business Students' Views, Values and Job Search Strategy”, Education + Training, Vol. 48 (7), pp. 478–492.
32.
PeterT. (1999). The Brand You 50: Fifty Ways To Transform Yourself from An Employee into A Brand that Shouts Distinction, Knopf Publishers, New York.
33.
PowellG. N. (1991), “Applicant Reactions to the Initial Employment Interview: Exploring Theoretical and Methodological Issues”, Personnel Psychology, Vol. 44, pp. 67–83.
34.
RedmanT.MathewsB. P. (1995), “Trends in Recruitment: A Ten-Year Retrospective View”, The International Journal of Career Management, Vol. 7 (2), pp. 10–16.
35.
RynesS. L. (1991), “Recruitment, Job Choice, and Post Hire Consequences”, in DunnetteM. D.HoughL.M. (Eds.), Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2nd ed., Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, CA, pp. 399–444.
36.
TaylorM. S.BergmannT. J. (1987), “Organizational recruitment activities and applicants' reactions at different stages of the recruitment process”, Personnel Psychology, Vol. 40, pp. 261–285.
37.
Van VianenA. E. M. (2000), “Person-Organization ft: The Match between Newcomers' and Recruiters' Preferences for Organizational Cultures”, Personnel Psychology, Vol. 53 (1), pp. 113–149.
38.
WilkeW. (1986), Consumer Behavior, John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY.
39.
WyerR. S.SrullT. K. (1989), “Person memory and judgment”, Psychological Review, Vol. 96, pp. 58–83.
