The Relationship Between Early Recruitment-Related Activities and the Application Decisions of New Labor-Market Entrants: A Brand Equity Approach to Recruitment

Abstract

We used theory and research from the marketing literature on customer-based brand equity to predict how positive exposure to four early recruitment-related activities—publicity, sponsorships, word-of-mouth endorsements, and advertising—may affect the application decisions of engineering students. Similar to prior marketing findings, our results suggested that early recruitment-related activities were related to intentions and decisions indirectly through two dimensions of employer brand image: general attitudes toward the company and perceived job attributes. The relationships between word-of-mouth endorsements and the two dimensions of brand image were particularly strong. In addition, we found that early recruitment-related activities interacted with one another such that employer brand image was stronger when firms used publicity in conjunction with other early recruitment-related activities.