IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eurman/v38y2020i1p146-156.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Top employer awards: A double-edged sword?

Author

Listed:
  • Überschaer, Anja
  • Baum, Matthias

Abstract

Organizations often use top employer awards to confirm their quality as employers via an independent third party. At first, the advantages of using awards seem apparent, such as giving the organization an edge in recruitment by increasing the organizational attractiveness for jobseekers. Possible disadvantages accompanying the use of awards have received little attention. We argue that awards can cause potential applicants to pay less attention to information provided in recruitment materials that allow them to assess their organizational fit. Therefore, we investigated the influence of awards on the relationship between person–organization fit and attraction to organization as well as application decision. We include the corporate brand awareness (unknown vs. well-known) as a boundary condition. The results of our experiment show that, while awards increase organizational attractiveness, they also reduce the effect of person–organization fit on organizational attractiveness in the case of well-known organizations. Moreover, we found that awards indirectly affect application decision in the same way. Hence, successful self-selection based on fit is disturbed in this situation. Consequently, the quality of the applicant pool is reduced, resulting in a disadvantage for the well-known recruiting organization. Contrary to expectations, unknown organizations do not appear to be affected by this downside and instead benefit from awards. Our study contributes to the literature in recruiting by focusing on how awards change the impact of other information, while also highlighting potential disadvantages of employer awards.

Suggested Citation

  • Überschaer, Anja & Baum, Matthias, 2020. "Top employer awards: A double-edged sword?," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 146-156.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eurman:v:38:y:2020:i:1:p:146-156
    DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2019.06.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026323731930074X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.emj.2019.06.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jonsen, Karsten & Galunic, Charles & Weeks, John & Braga, Tania, 2015. "Evaluating espoused values: Does articulating values pay off?," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 332-340.
    2. Michael Spence, 2002. "Signaling in Retrospect and the Informational Structure of Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(3), pages 434-459, June.
    3. Russell, Stephanie & Brannan, Matthew J., 2016. "“Getting the Right People on the Bus”: Recruitment, selection and integration for the branded organization," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 114-124.
    4. Herbert A. Simon, 1955. "A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 69(1), pages 99-118.
    5. Nelson, Philip, 1974. "Advertising as Information," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(4), pages 729-754, July/Aug..
    6. Bloom, Paul N. & Reve, Torger, 1990. "Transmitting signals to consumers for competitive advantage," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 58-66.
    7. Baum, Matthias & Kabst, Rüdiger, 2013. "How to attract applicants in the Atlantic versus the Asia-Pacific region? A cross-national analysis on China, India, Germany, and Hungary," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 175-185.
    8. Stigler, George J., 2011. "Economics of Information," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 5, pages 35-49.
    9. Cable, Daniel M. & Judge, Timothy A., 1996. "Person-Organization Fit, Job Choice Decisions, and Organizational Entry," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 294-311, September.
    10. Moser, Kilian J. & Tumasjan, Andranik & Welpe, Isabell M., 2017. "Small but attractive: Dimensions of new venture employer attractiveness and the moderating role of applicants' entrepreneurial behaviors," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 588-610.
    11. Véronique Pauwels-Delassus & Raluca Mogos Descotes, 2013. "Brand name change: Can trust and loyalty be transferred?," Post-Print hal-01369461, HAL.
    12. Jacoby, Jacob & Szybillo, Geroge J & Busato-Schach, Jacqueline, 1977. "Information Acquisition Behavior in Brand Choice Situations," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 3(4), pages 209-216, March.
    13. Maity, Moutusy & Dass, Mayukh & Malhotra, Naresh K., 2014. "The Antecedents and Moderators of Offline Information Search: A Meta-Analysis," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 233-254.
    14. DeAngelo, Linda Elizabeth, 1981. "Auditor size and audit quality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 183-199, December.
    15. Taj, Saud A., 2016. "Application of signaling theory in management research: Addressing major gaps in theory," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 338-348.
    16. Gerald Häubl & Valerie Trifts, 2000. "Consumer Decision Making in Online Shopping Environments: The Effects of Interactive Decision Aids," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(1), pages 4-21, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Isabel Reis & Maria José Sousa & Andreia Dionísio, 2021. "Employer Branding as a Talent Management Tool: A Systematic Literature Revision," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-22, September.
    2. Li, Yunjian & Chen, Jiawen & Li, Li & Huang, Xiaojun, 2024. "Government innovation awards, innovation funds acquisition and enterprise innovation," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 846-864.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Karsten Mause, 2009. "Too Much Competition in Higher Education? Some Conceptual Remarks on the Excessive‐Signaling Hypothesis," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(5), pages 1107-1133, November.
    2. Amin Ansary & Nik M. Hazrul Nik Hashim, 2018. "Brand image and equity: the mediating role of brand equity drivers and moderating effects of product type and word of mouth," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 969-1002, October.
    3. Ana Alina Tudoran, 2022. "A machine learning approach to identifying decision-making styles for managing customer relationships," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(1), pages 351-374, March.
    4. Tsao, Wen-Yu, 2013. "The fitness of product information: Evidence from online recommendations," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 1-9.
    5. J. Barkley Rosser, 2003. "A Nobel Prize for Asymmetric Information: The economic contributions of George Akerlof, Michael Spence and Joseph Stiglitz," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 3-21.
    6. Daniel Hoppe & Helen Keller & Felix Horstmann, 2022. "Got Employer Image? How Applicants Choose Their Employer," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(2), pages 139-159, May.
    7. Olivier Gossner & Jakub Steiner & Colin Stewart, 2021. "Attention Please!," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(4), pages 1717-1751, July.
    8. Biswas, Dipayan, 2004. "Economics of information in the Web economy: Towards a new theory?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(7), pages 724-733, July.
    9. Malone, Trey & Lusk, Jayson L., 2017. "The excessive choice effect meets the market: A field experiment on craft beer choice," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 8-13.
    10. Briggs, Elten & Janakiraman, Narayan, 2017. "Slogan recall effects on marketplace behaviors: The roles of external search and brand assessment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 98-105.
    11. Onesun Steve Yoo & Rakesh Sarin, 2018. "Consumer Choice and Market Outcomes Under Ambiguity in Product Quality," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(3), pages 445-468, May.
    12. J. K. Pappalardo, 2022. "Economics of Consumer Protection: Contributions and Challenges in Estimating Consumer Injury and Evaluating Consumer Protection Policy," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 201-238, June.
    13. Oliver Hinz & Jochen Eckert, 2010. "The Impact of Search and Recommendation Systems on Sales in Electronic Commerce," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 2(2), pages 67-77, April.
    14. Nagler Matthew G., 2007. "Understanding the Internet's Relevance to Media Ownership Policy: A Model of Too Many Choices," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-28, June.
    15. Dhaval M. Dave, 2013. "Effects of Pharmaceutical Promotion: A Review and Assessment," NBER Working Papers 18830, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Andrew Caplin & Mark Dean & Daniel Martin, 2011. "Search and Satisficing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(7), pages 2899-2922, December.
    17. Cristina Robledo-Ardila & Juan Pablo Román-Calderón, 2022. "Potential: in search for meaning, theory and avenues for future research a systematic review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 72(1), pages 149-186, February.
    18. Mahesh Balan U & Saji K. Mathew, 2021. "Personalize, Summarize or Let them Read? A Study on Online Word of Mouth Strategies and Consumer Decision Process," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 627-647, June.
    19. Samek, Anya & Hur, Inkyoung & Kim, Sung-Hee & Yi, Ji Soo, 2016. "An experimental study of the decision process with interactive technology," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 20-32.
    20. Xujin Pu & Huanzhen Zhang, 2016. "Voluntary Certification of Agricultural Products in Competitive Markets: The Consideration of Boundedly Rational Consumers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-13, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eurman:v:38:y:2020:i:1:p:146-156. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/115/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.