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Family business employer brand: Understanding applicants’ perceptions and their job pursuit intentions with samples from the US and Belgium

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  • Arijs, Diane
  • Botero, Isabel C.
  • Michiels, Anneleen
  • Molly, Vincent

Abstract

Recruiting college educated non-family employees has been one of the challenges identified by family business owners affecting the success and continuity of family firms. To better understand this challenge, we build on previous work from recruitment, branding, and family business literature to introduce the family business employer brand construct and its components. We explore the perceptions that non-family applicants have about the family business employer brand components, and how these perceptions affect intentions to pursue a job with a family firm. Data were collected through surveys in the USA (N = 293) and Belgium (N = 324). Results from both countries indicate that participants evaluated instrumental (i.e., compensation, job security, and advancement opportunities) and symbolic (i.e. trustworthiness, innovation, thrift, style, and dominance) components of the family business employer brand differently in the two countries and these factors varied in the effect that they had on the intent to pursue a job in a family firm. Implications of these results for practice and further research are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Arijs, Diane & Botero, Isabel C. & Michiels, Anneleen & Molly, Vincent, 2018. "Family business employer brand: Understanding applicants’ perceptions and their job pursuit intentions with samples from the US and Belgium," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 180-191.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:fambus:v:9:y:2018:i:3:p:180-191
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfbs.2018.08.005
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    3. Waterwall, Brian & Alipour, Kent K., 2021. "Nonfamily employees’ perceptions of treatment in family businesses: Implications for organizational attraction, job pursuit intentions, work attitudes, and turnover intentions," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 12(3).
    4. Unai Arzubiaga & Alfredo De Massis & Amaia Maseda & Txomin Iturralde, 2023. "The influence of family firm image on access to financial resources in family SMEs: a signaling theory perspective," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 233-258, January.
    5. Jaufenthaler, Philipp, 2023. "A safe haven in times of crisis: The appeal of family companies as employers amid the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 14(1).
    6. Beck, Susanne & Prügl, Reinhard & Walter, Katharina, 2020. "Communicating the family firm brand: Antecedents and performance effects," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 95-107.
    7. Fernando A. Martín-Hidalgo & Ines Herrero & Ana Pérez-Luño, 2024. "The Lights and Shadows of Family Involvement in Small and Medium-Sized Firms," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(1), pages 4137-4160, March.
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    10. Naciye Sekerci & Jamil Jaballah & Marc van Essen & Nadine Kammerlander, 2022. "Investors’ Reactions to CSR News in Family Versus Nonfamily Firms: A Study on Signal (In)credibility," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 46(1), pages 82-116, January.
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