IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/crepre/v21y2018i3d10.1057_s41299-018-0046-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Extending the Boundaries of Corporate Branding: An Exploratory Study of the Influence of Brand Familiarity in Recruitment Practices Through Social Media by B2B Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Ashish Kumar

    (Aalto University School of Business)

  • Kristian Möller

    (Aalto University School of Business)

Abstract

The rapid growth of social media has prompted B2B firms to incorporate social media platforms into their marketing communication. Notably, for B2B firms, social media has become a useful tool for corporate branding. However, how B2B firms can leverage benefits from social media marketing is less obvious, especially in new markets. In this study, we investigate the challenges and opportunities faced by B2B firms in exploiting the social media for their recruitment practices in an international context. In this regard, we focus on the effects of brand familiarity and users’ persuasiveness on their adoption of social media channels for job search. We employ a cross-country dataset from a multinational B2B firm to investigate how it can successfully integrate social media into its recruitment practices. Our empirical results suggest that users’ brand familiarity encourages them to adopt social media platforms for job search; however, the effect of the persuasiveness of recruitment messages on users’ adoption of social media platforms for their job search behavior is negative. Nevertheless, a higher level of brand familiarity mitigates the problem of the low persuasiveness of the recruitment messages as we find a positive effect of the interaction between brand familiarity and user persuasiveness on their adoption of social media channel for job search. Thus, without proper user engagement on social media platforms to build brand familiarity, the effectiveness of recruitment messages may not encourage users to adopt the social media channel for job search. Therefore, our study recommends B2B firms to build better brand familiarity on social media platforms to engage with the users first before they attempt to use these platforms directly for their recruitment strategy. In addition, we find a synergistic effect between social and nonsocial media channels thereby recommending B2B firms to employ both channels in their recruitment practices.

Suggested Citation

  • Ashish Kumar & Kristian Möller, 2018. "Extending the Boundaries of Corporate Branding: An Exploratory Study of the Influence of Brand Familiarity in Recruitment Practices Through Social Media by B2B Firms," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(3), pages 101-114, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:crepre:v:21:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1057_s41299-018-0046-7
    DOI: 10.1057/s41299-018-0046-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41299-018-0046-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41299-018-0046-7?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. Van Campenhout, Geert & Verhestraeten, Jan-Francies, 2010. "Herding Behavior among Financial Analysts: a literature review," Working Papers 2010/39, Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel, Faculteit Economie en Management.
    2. Bikhchandani, Sushil & Hirshleifer, David & Welch, Ivo, 1992. "A Theory of Fads, Fashion, Custom, and Cultural Change in Informational Cascades," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(5), pages 992-1026, October.
    3. Parent, Michael & Plangger, Kirk & Bal, Anjali, 2011. "The new WTP: Willingness to participate," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 219-229, May.
    4. Kaplan, Andreas M. & Haenlein, Michael, 2010. "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 59-68, January.
    5. Khim-Yong Goh & Cheng-Suang Heng & Zhijie Lin, 2013. "Social Media Brand Community and Consumer Behavior: Quantifying the Relative Impact of User- and Marketer-Generated Content," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 88-107, March.
    6. Deighton, John & Grayson, Kent, 1995. "Marketing and Seduction: Building Exchange Relationships by Managing Social Consensus," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(4), pages 660-676, March.
    7. Jenny Doorn & Janny Hoekstra, 2013. "Customization of online advertising: The role of intrusiveness," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 339-351, December.
    8. Kevin Lane Keller & Donald R. Lehmann, 2006. "Brands and Branding: Research Findings and Future Priorities," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(6), pages 740-759, 11-12.
    9. Brown, Jacqueline Johnson & Reingen, Peter H, 1987. "Social Ties and Word-of-Mouth Referral Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 14(3), pages 350-362, December.
    10. Lemmink, Jos & Schuijf, Annelien & Streukens, Sandra, 2003. "The role of corporate image and company employment image in explaining application intentions," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 1-15, February.
    11. Shaker A Zahra, 2005. "A theory of international new ventures: a decade of research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 36(1), pages 20-28, January.
    12. Campbell, Margaret C & Keller, Kevin Lane, 2003. "Brand Familiarity and Advertising Repetition Effects," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 30(2), pages 292-304, September.
    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. Yogesh K. Dwivedi & Elvira Ismagilova & Nripendra P. Rana & Ramakrishnan Raman, 2023. "Social Media Adoption, Usage And Impact In Business-To-Business (B2B) Context: A State-Of-The-Art Literature Review," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 971-993, June.
    2. Nördinger, Susanne & Desjardins, Christoph, 2020. "Social media in B2B: Usage and effects of social media in German B2B companies," Journal of Applied Leadership and Management, Hochschule Kempten - University of Applied Sciences, Professional School of Business & Technology, vol. 8, pages 152-171.
    3. Daniel Hoppe, 2021. "Argument-Based Versus Emotion-Based Videos During the Early Stages of Recruitment: Effects on Perceived Employer Brand Image, Application Intentions, and Positive Word-of-Mouth," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(1), pages 31-47, February.

    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. Kick, Markus, 2015. "Social Media Research: A Narrative Review," EconStor Preprints 182506, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    2. Kick, Markus, 2015. "Post ≠ Post: An Experimental Study on Corporate Brand Posts on Facebook," EconStor Preprints 182507, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    3. Yulin Chen, 2019. "The Sustainable Development of Social Media Contents: An Analysis of Concrete and Abstract Information on Cultural and Creative Institutions with “Artist” and “Ordinary People” Positioning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-22, July.
    4. Yucheng Zhang & Zhiling Wang & Lin Xiao & Lijun Wang & Pei Huang, 2023. "Discovering the evolution of online reviews: A bibliometric review," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 33(1), pages 1-22, December.
    5. Scott, Stephanie & Hughes, Paul & Hodgkinson, Ian & Kraus, Sascha, 2019. "Technology adoption factors in the digitization of popular culture: Analyzing the online gambling market," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    6. Tajvidi, Mina & Richard, Marie-Odile & Wang, YiChuan & Hajli, Nick, 2020. "Brand co-creation through social commerce information sharing: The role of social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 476-486.
    7. Yuho Chung & Yiwei Li & Jianmin Jia, 2021. "Exploring embeddedness, centrality, and social influence on backer behavior: the role of backer networks in crowdfunding," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(5), pages 925-946, September.
    8. Zachary Mahone & Filippo Rebessi, 2024. "Observational learning and firm dynamics," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(3), pages 989-1027, August.
    9. Pauwels, Koen & Aksehirli, Zeynep & Lackman, Andrew, 2016. "Like the ad or the brand? Marketing stimulates different electronic word-of-mouth content to drive online and offline performance," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 639-655.
    10. Thomas Clauss & Thomas Niemand & Sascha Kraus & Patrick Schnetzer & Alexander Brem, 2019. "Increasing Crowdfunding Success Through Social Media: The Importance Of Reach And Utilisation In Reward-Based Crowdfunding," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(03), pages 1-30, May.
    11. Syed Zeeshan Zahoor & A. M. Shah, 2024. "Impact of Social Media on Users’ Complex Buying Behaviour: Analysing the Mediating Effect of Perception and Moderating Effect of Extended Social Media Usage," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 49(1), pages 119-148, February.
    12. Bizer, Kilian & Meub, Lukas & Proeger, Till & Spiwoks, Markus, 2014. "Strategic coordination in forecasting: An experimental study," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 195, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    13. Hsu, Liwu & Lawrence, Benjamin, 2016. "The role of social media and brand equity during a product recall crisis: A shareholder value perspective," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 59-77.
    14. Mohammad Tipu Sultan & Farzana Sharmin & Alina Badulescu & Darie Gavrilut & Ke Xue, 2021. "Social Media-Based Content towards Image Formation: A New Approach to the Selection of Sustainable Destinations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-22, April.
    15. Alessandro Gandolfo, 2020. "Content shared between banks and users on the social ecosystem: an inductive exploratory inquiry," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 679-712, December.
    16. Beth L. Fossen & David A. Schweidel & Michael Lewis, 2019. "Examining Brand Strength of Political Candidates: a Performance Premium Approach," Customer Needs and Solutions, Springer;Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Growth (iSIG), vol. 6(3), pages 63-75, December.
    17. Nicole Allison, 2013. "Going beyond on-pitch success: Fan engagement as a catalyst for growth," Birkbeck Sports Business Centre Working Papers 7, Birkbeck College, Department of Management.
    18. An, Myoung-a & Han, Sang-Lin, 2020. "Effects of experiential motivation and customer engagement on customer value creation: Analysis of psychological process in the experience-based retail environment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 389-397.
    19. Mehran REZVANI & Seyed Hamid Khodadad HOSEINI & Mohammad Mehdi SAMADZADEH, 2012. "Investigating the Role of Word of Mouth on Consumer Based Brand Equity Creation in Iran’s Cell-Phone Market," Journal of Knowledge Management, Economics and Information Technology, ScientificPapers.org, vol. 2(1), pages 1-3, February.
    20. Hajer Kefi & Sitesh Indra & Talel Abdessalem, 2016. "Social media marketing analytics : a multicultural approach applied to the beauty & cosmetic sector," Post-Print hal-01456580, HAL.

    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:pal:crepre:v:21:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1057_s41299-018-0046-7. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave.com .

    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.