Conceptualizing Employer Branding: Is the Whole More than the Sum of Its Parts? Case Study-Based Evidence from Thailand

Abstract

For several decades now, it has been of both scholars and practitioners interest to find out how organizations can win the war for talents. Employer branding is considered a possible means to enhance employer attractiveness and secure the employees critical for the success of the organization. The purpose of this investigation is to shed more light on the underlying processes and influencing factors related to employer branding in a real-life context. The author has examined the subject in a multinational enterprise in Thailand based on the framework proposed by Kryger, Esmann, and Thomsen (2011), which conceptualizes employer branding as the intersection of human resource management, branding, and corporate social responsibility. The data collection for this single-case study was based on guided interviews with experts from these fields, who have been presented with questions related to their areas of expertise. After having conducted a qualitative content analysis, the findings suggest that human resource management, marketing, and corporate social responsibility are relevant for employer branding and contribute to an operationalization of the phenomenon. Employer branding appears to be a dynamic construct determined by the interaction with the three areas and is permanently subject to changes. This has implications for academics and practitioners, as the understanding of the subject shifts from a product-oriented to a process-oriented one. The author gives recommendations for the design of an effective employer branding providing value for practitioners. Moreover, a quantitative assessment of the findings as well as taking an extra-company perspective were identified as future research directions.