Employer Attractiveness of MNEs - A Cross-National Conjoint Analysis on the Role of COO and CSR

Abstract

In today’s globalized world, multinational enterprises (MNEs) have increasingly expanded worldwide, meaning they need to recruit talent abroad. Nevertheless, the extant recruitment literature lacks an international perspective, as most research has been conducted in a single context and in developed countries, creating a gap regarding how MNEs can develop optimal international recruiting strategies. Based on a cross-national conjoint analysis in an emerging country (Vietnam) and a developed country (the US), we calibrate the relative importance of organizational/job attributes, especially those with symbolic value such as MNEs’ country-of-origin (emerging vs. developed) and CSR, together with other instrumental factors (e.g., pay, career opportunities), to young applicants in the two countries. Our results reveal some differences, particularly in that the way applicants from an emerging market attach more value to the economic dimension of CSR, but less value to the social and environmental CSR dimensions. Despite the persistence of certain cross-national differences, the overall influential structure on job choice remains largely similar across countries, opening up the possibility for a global employer branding strategy. Our results, moreover, suggest that symbolic attributes are as important as instrumental attributes to applicants; most interestingly, the economic dimension of CSR and country of origin are even considered more important than salary in Vietnam.