Influence of Employee-Focused Corporate Social Responsibility and Employer Brand on Turnover Intention

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate employee turnover intention among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia, where difficulty in retention of employees is recognized as being a major issue for SME managers. This study seeks to focus on the mediation effect of employer brand between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and turnover intention. A literature review on CSR indicates that employer brand and turnover intention provide the basis for the research design and hypotheses. Self-administered questionnaire survey, involving 384 respondents from registered SMEs in Selangor, W.P. Kuala Lumpur, and Johor Bahru were analyzed. This study is significant in two ways: Firstly, the findings supported the relationship between employee-focused CSR and turnover intention. Secondly, employer brand was also a significant mediator between CSR and turnover intention. The study findings are expected to guide SME managers and policy makers on employee related decisions and also provide them with insight on the benefits that could be derived from employee-focused CSR. Keywords: CSR, Employer brand, SMEs, Turnover intention. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-9-07 Publication date: March 31 st 2020