AbstractsEconomics

Rich Media in Employer Branding

by Jonas Andersson




Institution: Uppsala University
Department:
Year: 2013
Keywords: media richness; employer branding; video testimonials; employer brand values; social value; vividness effects; Social Sciences; Economics and Business; Business Administration; Samhällsvetenskap; Ekonomi och näringsliv; Företagsekonomi; Social and Behavioural Science, Law; samhälle/juridik
Record ID: 1368183
Full text PDF: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-205644


Abstract

This thesis investigated how information on a firm’s website presented with richmedia employee testimonials differs compared to a poor media descriptioncommunicating the same content in its ability to positively influence potential jobseekersperceptions about a firms employer brand values, in particular social valuedue to its potential in differentiation. A problem was identified being that firms areexperiencing difficulties with communicating social value of the firm to potential jobseekers. The authors used a mixed-method research design containing explorativeexpert interviews, an explanatory experiment where potential job-seekers wereexposed to two different versions of a firms’ website (one containing rich mediaemployee testimonial, and one containing a written text description of the samecontent), and a number of focus groups with the aim to further explain the findingsfrom the experiment. The findings indicate that rich media employee testimonials embedded in afirm's website increase potential job-seekers perceptions about a firm in terms of bothsocial value and identification with the firm. These findings suggest that firms shouldconsider using rich media employee testimonials on their career websites as analternative to the more commonly used poor media written descriptions.