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This micro-level study unpacks the recruitment and retention of international professionals to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study highlights the influence of the founders' international experience when applying organisational-level (meso) policies and practices. With their insider experience as skilled migrants, we share how the founders in each of the SMEs mobilised career capital into human resource management (HRM) strategies.

Combining literature on SMEs and skilled migrants' careers, we draw upon intelligent career theory to illuminate the recruitment and retention of self-initiated expatriates and skilled migrants in SMEs. With three SME case studies as samples–one micro, one small and one medium-sized organisation in Ireland–we consider the influence of the founders' international experience in the design and application of formal and informal HRM strategies (at the organisational level) that are operationalised to recruit and retain international talent to/in these organisations.

The HRM practices in the three SME cases in this paper, each run by migrant founders, vary from formalised (for our medium-sized organisation), semi-formalised (for our small-sized organisation) to ad hoc and tailor-made (for our micro-sized organisation). These particular SMEs were often more receptive to hiring other migrants. The important role of the three SME case studies' skilled migrant founders and their own international career experiences was apparent in the particular HRM approaches they adopted. The relevance of intelligent career theory when applying micro-level findings at the meso-organisational level is shown.

The paper presents how the international experience of founder–managers, in turn, impacts on the HRM practices and policies that are implemented to recruit and retain international employees. The study highlights how both organisation size and founder-manager international experience influence the degree of customisation of HRM practices and policies in SMEs, specifically pertaining to the recruitment and retention of self-initiated expatriates and skilled migrant employees. The heterogeneity within the sub-categories encompassed under the umbrella label of SME is emphasised; validating our case study approach, where nuance and detail of the specific organisation can be shared.

This study aims to examine the influence of condominium attributes on resident satisfaction and word of mouth from the perspectives of the elderly in Thailand.

Data were collected from 338 elderly residents through a questionnaire survey and analysed by using descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling procedures.

The results showed that the strongest predictor of resident satisfaction was design functionality, followed by social environment, safety and security and service quality. In addition, the strongest predictor of word of mouth was safety and security, followed by design functionality, proximity, service quality and social environment.

The data were drawn at the level of the overall characteristics of elderly residents. People may be different in terms of their demographic characters such as gender, age, and user experience.

The study suggests that condominium developers and designers should pay attention to design functionality both physically and mentally such as suitable materials, lighting and common areas. Moreover, the developers should focus on the proximity of the nearest hospitals, safety and security measures, well-trained security personnel and social activity arrangement.

Elderly condominium markets are increasingly growing as a result of the ageing society in Thailand. However, very few empirical studies investigate condominium attributes that affect resident satisfaction and word of mouth provided by real estate developers. The paper aims to determine driving factors that enhance the better well-being of elderly residents.

This paper aims to systematically find the main research differences and similarities between social media and social networks in marketing research using the bibliometric perspective and provides suggestions for firms to improve their marketing strategies effectively.

The methods of co-word analysis and network analysis have been used to analyze the two research fields of social media and social networks. Specifically, this study selects 2,424 articles from 27 marketing academic journals present in the database Web of Science, ranging from January 1, 1996 to August 8, 2020.

The results show that social networks and social media are both research hotspots within the discipline of marketing research. The different intimacy nodes of social networks are more complex than social media. Additionally, the research scope of social networks is broader than social media in marketing research as shown by the keyword co-occurrence analysis. The overlap between social media and social networks in marketing research is reflected in the strong focus on their mixed mutual effects.

This paper explores the differences and similarities between social networks and social media in marketing research from the bibliometric perspective and provides a developing trend of their research hotspots in social media and social networks marketing research by keyword co-occurrence analysis and cluster analysis. Additionally, this paper provides some suggestions for firms looking to improve the efficiency of their marketing strategies from social and economic perspectives.

This paper aims to explore the dynamics and performance of on-premise wine trade business.

The study involved in-depth interviews with six on-premise businesses in Seoul, South Korea. The data obtained were methodically analysed to understand the impact of different variables through a qualitative business dynamic model.

Customer satisfaction and number of customers are key performance factors for on-premise wine trade business. Customer satisfaction is driven by servicescape, wine lists and front-line employees. However, the length of wine list impacts directly on inventory costs and staff knowledge, while the number of service staff in the business has a non-linear effect on profits, as service staff does not grow linearly with the number of customers.

One important limitation is that the business dynamics model, which is based on South Korean cases, used only owners/sommeliers’ perspectives but not consumers’ perspectives. There are two implications. First, in terms of on-premise wine trade, the alignment of servicespace, front-line employees, wine lists and pricing strategy is key to shape customers’ expectations and confirm the market positioning of the business. Second, for wineries, understanding the dynamics of on-premise wine trade can help them to find strategies to position their wines.

The paper offers two contributions. Firstly, the paper provides the first exploratory study on the business dynamics of on-premise wine trade businesses, which complements existing wine-buying behaviour studies. Secondly, the study explores the on-trade channel in South Korea, providing insights into an important Asian market.

The article summarises findings from recent case study research into recruitment in small firms. The research aims to ascertain whether small firms follow the procedures outlined in the prescriptive literature on recruitment, and to what extent they rely on informal recruitment methods. It finds little evidence of the adoption of the recommended systematic procedures and a high use of “tried and trusted” methods including word‐of‐mouth recruitment and the hiring of “known quantities”. The implications of this are examined. While these methods have certain advantages, they may also give rise to a number of problems. The study argues that the adoption of more formal procedures and methods could reduce staff turnover in small firms and its associated costs. However, it concludes that many small employers would remain unconvinced by the case for opening up recruitment channels, and may find their existing approaches more cost effective in the short term.

Massive shifts in the recruitment landscape, the continually changing nature of work and workers, and extraordinary technological progress have combined to enable unparalleled advances in how current and prospective employees receive and process information about organizations. Once the domain of internal organizational public relations and human resources (HR) teams, most employment branding has moved beyond organizations’ control. This chapter provides a conceptual framework pertaining to third party employment branding, defined as communications, claims, or status-based classifications generated by parties outside of direct company control that shape, enhance, and differentiate organizations’ images as favorable or unfavorable employers. Specifically, the authors first theorize about the underlying mechanisms by which third party employment branding might signal prospective and current employees. Second, the authors develop a framework whereby we comprehensively review third party employment branding sources, thus identifying the different ways that third party employment branding might manifest. Third, using prototypical examples, the authors link the various signaling mechanisms to the various third party employment branding sources identified. Finally, the authors propose an ambitious future research agenda that considers not only the positive aspects of third party employment branding but also potential “dark sides.” Thus, the authors view this chapter as contributing to the broader employment branding literature, which should enhance scholarly endeavors to study it and practitioner efforts to leverage it.

Job information through word-of-mouth (WOM) has a crucial impact on employer attractiveness. The phenomenal rise of social media offers alternate WOM platforms for sharing job information, which is quite different from traditional face-to-face WOM. The purpose of this paper is to examine the differential impact of traditional word-of-mouth (t-WOM) and social media word-of-mouth (s-WOM) on employer attractiveness along with the difference in the job attributes and relationship strength with the information source.

A 2 × 2 × 2 experiment was conducted to examine the impact of information source (t-WOM and s-WOM), job attributes (tangible and intangible) and relationship strength (strong and weak), on employer attractiveness. Source expertise and source trust were treated as the control variable.

The result shows the differential impact of t-WOM and s-WOM on employer attractiveness. Moreover, t-WOM from strong relation source found to have a high impact on employer attractiveness than s-WOM. No significant difference due to job attributes was found.

Use of only positive WOM and not the negative one, student as the subjects, etc.

The present study suggests using t-WOM and s-WOM to attract talented job seekers.

This is the first study to analyze the differential impact of t-WOM and s-WOM on employer attractiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the consequences of an unexplored and real worker behavior on the internet (worker electronic word of mouth (weWOM)) for human resource image, as well as to analyze its impact on job seekers and employee’s intentions and attitudes.

The research objectives were tested through a web-based experiment based on real weWOM. Through a self-selected sample procedure, 238 individuals were exposed to three types of weWOM: positive, negative, and intermediate.

Depending on the kind of weWOM people see on the internet, perceived HR image changes. Positive, intermediate, and negative weWOM produce different behavioral intentions with respect to different recruiting aspects. weWOM also influences two important employee attitudes and resulted more credible than firms’ recognitions.

The sample is a convenience one. Since managers may be reluctant to admit weWOM’s credibility the relationship between weWOM and other employees’ attitudes data should be analyzed.

weWOM may constitute an indicator for anticipating applicants’ key behavior (intention to apply, intention to recommend a company, and compensation demands). In order to stimulate it companies should generate relevant information about the most common categories of weWOM and place it on the employer review websites. Additionally, if weWOM is positive it can be used to create a positive external constructed image among the staff.

weWOM is a current phenomenon without information about its implications. Most of the websites that host it are free accessible. This research offers specific data about how people react to it.

Employer review websites are probably the preferred channels to express work-related WOM. Nevertheless the current spread of the internet only one study has been conducted about it. This research fits in the current social media age and sheds new information about this kind of communication. The findings contribute to strengthen the theory about how organizational image is built showing that WOM and social media exposure are significant determinants of two types of organizational images. Also we contribute to the theory about recruitment showing detailed information regarding what may occurs during the first phases of this practice.

The paper's aims are to ascertain whether there is evidence of Egyptian organisations using recruitment and selection practices which are context specific and whether different practices are used for different job types; whether responsibility for recruitment and selection is shared between HRM specialists and line management; and whether there is evidence of increasing devolution of this responsibility to line managers.

Data were collected between May and July 2007 and produced 108 usable questionnaires. The questionnaire was adapted from the Price Waterhouse Cranfield project on HRM in Europe.

There is some evidential support for the influence of the Egyptian national context upon the practices used, with different practices, including the number of techniques being used for the recruitment and selection of different job types. There is evidence of substantial sharing of this responsibility with line management through consultation and of an increased devolution of responsibility to line management.

Investigating recruitment and selection practices with the influence of ownership and by organisational size is needed to pursue whether there are significant associations between these variables.

Organisations moving into Egypt would not appear to be confronted with substantial resistance to the adoption of new methods and techniques for recruiting and selecting staff or the adoption of different methods for different job types, neither with resistance if they wish to involve line management in the decision‐making process.

The influence of the Egyptian national context upon the recruitment and selection practices used is an important issue for organisations to know the best recruitment and selection methods.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the recruitment practices of the French and UK retail industry. It analyses the influence of specific business constraints, labour market institutions and employment patterns on recruitment practices. It devotes attention to incidences of the shift from classic to web-based hiring methods.

The cases of two leading food retail chains are explored. This research draws on a mixed approach using semi-structured interviews, the analysis of online job-advertisement content and web sites.

According to the literature, local and informal hiring channels (walk-in application, word-of-mouth, in-store adverts) are mainly used to fill low-paid vacancies in food retail chains. They are congruent with the key screening criteria as they allow face-to-face selection and provide candidates from the surrounding area. However, the food retail chains in this research have implemented a centralised and at-a-distance process which contrasts with the classic methods. Based on an “Internet-only scheme” and online testing, it is especially selective in the UK.

The number of semi-structured interviews is limited. Additional investigations are needed to evaluate whether the at-a-distance processes are isolated or whether they reflect growing practices.

Retail food employers have to maintain a diversity of local hiring channels and not to indiscriminately embrace the at-a-distance scheme, which is not adapted to evaluate the key requirements.

A centralised and at-a-distance recruitment process decreases unfair face-to-face discrimination in selection but at the same time introduces indirect discrimination. This process may be interpreted as a way to target students; there is a risk that it exacerbates inequalities in low-wage labour markets.

The topic is poorly explored. There is a need to understand web-based recruitment.