Målet med rekrytering är att identifiera och attrahera potentiella arbets-sökanden utan att påverka dessa negativt. Tidigare forskning har visat att kandidatupplevelsen påverkas av huruvida den arbetssökande upplever rekryteringsprocessen som rättvis. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur en rekryteringsprocess upplevs av arbetssökanden samt om kön, generationstillhörighet respektive arbetsgivarens attraktivitet har ett samband med kandidatupplevelse. Även skillnader utifrån ansökt yrkesområde, hur långt kandidaten tog sig, samt hur kandidaten fick det slutgiltiga beskedet undersöktes. Deltagare var 1261 arbetssökanden, varav 1009 var män, som under en sexmånadersperiod sökt arbete på ett stort svenskt industriföretag. Utifrån mätinstrumentet Selection Procedural Justice Scale (SPJS) utformades en webbenkät. Resultatet visade att det finns en skillnad i kandidatupplevelse utifrån kandidatens utfall i rekryteringsprocessen, mottagandet av slutgiltigt besked samt hur attraktiv arbetsgivaren anses vara. Rekryterare bör vara noga med att väsentlig återkoppling når varje kandidat. Undersökningen bidrog med nya insikter om kandidatupplevelse, främst utifrån individuella skillnader.

The use of celebrity endorsers is a popular marketing strategy in many countries. Typically, many marketers believe that using celebrities is a viable marketing strategy for attracting customers, increasing market share and improving sales for their market offerings. The celebrity endorsement strategy using local celebrities is increasing in South Africa. Many South African marketers are now using popular local black celebrities in an attempt to attract the prosperous black emerging middle class, known as Black Diamonds. Black Generation Y students offer great promise to marketers in the South African market as their tertiary education is likely to lead to higher future earning potential and subsequent entry into the already prosperous black emerging middle class segment. Given the increased use of local black celebrities and the market potential of the black Generation Y cohort in South Africa, it is important to investigate whether this marketing strategy may be effective when used in this segment. Celebrity endorsement may work effectively if the correct celebrity is chosen to promote a product but may have costly results if an inappropriate celebrity is chosen. Ohanian (1990) developed a scale to facilitate the selection of celebrity endorsers. The scale is based on the source credibility model that includes the source attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise model. This study set out to determine whether the black Generation Y students have positive perceptions of local black celebrity endorsers using the celebrity endorsers‟ credibility scale developed by Ohanian (1990). Furthermore, the scale was validated using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling in order to ascertain whether the scale remains applicable when used in the South African context. A non-probability convenience sample of 880 (440 per institution) black students aged between 18 and 24 years was taken in 2012 from the two registered public higher education institutions in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Following a top-of-the-mind-awareness test, four local black celebrities were identified, namely Connie Ferguson, Black Coffee, DJ Sbu and Zahara. In a second top-of-the-mind-awareness test to determine which product types each celebrity is considered to most suitable to endorse, Connie Ferguson was linked to cosmetics, Black Coffee to hot beverages, DJ Sbu to men’s clothing and Zahara to traditional African clothes and jewellery. The relevant primary data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire that had four versions – one per identified celebrity. Lecturers at the two public HEIs were contacted and asked if they would distribute the questionnaires (four versions) to their students to complete during lecture periods. The questionnaires were hand delivered to the relevant lecturers and those completed were immediately collected. The questionnaire requested respondents to indicate on a six-point Likert scale their perceptions of the four selected celebrities‟ attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise in endorsing their selected product types. In addition, respondents were asked to provide certain demographic data. Findings from the study indicated that black Generation Y students have positive perceptions of the selected local black celebrity endorsers‟ attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise in endorsing their selected product types. In addition, the results of both the confirmatory factor analysis and the structural equation modelling suggest that the scale developed by Ohanian (1990) to be a valid measure for selecting celebrity endorsers when applied in South Africa. Insights gained from this study will assist both marketing academics and practitioners understand the perceptions of the black Generation Y students towards the use of local black celebrities in product promotions in the South African market. / MCom, Marketing Management, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013

Baigiamojo darbo tikslas – sukurti neformalaus suaugusiųjų mokymo(-si), vykstančio profesinio mokymo įstaigose, patrauklumo modelį. Uždaviniai: 1. Išanalizuoti neformalaus suaugusiųjų švietimo ir mokymo/si koncepcijas; 2. Apibūdinti suaugusiųjų neformalaus mokymo(-si) patrauklumą; 3. Išskirti neformalaus suaugusiųjų mokymo(-si), vykstančio profesinio mokymo įstaigose, patrauklumo elementus, savybes; 4. Patikrinti neformalaus suaugusiųjų mokymosi, profesinio mokymo įstaigose, patrauklumą lemiančius elementus ir jų savybes. Teorinėje darbo dalyje aptariama suaugusiųjų švietimo sampratos teorinė analizė, neformalaus suaugusiųjų švietimo koncepcija, neformaliojo suaugusiųjų švietimo raiška Lietuvoje, neformalaus suaugusiųjų mokymo/si patrauklumo samprata, neformalaus suaugusiųjų mokymo/si patrauklumo elementai, savybės. Analitinėje baigiamojo darbo dalyje analizuojami kiekybinio tyrimo metu gauti duomenys. Pateikiamas neformalaus suaugusiųjų mokymo/si patrauklumą profesinio mokymo įstaigose lemiantis modelis, pagal kurį siūlomos rekomendacijos. / The goal of this paper is to develop a model of attractive non-formal adult education in vocational education institutions. Tasks: 1. Analyze the perception of non-formal adult education and teaching/studying/learning. 2. Describe the appeal of non-formal adult education. 3. Extract the non-formal adult education appeal elements and their attributes in vacational education institutions. 4. Verify the non-formal adult education appeal elements and their attributes in vacational education institutions. In the theoretical part of this paper, the following topics are discussed: adult education perception theory, non-formal adult education perception, non-formal adult education expression in Lithuania, non-formal adult education appeal perception, and the elements and their attributes of non-formal adult education appeal. In the analytical part of the diploma paper, the data extracted during the quantitative part of the examination is analyzed and the model of non-formal adult education in vacational education institutions appeal is presented. The recommendations are presented based on this model.

Dissertation offers a methodological contribution to empirical studies on employer branding in higher education, exploring a framework for employer brand development. The Organizational Attractiveness Extraction Scale (OAES) was developed and a national study of organizational attractiveness as an employer in 19 Lithuanian higher education institutions (N = 1105) was carried out allowing: to identify the prevailing model of human resource management systems in HEIs; to extract unique employment experience attributes, or an organizational attractiveness mix; to unfold employee expectations of benefits provided by work at a particular HEI; to diagnose the health of HEI’s unintentional employer brand; to discover the gaps of factual and desirable employment experience, indicating the perceived employment experience quality and possible areas for improvement; to differentiate types of attitudinal employee segments; to determine the type of institution’s employment-based identity; to predict affective commitment based on employment experience inputs; to gain generational competence to apply market segmentation approach to employer branding. Based on the synthesis of empirical results, an analytical and typological framework for employer brand development was designed employing OAES methodology, enabling the organizations to strategically build their employer brands, facilitate organizational attractiveness and to differentiate from their competitors in the labor market. / Ši disertacija siūlo metodologinį pagrindimą empirinėms darbdavio ženklodaros aukštajame moksle studijoms, taikant kompleksišką požiūrį į darbdavio ženklo formavimą. Disertacijoje sukurta Organizacinio patrauklumo vertinimo skalė (OPVS) ir atliktas nacionalinis organizacijos, kaip darbdavio, patrauklumo tyrimas 19 Lietuvos aukštųjų mokyklų (N = 1105) leido: identifikuoti vyraujantį darbo santykių modelį aukštojo mokslo institucijose (AMI); išgryninti unikalias AMI darbinės jausenos charakteristikas, sudarančias jų organizacinio patrauklumo kompleksą; atskleisti darbuotojų lūkesčius konkrečios AMI atžvilgiu; diagnozuoti nesąmoningai kuriamo darbdavio ženklo įvaizdį; nustatyti neatitikimus tarp suvoktos esamos ir suvoktos laukiamos darbinės jausenos, įvertinant darbinės jausenos kokybę ir tobulintinas sritis; nustatyti darbuotojų darbinių jausenų segmentus; nustatyti AMI organizacinio patrauklumo tipus; remiantis darbinės jausenos vertinimu prognozuoti emocinį darbuotojų įsitraukimą; įvertinti kartų lūkesčius ir taikyti rinkos segmentavimo požiūrį kartų kontekste darbdavio ženklodaroje. Gautų empirinių tyrimo rezultatų sintezės pagrindu disertacijoje sukurta tipologinė darbdavio ženklo formavimo sistema naudojant parengtą OPVS metodiką, kuri įgalina organizacijas atskleisti ir strategiškai valdyti darbdavio ženklą, didinti organizacinį patrauklumą ir išskirtinumą bei sėkmingiau konkuruoti darbo rinkoje.

Ši disertacija siūlo metodologinį pagrindimą empirinėms darbdavio ženklodaros aukštajame moksle studijoms, taikant kompleksišką požiūrį į darbdavio ženklo formavimą. Disertacijoje sukurta Organizacinio patrauklumo vertinimo skalė (OPVS) ir atliktas nacionalinis organizacijos, kaip darbdavio, patrauklumo tyrimas 19 Lietuvos aukštųjų mokyklų (N = 1105) leido: identifikuoti vyraujantį darbo santykių modelį aukštojo mokslo institucijose (AMI); išgryninti unikalias AMI darbinės jausenos charakteristikas, sudarančias jų organizacinio patrauklumo kompleksą; atskleisti darbuotojų lūkesčius konkrečios AMI atžvilgiu; diagnozuoti nesąmoningai kuriamo darbdavio ženklo įvaizdį; nustatyti neatitikimus tarp suvoktos esamos ir suvoktos laukiamos darbinės jausenos, įvertinant darbinės jausenos kokybę ir tobulintinas sritis; nustatyti darbuotojų darbinių jausenų segmentus; nustatyti AMI organizacinio patrauklumo tipus; remiantis darbinės jausenos vertinimu prognozuoti emocinį darbuotojų įsitraukimą; įvertinti kartų lūkesčius ir taikyti rinkos segmentavimo požiūrį kartų kontekste darbdavio ženklodaroje. Gautų empirinių tyrimo rezultatų sintezės pagrindu disertacijoje sukurta tipologinė darbdavio ženklo formavimo sistema naudojant parengtą OPVS metodiką, kuri įgalina organizacijas atskleisti ir strategiškai valdyti darbdavio ženklą, didinti organizacinį patrauklumą ir išskirtinumą bei sėkmingiau konkuruoti darbo rinkoje. / Dissertation offers a methodological contribution to empirical studies on employer branding in higher education, exploring a framework for employer brand development. The Organizational Attractiveness Extraction Scale (OAES) was developed and a national study of organizational attractiveness as an employer in 19 Lithuanian higher education institutions (N = 1105) was carried out allowing: to identify the prevailing model of human resource management systems in HEIs; to extract unique employment experience attributes, or an organizational attractiveness mix; to unfold employee expectations of benefits provided by work at a particular HEI; to diagnose the health of HEI’s unintentional employer brand; to discover the gaps of factual and desirable employment experience, indicating the perceived employment experience quality and possible areas for improvement; to differentiate types of attitudinal employee segments; to determine the type of institution’s employment-based identity; to predict affective commitment based on employment experience inputs; to gain generational competence to apply market segmentation approach to employer branding. Based on the synthesis of empirical results, an analytical and typological framework for employer brand development was designed employing OAES methodology, enabling the organizations to strategically build their employer brands, facilitate organizational attractiveness and to differentiate from their competitors in the labor market.

Employer branding is a strategic activity that has grown in popularity over the past two decades. Much progress has been made in investigating aspects of employer branding; however, many facets of the process, as it has been conceptualised in the research literature, remain empirically unexplored. The aim of this thesis is to get a deeper, more grounded understanding of employer branding based on an investigation of employer branding processes in practice. Four papers are presented, each providing a new perspective. In the first paper, industry experts??? perceptions of the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful employer brands are used to arrive at a typology of employer branding success. The typology is managerially relevant, providing a means by which firms may assess their employer branding success qualitatively and quantitatively (based on metrics commonly used in practice). Further, theoretical contributions are made by establishing employer branding as a context distinct from corporate and consumer branding, and by providing a basis for assessing variance between employer brands. In the second and third papers, the mechanisms that shape and perpetuate employer brands are explored. Individual (employee) and firm-related mechanisms drawn from the literature are empirically validated in the second paper using qualitative within-case analysis of four employer brands. The firms are from a broad range of industries and are characteristically successful (a pharmaceuticals and a financial services firm) and unsuccessful (a transport firm and a semi-government public utility). The case analysis results in the discovery of additional mechanisms relating to industry-level factors, not previously documented. These findings are built on in the third paper, where cross-case analysis of the same firms is used to establish a set of conditions that support or erode employer branding success. Importantly, theory perspectives outside the traditional domain of marketing (i.e., human resources, organisational behaviour and strategy) are shown to be critical for understanding the process in practice. A taxonomy of generic market segmentation types is used in the fourth paper to investigate the application of market segmentation to employer branding. Market segmentation is shown to provide a useful link between employer branding and broader strategic planning.

The aim of this study is to make a theoretical contribution vis-à-vis the main determinants of international student identification with a middle ranking business school corporate brand. The findings of this study are of foundational significance in theory building terms. A substantive theory of international postgraduate student identification in UK middle ranking business school corporate brands is introduced. This theory was found to be underpinned by five attractiveness dimensions: brand similarity, brand distinctiveness, association with a metropolitan city brand, country brand and university physical campus. The findings showed that brand similarity, brand distinctiveness, association with a metropolitan city brand, country brand and university physical campus are the main corporate brand identification dimensions of international postgraduate students – in terms of attractiveness – of a middle ranked business school (Brunel Business School). Whilst the tuition fees were a constituent part of the initial theoretical framework, this variable was not shown to have a significant effect on middle ranking business school corporate brand attractiveness. The findings also showed that brand distinctiveness and the country brand had a direct positive effect on international postgraduate student identification. Moreover, brand similarity, brand distinctiveness, metropolitan city brand, country brand and university physical campus affect international postgraduate student identification indirectly through the mediating effect of middle ranking business school corporate brand attractiveness. Whereas the effects of brand distinctiveness and country brand on international postgraduate student identification are partially mediated, and the effect of metropolitan city brand is fully mediated, tuition fees have an inverse, unmediated effect on international postgraduate student identification. A test of alternative moderating effect showed that the effects of brand similarity, brand distinctiveness, association with a metropolitan city brand, country brand, university physical campus and tuition fees on international student corporate brand identification were not moderated by the effect of middle ranking business school corporate brand attractiveness. This study – focusing on a middle ranking business school corporate brand, internationalisation/international marketing– appears to be the first of its kind. It is one of the first attempts to provide a theoretical undertaking regarding the main determinants of international student identification with a middle ranking business school corporate brand. The instrumental contributions of this study stress the efficacy of business school managers in focusing on corporate brand building and corporate brand communication activities. Whilst the statistical generalisability of the findings generated from a single case study is limited, the insights are analytically generalisable.

An organizational strategy to develop software has appeared in the market. Organizations release software source code open and hope to attract volunteers to improve their software, forming what we call an open source project. Examples of organizations that have used this strategy include IBM (Eclipse), SAP (Netweaver) and Mozilla (Thunderbird). Moreover, thousands of these projects have been created as a consequence of the growing amount of software source code released by individuals. This expressive phenomenon deserves attention for its sudden appearance, newness and usefulness to public and private organizations. To explain the dynamics of open source projects, this research theoretically identified and empirically analyzed a construct – attractiveness – found crucial to them due to its influence on how they are populated and operate, subsequently impacting the qualities of the software produced and of the support provided. Both attractiveness' causes and consequences were put under scrutiny, as well as its indicators. On the side of the consequences, it was theoretically proposed and empirically tested whether the attractiveness of these projects affects their levels of activeness, efficiency, likelihood of task completion, and time for task completion, though not linearly, as task complexity could moderate the relationships between them. Also, it was argued at the theoretical level that activeness, efficiency, likelihood of task completion, and time for task completion mediate the relationship between attractiveness and software/support quality. On the side of attractiveness' causes, it was proposed and tested that five open software projects' characteristics (license type, intended audience, type of project and project’s life-cycle stage) impact attractiveness directly. Additionally, these projects' characteristics were argued to influence projects' levels of activeness, efficiency, likelihood of task completion, and time for task completion (and so an empirical evaluation of their associations was performed). The empirical tests of all these relationships between constructs were carried out using Structural Equation Modeling with Maximum Likelihood on three samples of over 4,600 projects each, collected from the largest repository of open source software, Sourceforge.net (a repeated cross-sectional approach). The results confirmed the importance of attractiveness, suggesting a direct influence on projects' dynamics, as opposed to the moderated-by-task complexity indirect paths first proposed. Furthermore, all four projects' characteristics studied were found to significantly influence projects' attractiveness, activeness, efficiency, likelihood of task completion, and time for task completion (with the exception of license type and time for task completion). Besides providing a statistical test of these propositions, this study discovered the direction of the influence of each project characteristic on projects' attractiveness, activeness, efficiency, likelihood of task completion and time for task completion. Lastly, conclusions, limitations, and future directions are discussed based on these findings.

As the years go on the struggle to attract the most talented people has gotten increasingly fierce for organisations all over the world. In order to help them win this struggle organisations have developed a tool. This tool is employer branding, which is when an organisation implements marketing strategies to human resource activities. A branch of employer branding which deals specifically with the ability to attract employees is employer attractiveness. Studies on what makes an organisation particularly attractive as an employer has been conducted all over the world, and they have reached different conclusions. There has been speculation that the cultural differences between countries is the underlying cause to these differences in the findings, but not enough research has been conducted in the area to say for certain. The purpose of this thesis is to explain that apparent connection between what makes and employer attractive to someone and that person’s cultural values, as well as seeing if culture has an impact on what someone finds attractive in an employer. The best way of doing so was to conduct a quantitative, explanatory study, where questionnaires were sent to university students in two countries, Sweden and Germany. The questionnaire contained both elements related to employer attractiveness as well as to culture. The data was then analysed using statistical tests such as correlation and regression in order to fulfil the purpose of the study. After the analysis was conducted it was clear that there is a significant connection between employer attractiveness and culture, and that a person’s culture has an impact on what they find attractive in a potential employer. However, not all aspects of employer attractiveness perfectly correspond with all aspects of culture, but enough do to state that a connection and impact does exists. These findings are of value for organisations wanting to better target their strategies of attracting employees. The findings are especially relevant for organisations operating in a multinational environment, where impact of difference between cultures have to be taken into account to an even greater extent.

Submitted by Alessandra Aur Raso (ale.aur@gmail.com) on 2016-11-21T20:15:57Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Alessandra Aur_Thesis Final.docx: 1763157 bytes, checksum: 219624ad39caf6ce0136f07f180bfd6e (MD5) / Rejected by Janete de Oliveira Feitosa (janete.feitosa@fgv.br), reason: FAVOR FAZER NOVA SUBMISSÃO INCLUINDO A FOLHA COM AS ASSINATURAS DA BANCA. CORDIALMENTE, on 2016-12-09T17:43:26Z (GMT) / Submitted by Alessandra Aur Raso (ale.aur@gmail.com) on 2016-12-09T18:01:44Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Alessandra Aur_Thesis Final.pdf: 1929282 bytes, checksum: 67cf9358edfeda3a825fa3fef9a14395 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Janete de Oliveira Feitosa (janete.feitosa@fgv.br) on 2016-12-12T19:13:45Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Alessandra Aur_Thesis Final.pdf: 1929282 bytes, checksum: 67cf9358edfeda3a825fa3fef9a14395 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-22T17:54:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alessandra Aur_Thesis Final.pdf: 1929282 bytes, checksum: 67cf9358edfeda3a825fa3fef9a14395 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-11-10 / In today’s business world everything seems to be somehow linked to globalization, what leads to trading without barriers, developing productions schemes that involves more than one country and one location, capital flows and technology transfer. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has been used in the past decades as one of the main sources of capital to sustain cash flow needs for the globalization process. So how do investors decide where to invest? A number of risk factors are analyzed as part of this decision process, and among them is the level of corruption of the country of inflows destination. This exploratory study , based on quantitative and qualitative analysis, reviewed the relation between FDI inflows and the level of corruption in the host country to develop hypotheses and propositions that lead to complementary research to conclude on how and to which extend the level of corruption of the host country impacts its FDI inflows. In order to narrow down the universe explored, which would be to vast if all possible combinations of home and host countries were to be incorporated, the population used to perform analysis was based on Brazil’s and China’s data being the host country and its main FDI investors as home countries of the FDI inflows. Historical series of the indicators used in the quantitative analysis were obtained for the period from 2005 to 2012.