"A great place to work" : A study of how potential employees' perception of CSR affect the attractiveness of the employer brand

The relation between CSR and the attractiveness of the employer brand has been widely researched, however it has, to the best of our knowledge, not incorporated potential employees’ identification into this relation. This study thus adds further knowledge to this research gap. The purpose of this study is to explain how potential employees’ identification affects the relation between CSR and the attractiveness of the employer brand. A deductive research approach is adopted in combination with a positivistic approach. The study has a cross-sectional perspective and a quantitative method is used in form of a self-completion questionnaire. This self-completion questionnaire was distributed in Swedish universities to students within the field of industrial engineering and management, and business administration. The findings of this study show that there is a positive relationship between potential employees’ identification and the attractiveness of the employer brand. In addition, the result indicates that the image of a social responsible employer has some connection to the attractiveness of the employer brand. The limitations are that the study has a small sample, which results in a lack of generalizability outside the context of this study. The implications are that potential employees’ identification is a concept that affects the attractiveness of the employer brand. The original value of this study is that it includes potential employees’ identification into the research of CSR and the attractiveness of the employer brand.