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Purpose Drawing from the instrumental and symbolic framework for employer branding, this study aims to explore the perception of the current and potential employees for the Indian armed forces’ employer brand. Design/methodology/approach The study is conducted as a mixed-method approach in the form of qualitative and quantitative phases. In the qualitative phase, online reviews of current employees were collected from glassdoor.com and analysis was conducted. While in the quantitative phase, data were collected through questionnaire from 200 potential candidates who were interested in joining the armed forces.[AQ1] Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for instrument validity and regression analysis, for finding significant factors, were used for data analysis. Findings The qualitative results indicate that the current employee's perception fits the instrumental and symbolic framework. Additionally, variables such as discrimination in positions, risk, stress, confidence and personality development were also identified. The CFA and regression analysis results were found to be significant on the instrumental dimensions – job security and task diversity and symbolic dimensions – competence. Originality/value The study emphasizes the important instrumental and symbolic attributes for both current and potential employees. Thus, the armed forces can use these as a base for strategy formulation regarding employer branding.

Emoji is now a popular inclusion in technology-mediated communication and a part of everyday expression of users. Yet, there is a dearth of scientifically designed research studies focussing on the human implications of the use of emojis. Limited systematic inquiry in this area is restricted to technical studies focussing on algorithm analysis of humongous quantitative data ignoring the people who are posting these emojis. Therefore, in the present study, an attempt is made to study the use of emojis from an individual’s behavioural perspective borrowing from the classic ‘contagion theory’ and the ‘information-signal theory’. A mixed research approach was adopted to study young university student’s emoji usage behaviour. Focus group discussion (FGD) was conducted on 11 participants with an average age of 22.5 years. The discussion was transcribed and thematic analysis was then conducted from which a survey instrument was developed which was administered to 250 university students. These survey data were then analysed using exploratory factor analysis. Results show that social media platforms, linguistic pattern, social relationships, emotional connect and level of formality and gender emerged as important factors that drive emoji usage. The findings of the study indicate the psychological implications and socio-behavioural impact of emoji usage which can be used for creating regulations and norms. What appears to be casual pictorial supplement of textual messages holds the power to be developed as a stand-alone language which could impact the usage of language-dependent communication.

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