Corporate sustainable business practices and talent attraction

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to investigate whether organizations can leverage on their sustainable business practices to attract valuable talents to gain competitive advantage over their competitors. Design/methodology/approach: Using factorial design, the authors conducted an experiment to assess the attractiveness of an organization in line with the social identity theory, based on the Bursa Malaysia corporate social responsibility (CSR) framework attributes (including environmental performance, community relation, workplace and marketplace performance). Findings: The findings of the current study supported the notion of social identity theory, as study subjects were attracted more to organizations with high corporate sustainable business (CSB) practices than organizations with low CSB practices. Specifically, findings of the current study revealed that job applicants have a higher intention to join and willingness to accept a job offer from organizations with more sustainable business practices. Research limitations/implications: This study is limited by its sample size and selection, self-reported measures and its cross-sectional nature. Practical implications: Understanding the most preferred attribute of CSB practices will enable organizations to focus their valuable resources rightfully to market their CSR efforts for obtaining higher organizational attractiveness and competitive advantage. Social implications: As many organizations perceive sustainable outcomes to be costly, demonstrating the positive link between CSB practices and organizational attractiveness for talents warrants a win-win paradigm. Originality/value: Talented workforce is essential for differentiating an organization from its competitors. As human resources are mostly unique and non-imitable, it has been recommended as a newly minted strategy to enable organization to achieve sustainable competitive advantages

How environmental awareness and corporate social responsibility practices benefit the enterprise? An empirical study in the context of emerging economy

“…Besides, ethical leadership also ensures that manufacturing processes should not negatively affect environmental sustainability and adopt green practices as possible. Besides, ethical leadership leads to citizenship behaviors (Babalola et al , 2019) and enhances employees' job satisfaction (Magbool et al , 2016; Nejati et al , 2017). CSR's main goal is to balance the firm's social, economic and environmental objectives without compromising the stakeholder expectation and shareholder value.…”

What influences intention to purchase sustainable products? impact of advertising and materialism

“…It is a preferred strategy because organizations have to adapt themselves with the growing concerns/demands of the consumers, and the post-modern society is increasingly worried about the ecology and environmental impacts. The role of environmental advertising is not only limited to disseminating information about the environment-friendly features of the product or service (offered by the firm) but also helps firms to restructure and improve their strategies such as HR practices (hiring, selection, compensation, and performance evaluation), business expansion strategies (market share) and others (Magbool et al, 2016;Baker and Sinkula, 2005).…”

Sustainability and company attractiveness

“…While many factors which could be considered to be related to sustainability have been included in job attraction research, little work specifically looking at sustainability (especially as relates to the TBL) and job attractiveness is seen in literature. In one study that provides insight, Magbool et al (2016) used social identity theory to examine the relationship of factors from the Bursa Malaysia CSR and talent attraction in a Malaysian context. They found that applicants were more likely to join a firm that performed well on sustainability related factors such as environmental performance, community relation, workplace issues and marketplace performance.…”