A Study on Employer Branding from Business Student Perspective

Abstract

Employer branding has emerged as a strategic priority in human resource management, shaping how organizations position themselves in the talent marketplace. While prior research has predominantly examined employer branding from organizational and HR practitioner perspectives, there remains a notable gap in understanding how business students — the primary target segment for most graduate recruitment campaigns — perceive, evaluate, and respond to employer brand stimuli. This research paper investigates employer branding through the lens of MBA and BBA students across institutions in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Maharashtra, offering a demand-side analysis of the factors that influence employer attractiveness. Employing a mixed-methods research design, data were collected through a structured survey administered to 285 business students and supplemented by focused group discussions with 40 participants. Findings reveal that organizational culture, growth opportunities, compensation competitiveness, and brand reputation constitute the four primary determinants of employer attractiveness for business students. Notably, digital presence and social media engagement have emerged as significant influencers of employer brand perception in the post-pandemic talent landscape. A conceptual Employer Brand Attractiveness Index (EBAI) is proposed as a diagnostic tool for organizations seeking to align their talent value propositions with student expectations. The study contributes original empirical insights into employer branding from the perspective of the next generation of business professionals and offers actionable recommendations for corporate recruiters and HR practitioners targeting the campus talent pool.

Introduction

The text examines employer branding and how business students perceive potential employers, focusing on MBA and BBA students in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, India. It highlights that in today’s competitive job market, organizations must go beyond salary to attract talent by building a strong employer brand that reflects culture, values, career growth, and workplace experience.

The study points out that although companies invest heavily in campus recruitment, there is limited understanding of how students actually form opinions about employers and what influences their job application decisions. It introduces the idea of an Employer Brand Attractiveness Index (EBAI) to measure and evaluate employer appeal among students.

The literature review explains that employer branding is based on theories of organizational identity, signaling, and person-organization fit. Research shows that factors like career development, organizational culture, compensation, and symbolic attributes (like prestige and innovation) strongly influence employer attractiveness. It also emphasizes the growing role of digital platforms such as LinkedIn and Glassdoor, especially for Generation Z, who value purpose, flexibility, and social responsibility in employers.

The study uses a mixed-method research design, combining surveys (285 students) and focus groups to analyze employer perceptions. It investigates which employer attributes matter most, how students gather information about companies, and how these perceptions affect job application intentions.

Overall, the research aims to help organizations improve their employer branding strategies and better align with the expectations of business students in regional Indian contexts.

Conclusion

This research contributes original empirical evidence on employer branding perceptions among business students in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, addressing a significant gap in the demand-side employer branding literature. The study establishes that Career Growth and Learning, Organizational Culture and Climate, and Compensation and Security constitute the three most influential dimensions of employer attractiveness for business students, with digital channels — led by LinkedIn — dominating employer brand information-seeking behavior. The proposed Employer Brand Attractiveness Index (EBAI) offers a structured, empirically grounded diagnostic framework that organizations can deploy to benchmark and prioritize employer brand investments relative to student talent expectations. The findings underscore that employer branding is no longer a peripheral HR activity but a strategic necessity for organizations seeking to build competitive talent pipelines in an increasingly crowded graduate recruitment marketplace. Future research should extend this analysis longitudinally to track how employer brand perceptions evolve through the recruitment, selection, and onboarding experience, and explore whether employer brand expectations vary across tier-1 and tier-2 management institution cohorts. The application of conjoint analysis and discrete choice modeling to employer brand attribute trade-offs represents a promising methodological direction for subsequent studies.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Divya Shivaji Dake, Dr. Deepmala Biradar (HALLALE). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.