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Introduction
All organisations strive for sustained competitive advantage in order to attain economic profit and to survive in an increasingly global and competitive marketplace. Human resources (HR) are crucial for competitive advantage, and they often represent the main investment in knowledge intensive firms. In order to be a resource for competitive advantage, the selection of human capital needs to have a high level of competence and willingness to show productive behaviour (Wright et al. , 1994). If an organisation finds and retains qualified employees and combine their talents better than the competitors, they can achieve an advantage (Boxall, 1996).
In large and open competing markets, brand and corporate reputation are crucial for attracting the best employees (Cappelli, 2001). There is a constant war over talent in several industries (Fishman, 1998 in Cable and Turban, 2003). The importance of brand and reputation is well known in the product market, and has recently become salient as well in the labour market including the recruitment process.
Employer branding is an emerging field, which may be used to attract potential employees. Employer branding is grounded in the resource-based view and human resource theory, and focuses on developing the image of organisations as potential employers (Backhaus and Tikoo, 2004). Several different concepts from the field of psychology, such as reputation, attractiveness, image and brand equity (e.g. Collins and Stevens, 2002; Berthon et al. , 2005), are used to describe what job seekers emphasise when they consider applying for a job. Our emphasis related to employer branding is on attractiveness, corporate reputation and attracting potential employees. Reputation can be considered as an intangible and valuable resource in the resource-based view, which could contribute to the achievement of sustainable competitive advantage for the organisation (Barney, 1991, 2002; Dowling, 1994; Hall, 1992; Milgrom and Roberts, 1982; van Riel, 1997, all in Walsh and Beatty, 2007). In addition, use of social media is increasingly used in employer branding campaigns and in the recruiting process. There is a lack of studies focusing on social media within recruiting (Davison et al. , 2011; Madera, 2012; Walker et al. , 2011), and this study investigates the use of social media in relation to corporate reputation and intentions to apply for a job. Taken together, this is...