Is there a bigger and better future for employer branding?:Facing up to innovation, corporate reputations and wicked problems in SHRM

Employer branding is becoming an increasingly important topic for research and practice in multinational enterprises (MNEs) because it plays directly into their corporate reputation, talent management and employee engagement agendas. In this paper, we argue that the potential effects of employer branding have yet to be fully understood because current theory and practice have failed to connect this internal application of marketing and branding to the key reputational and innovation agendas of MNEs, both of which are at the heart of another strategic agenda – effective corporate governance. However, these agendas are characterised by ‘wicked problems’ in MNEs, which have their origins in competing logics in strategic human resource management (SHRM). These problems need to be articulated and understood before they can be addressed. This paer proceeds by (1) setting out a definition and model of employer branding and how it potentially articulates with corporate governance, innovation and organisational reputations, (2) discussing and analysing the ‘wicked problems’ resulting from the sometimes contradictory logics underpinning innovation and corporate reputations and SHRM in MNEs and (3) evaluating the potential of employer branding as a contribution to the third SHRM approach – HR strategy-inaction – as a way of resolving three particularly wicked problems in MNEs. We conclude with some ideas for research and practice on the future for emp

Enterprise Ownership, Market Competition and Manufacturing Priorities in a Sub-Saharan African Emerging Economy: Evidence from Ghana

The economic liberalization policies being implemented by many African economies have led to significant efficiency and performance improvements in the activities of privately owned enterprises. This study examines the effect of the economic liberalization policies on the entrepreneurial development of domestic-owned enterprises. This is done by examining how the type of enterprise ownership (wholly domestic-owned enterprises vs. foreign–domestic joint ventures enterprises), and the increase in competition affect the manufacturing priorities of privately owned enterprises in Ghana. The results show that the enhancement in manufacturing efficiency and quality improvement in privately owned enterprises could be traced to the activities of foreign–domestic joint venture enterprises. However, as market competition increases, wholly domestic-owned enterprises emphasize manufacturing efficiency and quality improvement more that foreign–domestic joint venture enterprises. Implications for policy are discussed. Copyright Springer 2005economic liberalization, foreign–domestic joint ventures, manufacturing priorities, market competition, Ghana, wholly domestic-owned enterprises,