Research Design and Methods

Contingency theory has been used as a framework in a variety of contexts. Empirical results support the theoretical relationship between context variables and segmentation approaches (Cui & Choudhury, 2003; Kleiner, 2008), and the explanatory power is well documented. It has been used to gain insights in a variety of topics in human resources such as communication (Goldhaber, 1993), persuasion (Smith, 1982), knowledge transfer (Birkinshaw, Nobel, & Ridderstrale, 2002), and decision theory (Vroom & Yetton, 1973). It is also in line with the results of other empirical work in human resources (Orlitzky, 2007; Schreyögg, 1995). In these recruitment-related topics, various links between contextual factors and differences in the studied topic were observed. In recent years, the influence of company characteristics on recruitment has increasingly become a topic of interest. Characteristics such as firm knowledge (Cable & Turban, 2001), firm reputation (Turban & Cable, 2003), firm personality (Collins & Han, 2004; Slaughter et al., 2004), and brand/organizational image (Chapman et al., 2005; Collins & Stevens, 2002) have been examined and found to have significant influence on recruitment procedures, techniques, and outcomes.