Bridging Employer Brand and New Graduates' Job Application Intentions: A Chain Mediation Model

In a market environment where talent competition is becoming increasingly fierce, attracting talent has become a key issue in enterprise human resource management. Therefore, how enterprises can position themselves as attractive employers in the labor market constitutes a critical strategic issue for ensuring sustainable organizational development and enhancing competitive advantage. "Based on similarity-attraction theory, this study investigated the relationship between employer brands and new graduates' application intentions, as well as the chain mediating effect. We sent a questionnaire survey to new graduates from a university in Shanghai, China and obtained 220 usable responses as data to test our hypotheses. The results show that employer brand is positively related to new graduates' application intentions and that individual-organization fit and employer attractiveness play a chain mediating role in this relationship. These findings can help enterprises improve the application intentions of new graduates. The results found that employer branding has a positive impact on recent graduates' application intentions, person-organization fit, and employer attractiveness. At the same time, person-organization fit also has a positive effect on employer attractiveness. Finally, person-organization fit and employer attractiveness act as a chain mediator. These findings guide companies in enhancing the application intentions of recent graduates, thereby effectively attracting, retaining, and motivating talent.