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Keywords
Small- to medium-sized enterprises, Multinationals, Careers, Graduates
Abstract
To promote SME growth, it is essential to attract young, educated minds to work for them. Recent graduates often view employment in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as a "second choice", and prefer to work for multinational corporations (MNCs). This study uses a job attributes model to address the inability of SMEs to attract business graduates. The first part of the study investigates the importance of nine job attributes to graduates in initial job selections, and their perceptions of these attributes offered by SMEs and MNCs. The second part of the study reports that SME employer perceptions of the attractiveness of these attributes are very much different from those of the graduates. Finally, recruitment packages of SMEs and MNCs are compared, and attributes such as job security and long-term career prospects are found to be better in SMEs, thus suggesting that SME owners must communicate more effectively with graduates.
Although small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have always been considered the backbone of the economy and the driving force of economic development, they are often the "second choice" of recent graduates, who prefer to work for multinational corporations (MNCs). To promote SME growth and sustain economic development, it is essential to encourage young, educated minds to create their own businesses and to seek employment in small enterprises (Teo and Poon, 1998). According to a university survey (Graduate Employment Survey, 2001), only around 2 percent of business graduates were self-- employed, and approximately 90 percent sought full-time employment. Thus, the scope of this paper is set to study a common phenomenon of graduates seeking employment rather than starting businesses of their own.
Studies have found that most graduates prefer to work in MNCs rather than in SMEs, as they believe that MNCs offer higher salaries and better career development (Binks, 1996; Ahmadi and Helms, 1997; Scott and Twomey, 1988). Is this belief a myth or reality? Would there be any misconceptions regarding SMEs? Do SME recruiters hold similar perceptions as graduates do? Is there anything that SME recruiters could do to upgrade their image to attract more business graduates? This study will address these important questions, for without insights from graduates and recruiters on...