The Determinants of E-recruitment and its effect on HRM Capabilities and the Firm’s Performance: Evidence from Saudi Arabia Context

Abstract

The study has been conducted to examine the direct and indirect relationship between the determinants of electronic recruitment and firm performance through the mediating role of human resources management capabilities based on the resource based view theory. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between the internal determinants of e-recruitment (technology quality, service quality, and security assurance) and the external determinants (e.g. empowered manager and member team, content of an implementation plan for e-recruitment, HR and IT collaboration in e-recruitment, job seeker trust in e-recruitment, organizational reputation, decentralization of selection decision, and government objectives) on e-recruitment, and the effect of e-recruitment on HR capability and firm performance. This study adopted a positivist philosophy. A deduction approach and quantitative method were also suitable for this study. A questionnaire was delivered to some companies in Saudi Arabia. A total of 500 questionnaires were sent, but only 418 were received; for 84.0 percent response rates. This study used PLS to test the research hypotheses. The measurement model has confirmed that the measure indicates accepted reliability and validity. Based on the research results, most hypotheses are accepted. This means that the e-recruitment play a crucial role in improving firm performance. The findings of this study support the argument that e-recruitment plays an important role in improving firm performance. Therefore, firms that use e-recruitment to attract new job seekers will improve their performance. These findings extend prior literature by showing, for the first time, how e-recruitment and HR capability influence firm performance. This study has confirmed that e-recruitment has a positive and significant effect on firm performance. These variables account for 43% and 78% of the variety in HR capability and firm performance, respectively, whereas 57% and 22% are related to other variables. This finding is consistent with the argument that if firm use e-recruitment, they are more likely to improve firm performance. Moreover, high HR capability enhances firm performance. Our study moves beyond previous studies that focus on e-recruitment by correlating e recruitment with HR capability and firm performance. This study contributes by arguing that e-recruitment and HR capability has a positive relation towards firm performance, which conforms to previous studies in similar areas. Apart from the re-examination of resource-based theory in the online recruitment context, our study attempts to make some other fundamental contributions in understanding e-recruitment in the Saudi Arabia context. However, given that this is the first known test of resource-based theory in the Internet recruiting domain, we recommend that future research be done to conduct additional tests of this theory. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications in that the results have provided empirical evidence on the indirect impact of e-recruitment on firm performance and can serve as an indication in practice for firms in understanding e-recruitment and its effects on firm performance. The current study would help professionals in the field of HR to enhance their awareness of the critical role that recruiting highly skilled applicants may play in terms of sustainable competitive advantage and firm performance.