Winning the war for domestic talent in a developing country context: individual and bundled talent attraction practices with MNEs’ signaling of commitment to UN SDGs

Purpose The war to attract domestic talent in a developing country context remains a persistent challenge for multinational enterprises’ (MNEs) foreign subsidiaries. Many have continued to rely on talent attraction practices; however, gaps persist in terms of understanding how individual talent attraction practices, and their bundling relate to domestic talent attraction. Similarly, the role of signaling a firm’s pursuit of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) remains unexplored in relation to domestic talent attraction. Hence, we pursued this line of inquiry guided by signaling theoretical perspective. Design/methodology/approach To test our hypotheses, we conducted two studies in the Philippines, a developing country context (Study 1: online survey study; Study 2: online quasi-experimental study). Findings The results confirmed that while individual, as well as the bundle of, talent attraction practices relate to the attractiveness of foreign subsidiaries among domestic talents, signaling the firm’s pursuit of the UN SDGs further strengthens the attractiveness of foreign subsidiaries for these domestic talents in a developing country context. Originality/value This study provides novel insights and practical implications for MNEs’ foreign subsidiaries operating in a developing country context. Specifically, this study highlights the significance of leveraging individual as well as a bundle of talent attraction practices while simultaneously enhancing employer branding strategy through the pursuit and signaling of UN SDGs.