Employer attractiveness in start-ups: Evidence for the instrumental-symbolic framework and the role of protean career orientation

What the paper says

PURPOSE: Employer branding is increasingly critical for start-ups seeking to attract qualified talent under severe resource constraints. While the instrumental–symbolic framework of employer attractiveness is well established in large organizational contexts, its applicability to start-ups remains underexplored. This study examines the transferability of this framework to start-up contexts and investigates whether protean career orientation (PCO) influences perceptions of employer attractiveness. METHODOLOGY: The study employs a scenario-based experimental design with a sample of 551 participants recruited via Prolific. Participants were exposed to fictitious start-up websites in which instrumental attributes (job security and compensation) and symbolic attributes (innovativeness and meaningfulness) were systematically manipulated. Employer attractiveness served as the dependent variable. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze the main and interaction effects of employer attributes and PCO. FINDINGS: The results demonstrate that both instrumental and symbolic attributes significantly increase perceived employer attractiveness in start-up contexts. Protean career orientation was positively associated with employer attractiveness, suggesting that individuals with higher PCO generally evaluate start-ups more favorably as potential employers. However, PCO did not moderate the effects of instrumental or symbolic attributes on employer attractiveness. IMPLICATIONS: The findings support the transferability of the instrumental–symbolic framework to start-up employer branding by highlighting the continued importance of instrumental attributes alongside symbolic signals. The results further suggest that PCO functions as an independent predictor rather than a boundary condition. Practically, start-ups should emphasize credible instrumental employment conditions while complementing them with symbolic cues to enhance attractiveness among diverse career-oriented individuals. ORIGINALITY AND VALUE: This study extends employer branding research by empirically testing the instrumental–symbolic framework in a start-up context and by integrating PCO as an individual-level factor. It contributes to the literature by clarifying how career orientations shape employer evaluations in emerging and resource-constrained organizational settings.