Understanding internet recruitment via signaling theory and the elaboration likelihood model

•Internet recruitment website effects on organizational attraction were examined.•Website content and design influenced attitudes toward the websites.•Also affected were organizational attitudes and attraction.•Website usability moderated these relationships. A detailed model specifying the linkages between Internet recruitment websites and organizational attraction was examined. Participants (N=581) viewed Fortune 500 company websites and responded to questions about the content and design of these websites and their resulting attitudes, fit perceptions, and organizational attraction. Results showed that recruitment website content and design influence attitudes toward the recruitment websites, organizational attitudes, and subsequently organizational attraction. The moderating effects of person-organization (P-O) and person-job (P-J) fit were examined. Two sets of hypotheses based on signaling theory (Spence, 1973, 1974) and the elaboration likelihood model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1981) were largely supported. Consistent with signaling theory, the amount of job and organizational information on a recruitment website interacted with website usability, such that when less job information was presented, website usability played a greater role in predicting favorable attitudes towards the organization. Consistent with the elaboration likelihood model, when P-J fit was high, website aesthetics were less important in predicting attitudes towards the organization.