Several limitations constrain the generalizability of the findings and provide opportunities for further research. First, the sample only included employees seeking a new job or a career change. Whilst this is appropriate for testing our framework as it aims to explain the role of employer branding in recruitment markets and the impact of employee-based brand equity on the ability of the firm to attract scarce human resources, both theory and our qualitative interviews highlight the relationship between employer branding and employee retention.Psychological contract theory may provide insights into how mutual expectations between the prospective employer and the potential employee develop, and how employer brand signals may influence the human capital life cycle, both pre- and post-recruitment. Further research should therefore explore the role of the employer brand in employee retention and its possible
implications for customer attraction, satisfaction and retention (see for example Cardy, Miller and Ellis 2007). Further empirical research is needed to explore and quantify the relationships between the concepts in the nomological framework presented in our modified conceptual model.