Previous research has treated job seekers’ preference of employment attributes as invariant across labor market conditions. In contrast, drawing on human capital theory and labor market theory, we propose that employment attributes preferred by job seekers vary as a function of expected return on investment (high versus low return on investment) and job environment (job scarcity versus abundance). Using secondary data, we classified premier Indian business schools into one of four quadrants. We then collected primary data from 1010 job seekers about their preferences to examine, heretofore, unexamined research questions. Results reveal that return on investment (ROI) influenced job seekers’ preferences of employment attributes, such as career growth, learning opportunities and job security while job environment impacted job seekers’ preference for compensation. In addition, results indicate that the effect of job environment varies according to ROI, such that the impact of job environment varied more in high versus low ROI condition. We discuss implications for theory and practice and offer suggestions for future research.

先前的研究将求职者对就业属性的偏好视为在劳动力市场条件下保持不变。相比之下，借鉴人力资本理论和劳动力市场理论，我们提出求职者偏好的就业属性随预期投资回报（高与低投资回报）​​和工作环境（工作稀缺与丰富）而变化。使用二手数据，我们将印度主要商学院分为四个象限之一。然后，我们从 1010 名求职者那里收集了有关他们偏好的原始数据，以检查迄今为止未审查的研究问题。结果表明，投资回报率 (ROI) 影响求职者对就业属性的偏好，例如职业发展、学习机会和工作保障，而工作环境影响求职者对薪酬的偏好。此外，结果表明工作环境的影响因投资回报率而异，因此工作环境的影响在高投资回报率和低投资回报率条件下变化更大。我们讨论了对理论和实践的影响，并为未来的研究提供了建议。