ABSTRACTDON FINUCANE- DECODING ORGANIZATIONAL SIGNALS: THE INFLUENCE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION AND FAMILY OWNERSHIP SIGNALS IN JOB ADS ON ORGANIZATIONAL ATTRACTIVENESS (under the direction of DR. JUSTIN WEBB) This study investigates how Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) and family firm ownership signals in job advertisements influence perceptions of organizational attractiveness. Anchored in signaling theory and supported by organizational identity theory, this dissertation explores how early-career job seekers interpret EO and family firm cues to evaluate organizational appeal. Using a novel within-subjects experimental design, early-career job seekers comprised of both upper-level undergraduate and graduate students were asked to assess job ads that were systematically manipulated to reflect EO content and ownership structure. The study examined both the individual effects of these signals on perceptions as well as the interactive effects, which are particularly interesting given the contradictory perceptions of family firms as innovative on the one hand, and risk-averse and conservative on the other. The findings indicate that both EO signals and family firm ownership status independently and positively influence perceptions of organizational attractiveness among early-career job seekers. Notably, the findings suggest that the family firm identity serves as a source of competitive advantage rather than a liability, as the hypothesized negative effect of family ownership was not supported. However, the hypothesis that higher EO would moderate the impact of family ownership by mitigating potential stereotypes was not supported, suggesting a parallel processing mechanism, where both signals contribute to organizational attractiveness additively, but neither signal strengthens, weakens or qualifies the effect of the other. The study makes three primary contributions: theoretically it identifies a parallel processing where job seekers evaluate entrepreneurial orientation and family ownership as independent, non-conflicting identity signals; methodologically, it introduces a novel within-subjects experimental design using real-world job advertisements to enhance ecological realism; and practically, it provides a roadmap for recruiters to optimize recruitment messaging targeted at early-career job seekers by leveraging specific salient signals.
