Employer Attractiveness in Latin America: The Association Among Foreignness, Internationalization and Talent Recruitment

Rapid economic development is provoking a skilled talent shortage in Latin America, causing firms to compete intensely for scarce talent (Manpower Group, 2011). While foreign-headquartered firms may bear a “liability of foreignness” (Zaheer, 1995), the question remains whether this alleged liability extends to attracting workers in the Latin American context. We propose an interactionist model grounded on person–organization fit and marginalization theories. Our model, which distinguishes between foreignness and internationalization, argues that they interact with marginalization variables to impact employer attractiveness. Our multi-level analysis of 76,191 individual evaluations of 80 firms within five Latin American countries supported hypotheses that members of marginalized groups based on gender, education, and income were relatively more attracted to foreign headquartered and more international firms. Our findings contribute to an emerging body of evidence suggesting that the impacts of foreignness and internationalization are not necessarily monolithic across all contexts.