Role of Academic Performance as an Antecedent of Employability for Business Students in India

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The employability of professional students has been a source of concern in recent years. Several reports have highlighted this gap. The India Skills Report (2021) observes that only about 47% of engineering and management graduates are employable. The concept of employability has significance not only at a macro-level for an economy, but also at a micro-level for an individual, as it is related to a person’s sense of life satisfaction, self-esteem, and general well-being. At the individual level, employability refers to the propensity of students to obtain a job (Harvey, 2001) and hence represents a form of work-specific adaptability (Fugate, Kinicki & Ashforth, 2004) leading to career success. Success in a career, in turn, is also influenced by the broader external factors, such as social, economic, and so on, which may influence a person’s ability to get a job. Keeping the above factors in mind, employability is defined as an individual’s perception of his or her possibilities of getting employment (Bernston & Marklund, 2007). Some of the determinants of employability that have been examined by researchers include perceived skills, experience, network, personal traits, and knowledge of the labour market (Guilbert et al., 2016). A more empirical approach to employability considers the individual, demographic, and psycho-social attributes related to success in securing a job (Boswell et al., 2006; McArdle et al., 2007). McArdle et al. (2007) showed that 42% of the variation in the intensity of job-seeking behaviour is explained by employability. The objective of the study is to examine the antecedents of employability at different levels. The data for the study were randomly drawn from the placement records of postgraduate management students in Bengaluru, India. The study uses the negative binomial model to develop an index for employability, applicable at the individual level, as well as at different levels of grouping. The study contributes to the literature by examining the role of academic performance as an antecedent of employability for business students in India at different levels.

Keywords: Employability, Intensity of Job Search, Negative Binomial Model, Management Students

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