Ruta Chadaseviciute

Ruta has attained a Master of Science degree in International Marketing and Management after studying at ISM University of Management and Economics in Vilnius, Lithuania. Though working in a retail industry for almost 8 years, she has chosen very personal and career-oriented topic about the executives’ personal branding for her master thesis. Personal branding appeared to be extremely popularized but academically under-developed concept that still needed a deeper exploration.

The aim of the research, titled "Personal Branding Attributes Affecting Executives’ Selection for Job Interview in Lithuania", was to identify and evaluate the personal branding attributes affecting executives’ selection for a job interview in Lithuania. Literature review revealed that personal branding process was mainly based on product branding which encompassed brand identity, brand positioning and brand image parts. Research on executive’s personal branding was extremely scarce thus semi-structured in-depth interviews with the executive search professionals (n=10, convenience sampling) were conducted to clarify the relevant personal branding attributes and levels. Then, computer-administered questionnaire based on demonstration of hypothetical executives’ profiles was carried out among the broader sample (n=57, snowball sampling) to evaluate these attributes using an adaptive choice-based conjoint analysis.

Utilities estimation revealed that the highest preference was for 30-40 years old executives, possessing visible achievements at work and being recommended by someone familiar to executive search professionals. Respondents identified feedback about the candidate, his/her age, level of education, achievements at work, and companies, where the candidate worked, as the most important attributes affecting their selection decision. While candidate’s gender, university completed, membership in professional organizations, participation in business events and candidate’s wide spectrum of non-professional interests were the least important. Simulation of three hypothetical executive profiles showed that the addition of personal brand positioning related attributes positively affected the total value of executive’s profile however it did not have a compensatory effect when personal brand identity related attributes were weak.