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By adopting a Social Exchange Theory (SET) lens, this paper aims to integrate the often-fragmented literature streams of Vocational Behavior (VB), Career Development (CD), and Human Resource Management (HRM) to offer a conceptual model for framing sustainable careers.

A conceptual approach is taken whereby eight propositions are developed to integrate the fragmented literature streams of VB, CD, and HRM.

We posit that external factors and career counseling moderate the positive relationship between employability capital and self-perceived employability. We also argue that self-perceived employability is positively associated with career success and that career crafting moderates this relationship. Finally, we propose that career success is positively associated with a sustainable career, which, in turn, is positively associated with a sustainable organization.

The practical contribution comes from informing VB, CD, and HRM policies and practices to maximize sustainable outcomes for individuals and organizations. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research.

The theoretical contribution comes from integrating the three literature streams to offer a conceptual model as the basis for further interdisciplinary collaborations.

This study aims to explore the impact of engaging in serious leisure (SL) on the well-being (WB) and self-perceived employability (PE) of university students while also considering the role of career adaptability (CA) as a mediator.

A total of 905 domestic undergraduate students from China completed an online survey.

The findings reveal that participation in SL positively influences WB and PE. Additionally, the results indicate that CA mediates the SL-WB relationship but not the SL-PE relationship.

The theoretical contribution of this research comes from advancing our understanding of sustainable career theory through empirical testing of SL, PE, and CA on WB outcomes within a higher education setting. The practical implications of this study involve providing universities with strategies to support domestic Chinese undergraduate students in enhancing their WB and PE through active engagement in SL pursuits and the development of CA. Moreover, our findings serve as a foundation for future research investigating whether insights gained from domestic Chinese undergraduate students can provide solutions on a global scale to address the persistent challenges of improving student WB and PE.

This paper offers a “content analysis of metadata, titles, and abstracts” (CAMTA) method underpinned by a newly evolved metadata, title, abstract, introduction, methodology, results, analysis, and discussion (M-TAIMRAD) Framework.

Draws on innovations of content analysis from the field of health- care to offer a pragmatic and transparent method for conducting rigorous and valid research within the field of business and management.

Replicable and valid guidelines for conducting the CAMTA method are offered, including an illustration. This is followed by a critical examination of the potential applications and benefits of the method to the field of business and management research.

The CAMTA method enables researchers to assimilate and synthesise metadata, titles and abstracts as a means of identifying grounds for future research and theory development. This will help to advance the field and subsequently benefit the wider readership including fellow academics, practitioners and policymakers. The flexibility of the CAMTA method means that it can be used as a stand-alone method or combined as part of a mixed-methods approach.

Drawing on a framework of Job Demands-Resources (JD-R), the purpose of this paper is to conceptually develop and empirically validate a moderated mediation model of serious leisure and workplace well-being.

The data were collected between December 2020 and March 2021 using an online questionnaire. A total of 225 completed questionnaires were received from employees in India who graduated between 2018 and 2020.

The authors’ findings indicate that serious leisure is positively associated with workplace well-being and that the relationship is mediated by self-perceived employability. Stress moderates the relationship between serious leisure and self-perceived employability in such a way that the association is stronger when levels of stress are higher. Stress also moderates the mediating effect of self-perceived employability on the relationship between serious leisure and workplace well-being such that the indirect effect of serious leisure on workplace well-being is stronger when levels of stress are higher.

Theoretical implications come from drawing on leisure studies literature to differentiate casual leisure and serious leisure. The concept of serious leisure is subsequently integrated into the human resource management literature to explore the relationship between serious leisure, self-perceived employability, stress, and workplace well-being. Practical and policy implications suggest how universities and organisations can support their students and early careers talent by encouraging them to participate in serious leisure activities.

Drawing on a theoretical framework of sustainable career ecosystem theory, our paper aims to consider how domestic and international postgraduates can enhance their employability through participation in a landscape of practice.

The study employed an exploratory, longitudinal case study design to capture students' lived experiences on an 18-month Master of Professional Practice course at a higher education institution in New Zealand. The data collection procedure involved field note observations (months 1–4), a focus group (month 13) and narrative frames (months 16–18). The sample was domestic students from New Zealand (n = 2) and international students from Asia (n = 5).

One’s participation in multiple communities of practice represents their landscape of practice and a commitment to lifewide learning. Through participation in various communities of practice, domestic and international students can enhance their employability in three ways: (1) boundary encounters to develop social capital, (2) transcending contexts to enhance cultural capital, and (3) acknowledging the development of psychological capital and career agency.

Our work offers one of the earliest empirical validations of sustainable career ecosystem theory. Expressly, communities of practice represent various contexts whereby employability capital is developed over time. Additionally, the postgraduate students themselves are portrayed as interconnected and interdependent actors, presenting a novel framing of such dependencies at the micro-level of the ecosystem. The practical implications come from informing universities of the value of a landscape of practice to enhance the employability of domestic and international students in preparation for sustainable careers and to promote the sustainability of the career ecosystem.

This article presents the case for creating stronger connections between research on graduate and worker employability. We offer a narrative review of commonalities and differences between these research streams and offer thoughts and suggestions for further integration and mutual learning.

We outline some of the main theories and concepts in the graduate and worker employability domains. Furthermore, we analyze how these show considerable overlap, though they have barely connected with each other yet. We also formulate an agenda for future research that would spur stronger connections between the fields. Finally, we turn to our fellow authors, reviewers, and editors to encourage a more open approach to each other's work that would enable more cross-fertilization of knowledge.

We hope our narrative review, critical analysis and future research suggestions will lead to more collaborations and mutual learning among employability researchers in the educational, career and psychology areas.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how students perceive their future careers and how university has prepared them to enter the global labor market; student perceptions regarding benefits vs associated costs of pursuing higher education (HE) on employability and earnings; and the anticipated barriers and how to overcome these in pursuit of career sustainability within a career ecosystem.

The authors adopted a qualitative method using semi-structured interviews on a small sample of 38 final year students from a UK university who were also participants in an earlier two-wave quantitative survey, which was conducted with 387 penultimate and final year undergraduates from the same UK-based University.

Findings revealed that undergraduates perceive their investment in HE to offer a net financial gain; however, this is narrowing due to increased tuition fees, associated student debt and interest payments eroding earning premiums. As undergraduates progress, they feel more employable from a personal perspective, but less employable from a market perspective due to competition for graduate jobs and the cost/benefit conflict of resources.

The authors provide nine opportunities for enhancing the employability of graduates collaborating with graduate employers, providing a timely contribution to the social, political and economic debate on the funding of HE.

The authors advance career theory via the new perspective of Career Ecosystem Theory by: explaining student career perceptions in terms of how university has prepared them for the global labor market; exploring the perceived costs vs benefits of pursuing HE in relation to employability; suggesting a two-dimensional model of personal and market factors of employability; providing a model of careers advice from employers and universities for supporting students’ careers; and offering policy implications in relation to the future funding of HE and employability of future graduates.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptually articulate the differing needs of graduates and graduate employers, which can be competing or complementary in nature. Drawing from theoretical frameworks of career ecosystems and the new psychological contract, a set of propositions are presented using three themes: career management, development of talent and technological change.

A conceptual design offering a conceptual model through adopting the career ecosystem and new psychological contract as a framework.

These propositions offer a new conceptual model, which provides a practical contribution by articulating sustainability of graduates’ careers through employability at the graduate level and competitive advantage at the employer level.

The paper offers important contributions to theory by connecting career management and vocational career literature through acknowledging shared constructs of life-long learning and sustainable employability for graduates. These two streams are often developed in parallel, thus this paper helps to bridge the gaps in respective research agendas. This paper therefore has the originality of helping to advance the fields of career theory and sustainable human resource management.

Drawing on human capital and sustainable career theory, this paper aims to explore university students' views regarding their self-perceived employability following participation in a mandatory module titled “The Global Marketing Professional”.

Overall, 80 students studying a full-time postgraduate master's degree in international marketing management at a northern Russell Group university participated in a two-wave study by completing a questionnaire during Weeks 1 and 9 of the module in the 2021/2022 academic year. Descriptive statistics, paired samples t-tests and quantitative content analysis were subsequently applied to the data set.

Students' confidence in their self-perceived employability rose from 37.5% to 92.5%. This was supported by the paired samples t-tests’ findings of increases at the item and composite scale levels. The quantitative content analysis found benefits of the module to include increased confidence, interactive classes, skills development, knowledge of the recruitment process, CV development, proactive career ownership, interview guidance and networking. Suggestions for improvement included increasing the amount of lecture time provided, increased accessibility via subtitles and opportunities for real-world experience.

The contribution comes via the advancement of human capital and sustainable career theory by identifying empirically informed strategies for enhancing students' self-perceived employability within the university curriculum. Implications subsequently extend to universities, organisations and national economies.