**4. Conclusions**

The first goal of the present study was to analyse the scientific literature of the last ten years indexed to the two most reputed databases in the scientific arena—WoS and SCOPUS—regarding talent managemen<sup>t</sup> and EB themes, using bibliometric indicators, and content analysis.

This analysis provided a broader understanding that, although the EB process is not clearly structured, some stages can be identified as common [24] and serve as indicators that bring light to the concept according to the most successful companies in practice. Authors sugges<sup>t</sup> that EB is in fact a reformulation of the long-term used notion of 'internal or HR marketing' and still lacks a lot of innovation [16]. On the contrary, though the majority of findings point out that this is a simplistic approach because the concept has become extraordinarily important to organisational success, encompassing the employer brand proposed value and fundamental dimensions to employees' attraction and retention such as affective commitment [4], rewards strategies [70], commitment expectations [26], reputation [68], or employees' development [49].

While exploring the selected articles, we clearly understood the connection between talent managemen<sup>t</sup> and EB; there are studies defending that organisational talents managemen<sup>t</sup> is strongly related to EB perception [70] and that a positive employer brand is essential to attract and retain the best talents, conferring a competitive advantage to organisations [50], considering that HR employees believe in a strong connection between EB and talent strategic managemen<sup>t</sup> [45].

Concerning our second goal—identify EB dimensions explored by the authors—we identified four main EB dimensions among the selected articles: employees' attraction (18 articles), employees' retention (16 articles), simultaneous employees' attraction and retention (17 articles), EB strategies (models, conceptual, analytical frames, 7 articles), and national EB (2 articles). Regarding the latter, the articles surprisingly establish an analogy between organisational EB and the way countries should apply the concept to nations in order to attract a qualified workforce. This shows how attraction and retention of talents have become major EB concerns; talent attraction alone is analysed in approximately onethird of the selected articles, a fact that underlines the notion that this is a tool used by organisations to enhance their attractability in the market; therefore, securing a talent pool grants them a quality of choice at the moment of selection.

The strength of the connection between the keywords analysed with VOSviewer also shows that EB is directly linked with recruitment, and talent managemen<sup>t</sup> is connected with EB through strategy. This strongly reaffirms that EB is a tool included in the broader process of talent managemen<sup>t</sup> regarding the promotion of the EB power of attraction enhancement.

Concerning the last goal of the study—identifying talent managemen<sup>t</sup> dimensions contained within the concept of EB—from the analysis of the talent managemen<sup>t</sup> model present in Figure 1, we conclude that some intra-organisational talent managemen<sup>t</sup> dimensions are always explored by EB, having employee's attraction and retention in mind: recruitment and selection, engagemen<sup>t</sup> and retention, and rewards. We unexpectedly found out that EB is also starting to provoke impact at the macro (extra-organisational) level of the same model due to the creation of national EB. We were able to answer the question that guided this SLR and conclude that talent managemen<sup>t</sup> is much broader than anticipated because of the dimensions that do not concern EB, but on the other hand, EB is a powerful tool to achieve talent managemen<sup>t</sup> goals, as it addresses key dimensions of talent management.

It is in our opinion worth noting, considering the digital revolution we are living in today, that despite more recent years being those that clearly concentrate the largest scientific production in this field of research (70% of the selected articles range from 2016 to 2020), only four articles directly mention digital resources as a privileged mean of disseminating and reinforcing EB strategies. From a certain perspective, this can be interpreted as a gap that prevents the dialogue between organisations and the diverse generations nowadays in the market, some already born in the digital era. Gregorka, Silva, and Silva [24] defend that the EB process and its consequences have not ye<sup>t</sup> been fully studied, despite the common use of the concept in the past 20 years. Many cited authors likewise refer to the need for innovation and larger consistency regarding the concept. Therefore, we conclude that though unquestionably being a major theme, the organisational world still has at present a long road ahead of it to improve the knowledge and definition of EB models and strategies that would enable the organisations to make better use of this tool on their 'war for talent'.

By providing a summary of the most relevant literature of the past decade and exploring its findings, the present study contributes overall to the continued scientific effort of knowledge enhancement in this field of study. The obtained results bear important guidelines to both academics and managers linked to talent management, suggesting new pathways for further investigation to shape the concept of EB more consistently and to clarify which are the truly relevant dimensions to build a positive and distinctive employer brand.

As with any other research, we have encountered limitations, especially concerning the non-compliance of some selected articles with language criteria and, above all, with the fact that many were not directly related with the subject though presenting the defined keywords because they focused on details not relevant for our research.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualisation, I.R. and M.J.S.; methodology, I.R. and M.J.S.; validation, M.J.S. and A.D.; formal analysis, M.J.S. and A.D.; investigation, I.R.; resources, I.R. and M.J.S.; writing—original draft preparation, I.R. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest.
