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First, most existing employability frameworks (e.g., CareerEDGE by Dacre Pool &
Sewell, 2007; dispositional model by Fugate, Kinicki, & Ashforth, 2004) were developed in
Western institutional contexts and may not fully capture the information frictions,
institutional heterogeneity, and rapid structural change characterising emerging
economies such as Vietnam. Second, although human capital theory (Becker, 1964) and
signalling theory (Spence, 1973) provide foundational economic explanations, they do not
incorporate behavioural dimensions such as cognitive biases, present bias,
overconfidence, and self-efficacy beliefs. These behavioural factors increasingly shape
students' investment decisions and career trajectories. Third, few studies have
simultaneously analysed the interplay among knowledge, skills, and attitudes and their
joint contribution to self-perceived employability within an integrated model.
This study addresses these gaps by pursuing four objectives. First, it constructs a
multi-layered conceptual framework for graduate employability in the digital economy by
integrating human capital and signalling theories, employability development models,
and behavioural economics. (ii) Contextualising this framework for Vietnam's emerging
labour market. (iii) Illustrating the framework with pilot survey data from 99 business
students, employing descriptive statistics and exploratory regression. (iv) Deriving policy
and educational implications for human capital development in the digital era.
2. Literature review
2.1. Human capital, signalling, and graduate labour markets
Economic analysis of education has been dominated by two complementary
theories. Human capital theory (Becker, 1964; Mincer, 1974) posits that education
enhances individuals' productive capacities, including their knowledge, skills, and
problem-solving abilities, which are then rewarded in the labour market through higher
wages and better employment prospects. Signalling theory (Spence, 1973) emphasises
that education functions as a screening device, where employers, facing informational
asymmetry, use educational credentials as signals of underlying productive potential.
Holmes (2013) argues that this is a false dichotomy, noting that higher education
develops students' propensity to learn in employment (human capital) and signals this
propensity to employers. Arcidiacono, Bayer, and Hizmo (2010) provide evidence that
college graduation plays a direct role in revealing ability to the labour market, with ability
observed nearly perfectly for college graduates but revealed more gradually for high
school graduates.
In the context of the digital economy, where technological requirements evolve
rapidly, the capacity for continuous learning rather than static knowledge stocks becomes
the most valuable form of human capital. For graduates in emerging economies such as
Vietnam, additional complications arise because information about employer
requirements is often imperfect, the quality of educational institutions varies
substantially, and the signalling value of specific credentials differs across industries and
regions.
2.2. Employability frameworks in the digital economy
The CareerEDGE model (Dacre Pool & Sewell, 2007) identifies five foundational
components: career development learning, experience (work and life), degree subject
knowledge, generic skills, and emotional intelligence. The model posits that reflection on
these experiences, combined with self-efficacy and self-confidence, produces graduate
employability. The model has been widely adopted internationally and revisited in 2020
to confirm its continued relevance. A recent systematic review highlights competence

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