IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v69y2016i8p3096-3104.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social media interaction, the university brand and recruitment performance

Author

Listed:
  • Rutter, Richard
  • Roper, Stuart
  • Lettice, Fiona

Abstract

Commentators and academics now refer to Higher Education as a market and the language of the market frames and describes the sector. Considerable competition for students exists in the marketplace as institutions compete for students. Universities are aware of the importance of their reputations, but to what extent are they utilizing branding activity to deal with such competitive threats? Can institutions with lower reputational capital compete for students by increasing their brand presence? This study provides evidence from research into social media related branding activity and considers the impact of this activity, in particular social media interaction and social media validation, on student recruitment. The results demonstrate a positive effect for the use of social media on performance, especially when an institution attracts a large number of Likes on Facebook and Followers on Twitter. A particularly strong and positive effect results when universities use social media interactively.

Suggested Citation

  • Rutter, Richard & Roper, Stuart & Lettice, Fiona, 2016. "Social media interaction, the university brand and recruitment performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 3096-3104.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:69:y:2016:i:8:p:3096-3104
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.01.025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296316000382
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.01.025?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Efthymios Constantinides & Marc C. Zinck Stagno, 2011. "Potential of the social media as instruments of higher education marketing: a segmentation study," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 7-24, March.
    2. Weinberg, Bruce D. & Pehlivan, Ekin, 2011. "Social spending: Managing the social media mix," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 275-282, May.
    3. Rehnuma Ali-Choudhury & Roger Bennett & Sharmila Savani, 2009. "University marketing directors’ views on the components of a university brand," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 6(1), pages 11-33, June.
    4. Hanna, Richard & Rohm, Andrew & Crittenden, Victoria L., 2011. "We're all connected: The power of the social media ecosystem," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 265-273, May.
    5. Chang, Yu-Ting & Yu, Hueiju & Lu, Hsi-Peng, 2015. "Persuasive messages, popularity cohesion, and message diffusion in social media marketing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 777-782.
    6. Kietzmann, Jan H. & Hermkens, Kristopher & McCarthy, Ian P. & Silvestre, Bruno S., 2011. "Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 241-251, May.
    7. Tuškej, Urška & Golob, Urša & Podnar, Klement, 2013. "The role of consumer–brand identification in building brand relationships," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 53-59.
    8. Carlson, Brad D. & Suter, Tracy A. & Brown, Tom J., 2008. "Social versus psychological brand community: The role of psychological sense of brand community," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 284-291, April.
    9. Gyrd-Jones, Richard I. & Kornum, Niels, 2013. "Managing the co-created brand: Value and cultural complementarity in online and offline multi‐stakeholder ecosystems," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(9), pages 1484-1493.
    10. Wynne W. Chin & Barbara L. Marcolin & Peter R. Newsted, 2003. "A Partial Least Squares Latent Variable Modeling Approach for Measuring Interaction Effects: Results from a Monte Carlo Simulation Study and an Electronic-Mail Emotion/Adoption Study," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 189-217, June.
    11. Kim, Angella J. & Ko, Eunju, 2012. "Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An empirical study of luxury fashion brand," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(10), pages 1480-1486.
    12. Lowrie, Anthony, 2007. "Branding higher education: Equivalence and difference in developing identity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(9), pages 990-999, September.
    13. Hemsley-Brown, Jane & Goonawardana, Shivonne, 2007. "Brand harmonization in the international higher education market," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(9), pages 942-948, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nguyen, Phan Dinh & Tran, Lobel Trong Thuy & Baker, John, 2021. "Driving university brand value through social media," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    2. Mary Beth Pinto & Arpan Yagnik, 2017. "Fit for life: A content analysis of fitness tracker brands use of Facebook in social media marketing," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(1), pages 49-67, January.
    3. Gupta, Manjul & Uz, Irem & Esmaeilzadeh, Pouyan & Noboa, Fabrizio & Mahrous, Abeer A. & Kim, Eojina & Miranda, Graça & Tennant, Vanesa M. & Chung, Sean & Azam, Akbar & Peters, Anicia & Iraj, Hamideh &, 2018. "Do cultural norms affect social network behavior inappropriateness? A global study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 10-22.
    4. Shakeel ul Rehman & Rafia Gulzar & Wajeeha Aslam, 2022. "Developing the Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) through Social Media (SM): The Modern Marketing Communication Approach," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, May.
    5. Zobi Khan & Yongzhong Yang & Mohsin Shafi & Ruo Yang, 2019. "Role of Social Media Marketing Activities (SMMAs) in Apparel Brands Customer Response: A Moderated Mediation Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-19, September.
    6. Gill, Seerat Kaur & Dhir, Amandeep & Singh, Gurparkash & Vrontis, Demetris, 2022. "Transformative Quality in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs): Conceptualisation, scale development and validation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 275-286.
    7. El Nemar, Sam & Vrontis, Demetris & Thrassou, Alkis, 2020. "An innovative stakeholder framework for the Student-Choice Decision making process," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 339-353.
    8. Stachowiak-Krzyżan Magda, 2019. "Social Media as a Source of Information About Universities Among Candidates for Studies," Marketing of Scientific and Research Organizations, Sciendo, vol. 34(4), pages 65-88, December.
    9. Motta Joana & Barbosa Maria, 2018. "Social Media as a Marketing Tool for European and North American Universities and Colleges," Journal of Intercultural Management, Sciendo, vol. 10(3), pages 125-154, September.
    10. Imran Bashir Dar & Muhammad Bashir Khan & Abdul Zahid Khan & Bahaudin G. Mujtaba, 2021. "A qualitative analysis of the marketing analytics literature: where would ethical issues and legality rank?," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(3), pages 242-261, September.
    11. Li, Lei & Zhang, Jiayang & An, Xun, 2023. "Using social media for efficient brand marketing: An evaluation of Chinese Universities using Bilibili," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    12. Omar SALEM, 2020. "Social Media Marketing In Higher Education Institutions," SEA - Practical Application of Science, Romanian Foundation for Business Intelligence, Editorial Department, issue 23, pages 191-196, August.
    13. Victoria-Sophie Osburg & Vignesh Yoganathan & Boris Bartikowski & Hongfei Liu & Micha Strack, 2020. "Effects of Ethical Certification and Ethical eWoM on Talent Attraction," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(3), pages 535-548, July.
    14. Snelson-Powell, Annie C. & Grosvold, Johanne & Millington, Andrew I., 2020. "Organizational hypocrisy in business schools with sustainability commitments: The drivers of talk-action inconsistency," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 408-420.
    15. Magdalena Danilet & Claudia Stoian (Bobâlca), 2017. "Using Zmet For Investigating The Role Of Social Media In The Employment Process," Review of Economic and Business Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 19, pages 9-32, June.
    16. Hu, Miao & Chen, Jie & Chen, Qimei & He, Wei, 2020. "It pays off to be authentic: An examination of direct versus indirect brand mentions on social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 19-28.
    17. Elena Gori & Alberto Romolini & Silvia Fissi & Marco Contri, 2020. "Toward the Dissemination of Sustainability Issues through Social Media in the Higher Education Sector: Evidence from an Italian Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-14, June.
    18. Yuan Liu & Tingjie Ma, 2022. "University trademarks: strategies of top Chinese universities," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-18, December.
    19. Barhorst, Jennifer B. & Wilson, Alan & Brooks, Joshua, 2020. "Negative tweets and their impact on likelihood to recommend," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 727-739.
    20. Alejandro Quiroz Flores & Farhana Liza & Husam Quteineh & Barbara Czarnecka, 2021. "Variation in the timing of Covid-19 communication across universities in the UK," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(2), pages 1-25, February.
    21. Hulya Bakirtas & Vildan Gulpinar Demirci, 2022. "A structural evaluation of university identification," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 19(3), pages 507-531, September.
    22. Benedetta Esposito & Maria Rosaria Sessa & Daniela Sica & Ornella Malandrino, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility Engagement through Social Media. Evidence from the University of Salerno," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-15, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Scuotto, Veronica & Del Giudice, Manlio & Peruta, Maria Rosaria della & Tarba, Shlomo, 2017. "The performance implications of leveraging internal innovation through social media networks: An empirical verification of the smart fashion industry," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 184-194.
    2. Zhang, Chu-Bing & Zhang, Zhuo-Ping & Chang, Ying & Li, Tian-Ge & Hou, Ru-Jing, 2022. "Effect of WeChat interaction on brand evaluation: A moderated mediation model of para-social interaction and affiliative tendency," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    3. Mangold, W. Glynn & Smith, Katherine Taken, 2012. "Selling to Millennials with online reviews," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 141-153.
    4. Nicolai Pogrebnyakov, 2017. "A Cost-Based Explanation of Gradual, Regional Internationalization of Multinationals on Social Networking Sites," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 37-64, February.
    5. Dijkmans, Corné & Kerkhof, Peter & Beukeboom, Camiel J., 2015. "A stage to engage: Social media use and corporate reputation," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 58-67.
    6. Balmer, John M.T. & Mahmoud, Rudiana & Chen, Weifeng, 2020. "Impact of multilateral place dimensions on corporate brand attractiveness and identification in higher education: Business school insights," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 628-641.
    7. Arora, Anuja & Bansal, Shivam & Kandpal, Chandrashekhar & Aswani, Reema & Dwivedi, Yogesh, 2019. "Measuring social media influencer index- insights from facebook, Twitter and Instagram," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 86-101.
    8. Kuo, Ying-Feng & Chen, Fei-Lung, 2023. "The effect of interactivity of brands’ marketing activities on Facebook fan pages on continuous participation intentions: An S–O-R framework study," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    9. Paniagua, Jordi & Sapena, Juan, 2014. "Business performance and social media: Love or hate?," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 57(6), pages 719-728.
    10. Torres de Oliveira, Rui & Indulska, Marta & Steen, John & Verreynne, Martie-Louise, 2020. "Towards a framework for innovation in retailing through social media," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    11. Reema Aswani & Arpan Kumar Kar & P. Vigneswara Ilavarasan, 2018. "Detection of Spammers in Twitter marketing: A Hybrid Approach Using Social Media Analytics and Bio Inspired Computing," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 515-530, June.
    12. Ulrika Leijerholt & Galina Biedenbach & Peter Hultén, 2019. "Branding in the public sector: a systematic literature review and directions for future research," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(2), pages 126-140, March.
    13. Bastos, Wilson, 2020. "“Speaking of Purchases”: How Conversational Potential Determines Consumers' Willingness to Exert Effort for Experiential Versus Material Purchases," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-16.
    14. Yuan, Ruizhi & Liu, Martin J. & Luo, Jun & Yen, Dorothy A., 2016. "Reciprocal transfer of brand identity and image associations arising from higher education brand extensions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 3069-3076.
    15. Felix, Reto & Rauschnabel, Philipp A. & Hinsch, Chris, 2017. "Elements of strategic social media marketing: A holistic framework," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 118-126.
    16. Xiuyuan Gong & Matthew K. O. Lee & Zhiying Liu & Xiabing Zheng, 2020. "Examining the Role of Tie Strength in Users’ Continuance Intention of Second-Generation Mobile Instant Messaging Services," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 149-170, February.
    17. Barbara Del Bosco & Maria Cristina Morra & Valerio Veglio, 2017. "Social media and firm performance: The voice of managers in European contexts," MERCATI & COMPETITIVIT?, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2017(4), pages 53-75.
    18. Palmer, Adrian & Koenig-Lewis, Nicole & Asaad, Yousra, 2016. "Brand identification in higher education: A conditional process analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 3033-3040.
    19. Felicitas M. Brech & Uwe Messer & Brian A. Vander Schee & Philipp A. Rauschnabel & Bjoern S. Ivens, 2017. "Engaging fans and the community in social media: interaction with institutions of higher education on Facebook," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 112-130, January.
    20. Bastian Popp & Herbert Woratschek, 2017. "Consumer–brand identification revisited: An integrative framework of brand identification, customer satisfaction, and price image and their role for brand loyalty and word of mouth," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(3), pages 250-270, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:69:y:2016:i:8:p:3096-3104. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.