IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/qualqt/v57y2023i4d10.1007_s11135-022-01475-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

In the name of the University: the choice to promote as a tool to influence decision-making

Author

Listed:
  • Angela Maria D’Uggento

    (University of Bari Aldo Moro Largo Abbazia Santa Scolastica)

  • Luca Petruzzellis

    (University of Bari Aldo Moro)

  • Luigi Piper

    (University of Salento)

  • Antonia Rosa Gurrieri

    (University of Foggia)

Abstract

Choosing the University to attend is an important decision that is made once or twice in a lifetime and has relevant effects for a person’s entire life. In such a process, advice from others, especially current students, is a powerful influencing factor. Therefore, understanding the factors that lead students to become active advocates for their university is strategically important. Social identity theory states that when students choose a university, the image of the institution becomes part of their identity. In case of strong positive identification, the resulting sense of pride enhances their own self-identity and brings positive benefits beyond simply obtaining an education, which are then passed on to everyone. The current study focuses on brand experience and brand reputation and uses a moderated mediation analysis to investigate the mechanisms by which current students can be tools for university choice. Stimulating word-of-mouth (WOM) implies the institution to have and maintain a good reputation and engage students to develop a positive brand experience and pride. This research contributes to the development of a greater strategic awareness of universities’ appeal to better tailor their orientation activities to current or prospective students.

Suggested Citation

  • Angela Maria D’Uggento & Luca Petruzzellis & Luigi Piper & Antonia Rosa Gurrieri, 2023. "In the name of the University: the choice to promote as a tool to influence decision-making," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 3151-3164, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:57:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s11135-022-01475-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s11135-022-01475-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11135-022-01475-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11135-022-01475-w?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. Dhar, Ravi, 1997. "Consumer Preference for a No-Choice Option," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 24(2), pages 215-231, September.
    2. David Finch & Sarah McDonald & Julie Staple, 2013. "Reputational interdependence: an examination of category reputation in higher education," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 34-61, June.
    3. Syed Alwi, Sharifah Faridah & Kitchen, Philip J., 2014. "Projecting corporate brand image and behavioral response in business schools: Cognitive or affective brand attributes?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(11), pages 2324-2336.
    4. Horstschräer, Julia, 2012. "University rankings in action? The importance of rankings and an excellence competition for university choice of high-ability students," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1162-1176.
    5. Sumanjit Dass & Sapna Popli & Abhigyan Sarkar & Juhi Gahlot Sarkar & Muddu Vinay, 2021. "Empirically examining the psychological mechanism of a loved and trusted business school brand," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 23-40, January.
    6. Lea, Stephen E. G. & Webley, Paul, 1997. "Pride in economic psychology," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 18(2-3), pages 323-340, April.
    7. Balaji, M.S. & Roy, Sanjit Kumar & Sadeque, Saalem, 2016. "Antecedents and consequences of university brand identification," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 3023-3032.
    8. Brandi A. Watkins & William J. Gonzenbach, 2013. "Assessing university brand personality through logos: an analysis of the use of academics and athletics in university branding," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 15-33, June.
    9. Bertaccini, Bruno & Bacci, Silvia & Petrucci, Alessandra, 2021. "A graduates ’ satisfaction index for the evaluation of the university overall quality," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    10. Sipilä, Jenni & Herold, Kristiina & Tarkiainen, Anssi & Sundqvist, Sanna, 2017. "The influence of word-of-mouth on attitudinal ambivalence during the higher education decision-making process," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 176-187.
    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. Marelby Amado & Alfredo Guzmán & Fernando Juarez, 2023. "Relationship between perceived value, student experience, and university reputation: structural equation modeling," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, 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. 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.
    2. Balaji, M.S. & Roy, Sanjit Kumar & Sadeque, Saalem, 2016. "Antecedents and consequences of university brand identification," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 3023-3032.
    3. 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.
    4. Arnold Japutra & Keni Keni & Bang Nguyen, 2016. "What’s in a university logo? Building commitment in higher education," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(2), pages 137-152, March.
    5. Martina Ostojić & Mirna Leko Šimić, 2021. "Students’ Perceptions of Public vs. Private Higher Education Institution Brand Value in Croatia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-11, August.
    6. 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.
    7. Parves Sultan & Ho Yin Wong, 2019. "How service quality affects university brand performance, university brand image and behavioural intention: the mediating effects of satisfaction and trust and moderating roles of gender and study mod," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(3), pages 332-347, May.
    8. Rauschnabel, Philipp A. & Krey, Nina & Babin, Barry J. & Ivens, Bjoern S., 2016. "Brand management in higher education: The University Brand Personality Scale," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 3077-3086.
    9. Marta Retamosa & Ángel Millán & Miguel Moital, 2020. "Does the Type of Degree Predict Different Levels of Satisfaction and Loyalty? A Brand Equity Perspective," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(2), pages 57-77, May.
    10. Nagler Matthew G., 2007. "Understanding the Internet's Relevance to Media Ownership Policy: A Model of Too Many Choices," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-28, June.
    11. Amos Schurr & Yaakov Kareev & Judith Avrahami & Ilana Ritov, 2012. "Taking the Broad Perspective: Risky Choices in Repeated Proficiency Tasks," Discussion Paper Series dp621, The Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
    12. Li, Eric A.L., 2014. "Test for the real option in consumer behavior," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 70-83.
    13. Mira Fischer & Patrick Kampkötter, 2017. "Effects of German Universities' Excellence Initiative on Ability Sorting of Students and Perceptions of Educational Quality," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 173(4), pages 662-687, December.
    14. van Putten, Marloes & Lijesen, Mark & Özel, Tanju & Vink, Nancy & Wevers, Harm, 2014. "Valuing the preferences for micro-generation of renewables by househoulds," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 596-604.
    15. Domínguez-Torreiro, Marcos & Soliño, Mario, 2011. "Provided and perceived status quo in choice experiments: Implications for valuing the outputs of multifunctional rural areas," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(12), pages 2523-2531.
    16. Rajagopal, 2008. "Consumer response to seasonal clearance sales: experimental analysis of consumer personality traits in self-service stores," Global Business and Economics Review, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 10(1), pages 68-92.
    17. Sarun Amatyakul & Kawpong Polyorat, 2017. "The Traits of City Personality: A Qualitative Study," International Journal of Business and Economic Affairs (IJBEA), Sana N. Maswadeh, vol. 2(6), pages 356-365.
    18. Peschel, Anne O. & Grebitus, Carola & Steiner, Bodo & Veeman, Michele, 2015. "A Behavioral Approach to Understanding Green Consumerism Using Latent Class Choice Analysis," 143rd Joint EAAE/AAEA Seminar, March 25-27, 2015, Naples, Italy 202727, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. GOOS, Peter & VERMEULEN, Bart & VANDEBROEK, Martina, 2008. "D-optimal conjoint choice designs with no-choice options for a nested logit model," Working Papers 2008020, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    20. Mohammad Rashed Hasan Polas & Ratul Kumar Saha & Mosab I. Tabash, 2022. "How does tourist perception lead to tourist hesitation? Empirical evidence from Bangladesh," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 3659-3686, March.

    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:spr:qualqt:v:57:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s11135-022-01475-w. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.