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This study draws attention to the role of similarly educated parents in their children's university choice. We conceptualise, develop, and empirically test a model that links university choice with parents' intention to recommend the university and university brand preference that stems from their own experiences during the university evaluation stage. Data from 339 parents of prospective university students were collected and analysed using structural equation modelling. The findings reveal that parents' experience with university staff, perception of other parents, and quality of university facilities affect parents' satisfaction. The results suggest that parents satisfied with a university are more likely to recommend that university to their children and prefer the university brand. These two constructs were found to influence university choice for those parents with non-similar education to a university programme. For parents with similar education to a university programme, only parents' university brand preference influences university choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to integrate service marketing and higher education (HE) literature to develop and test a model that links customer participation behaviour with student overall satisfaction that stems from satisfaction with service augmentation elements. It also examines the influence of brand choice attainment on both satisfaction and participation behaviour. Design/Methodology/Approach: Drawing on an empirical survey of 238 international students in UK universities, the model was tested using structural equation modelling. Findings: The findings reveal that not all service augmenters are equally important in creating student satisfaction. Campus life and maintenance augmenters are found to be the crucial elements in generating satisfaction for international students. The results also suggest that satisfied students are more likely to participate actively in co-producing the university services compared to dissatisfied students. The effect of brand choice attainment on participation behaviour is mediated by satisfaction. Practical Implications: University administrations might need to prioritize their efforts to put more emphasis on some elements especially crucial for international students and could embellish or deplete the core of education services. The study provides a fresh perspective on segmenting international students based on their brand choice attainment. A superior university experience should be created, particularly for those who did not get into their preferred university, to overcome the disappointment of not studying at the preferred university. Originality/ Value: By synthesizing diverse concepts from research on services marketing, branding and HE, this paper contributes theoretically by extending the research on customer participation behaviour into the HE domain. It attempts to address a clear gap between how service literature and HE literature look at "service experience". The study captures some missing aspects of the "service" in the HE sector (e.g. augmentation aspects). The study also takes the HE literature one step further by identifying the role of brand choice attainment in both satisfaction and students' participation behaviour.

This study employs thematic content analysis to explore how the content source (brand vs. brands in collaboration with celebrities), content type (informative, social, and entertaining), and content format (videos, links, photos, and text) shape customer engagement on Twitter. It also aims to unpack the user-generated content (UGC) patterns and users' attitudinal and behavioral reactions in response to brand-generated content (BGC). Using 5086 tweets generated by a brand and 4676 brand-related tweets generated by users, the findings demonstrate a significant increase in user engagement with the content generated by brands in collaboration with a celebrity compared to the content generated solely by the brand regardless of the content type. The findings also reveal that social and entertaining content attracts more user engagement than informative content. Users tend to engage more with tweets containing images than tweets containing videos or links. The findings further illustrate that most users' brand-related content is in the 'mention' style, and most users' comments include negative behavior-related content. Our findings provide marketing managers with actionable insights into monitoring and managing brand-related social media content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an empirical investigation of the effects university brand personality and student–university identification have on student participation and citizenship behaviour in the context of higher education. The study employed a self-administered questionnaire to collect data from 433 university students. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results revealed that only the sincerity and lively facets of university brand personality play a vital role in informing student–university identification. Furthermore, when students perceive their university brand to be more sincere, they are more likely to exhibit citizenship behaviour. The study also found that students who identify with their university engage in various forms of participation and citizenship behaviours. University administrators can streamline their marketing and branding communication to emphasise specific brand characteristics in order to improve student identification with the university and student engagement in university-supportive and extra-role behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores what constitutes students' satisfaction with university experience and examines the influence of overall satisfaction with the university experience on students' co-creation behavior-- namely, participation behavior and citizenship behavior. Drawing upon a sample of 379 students and using structural equation modeling, the results suggest that perceived university reputation and perceived faculty competency are the key influential factors in determining students' satisfaction with university experience. The findings also provide empirical support to the direct role student satisfaction plays in enabling student participation and citizenship behavior. The results support the notion that student satisfaction mediates the relationship between the antecedent variables of perceived university reputation and perceived faculty competency, and student citizenship behavior. The findings have implications for universities seeking to compete in a complex market-driven higher education setting.