Student Participation Behavior Outside the Classroom: Does Attitude Toward the University Brand Matter?

Research Question This study extends marketing for higher education literature to the Gulf region through a threefold objective. First, the study explores what constitutes students' attitude towards a university brand. Second, it examines the drivers of this attitude. Third, it examines the influence of brand attitude on student participation behavior in the university services provision. Method and Data A questionnaire was developed to explore students' attitude towards the university brand and its key drivers as well as the dimensions of students' participation in the university services provision. Data were collected via an online selfadministered questionnaire from a leading university in Qatar. The final valid sample comprised a total of 379 useable responses, which is considered acceptable for structural equation modeling. The study followed a two-step SEM approach using AMOS. Key Contributions Previous studies in higher education have examined students' attitude towards different dimensions of the university core service (i.e., learning) or other university services. However, very few studies have examined students' attitude towards the university as a brand. Moreover, most customer participation conceptualization has been established in specific services settings other than the higher education domain (e.g., hair salons, restaurants, healthcare facilities, travel, retail). In higher education, a great deal of research has been conducted to explore students' participation and involvement in the learning process. The current study addresses this gap and examines students' participation behavior in university services provision. Finally, as the higher education setting in the Gulf region differs markedly from the Western empirical contexts, in which most branding and customer participation research has been conducted, generalizing the findings of previous studies to the Gulf region is questionable. For example, the Gulf region is classified as a high uncertainty avoidance culture and a collectivist culture. In such a culture, personal bonds and ties are extremely important in everyday life. Thus, in a high-technology-enabled setting, it would be pertinent to examine whether antecedents of students' attitude towards the university brand remain the same across different contexts or if students' relationships with others (e.g., faculty, other students, IT and administrative staff) might potentially affect students' perception and evaluation of the university brand. Summary of Findings The results demonstrate that the three proposed antecedents (i.e., perceived faculty competency, quality of interactions among students and quality of interactions with administrative and IT staff) affect student attitude towards the university brand. Furthermore, the results support the significant relationship between attitude and quality of interactions both with other students and with administrative and IT staff. The results empirically confirm that students favor the university brand more when the administrative staff and IT personnel are accessible and provide reliable support. This favorable evaluation is also enhanced when social interaction, networking and collaboration among students are facilitated. The study results also offer empirical evidence on the relationship between students' attitude towards the university brand and their participation behavior in the university services provision. The results suggest that a favorable evaluation of university brand in students' minds will enhance their propensity to participate actively in university services provision. The favorable evaluation of the university brand is more likely to influence two specific aspects of students' participation behavior in university service provision: information seeking and information sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]