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The purpose of this paper is to highlight the value of university social responsibility (USR) by investigating its impact on student–university identification and student loyalty. It also examines the mediating effect of student–university identification and the moderating effect of the perceived importance of USR. A comparative study is also conducted between students from two diverse cultural backgrounds.

An online questionnaire was administered to students of universities in two different emerging markets economies (Lebanon and Colombia). The collected data were tested by applying descriptive techniques, cluster analysis and partial least square structural equation modeling with multi-group analysis using SmartPLS3.0 software.

The findings revealed that USR affects student loyalty both directly and indirectly through student–university identification.

Assessing the model through a more varied sample population from different cultural backgrounds would entail more universal results and the ability to generalize the causality relationship between USR and student identification and loyalty.

This study is a valuable addition to the scarce literature on USR and its interplay with student–university identification. It presents USR as a vital marketing tool to achieve student identification and loyalty, being key factors that impact student enrollment and retention. It also translates into a competitive advantage for higher education institutions to overcome the fierce competition in the educational market. Additionally, this research can be considered a laboratory for theory testing and theory building due to its unique context and original primary data.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of university identification to explain students’ involvement in extra-role behaviours and turnover intentions. The theoretical model developed, specifies the relationships between university identity and identification and between identification and behavioural patterns.

Data have been collected from a sample of 338 students from an Italian University. Then, they have been analysed adopting linear regression models (multiple when occurs) and a path analysis through structural equations models has been developed. The Sobel test has been used in the analysis to verify the mediator role of variables.

The results show that: the university identity perception of students have significant effect on university identification process; and student-university identification have significant effect on student’s advocacy, that is negatively related to turnover intention.

This paper provides support for the importance of brand management in higher educational context. Institutions would benefit from communicating their identities clearly, coherently and in a persuasive manner, emphasising those aspects of the university’s identity that students and future students will perceive as prestigious and similar to their identities.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which the critical relational variables of university reputation, student trust and student-university identification influence student behaviour towards transnational education partnerships.

Students undertaking British degrees at two transnational partnership locations (Hong Kong, n=203 and Sri Lanka, n=325) completed a quantitative survey questionnaire. A conceptual model was developed and tested using structural equation modelling.

University reputation and student trust were found to be significant predictors of student identification with each partner institution, and student-university identification was a significant predictor of student satisfaction, loyalty and extra-role behaviours towards both the local and foreign educational organisations.

The findings suggest that student relationship management strategies should focus on strengthening the higher education institution’s reputation, and increasing the students’ trust and identification with the institution. Moreover, universities should also assess potential partners for these qualities when entering into transnational education partnerships.

Drawing on theories of social and organisational identification, this is the first study to consider student-university identification as the linchpin between the exogenous constructs of reputation and trust, and the endogenous constructs of student satisfaction, loyalty and extra-role behaviours in both the international education and international business literatures.

The present research builds upon the social identity theory and Balaji et al.’s (2016) research model to investigate student–university identification. The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents of university identification, namely, university brand knowledge, university brand personality and university identity. Furthermore, consequences of university identification, such as advocacy intentions, suggestion for improvements, university affiliation and strength of attachment, are examined.

A quantitative research design was used, collecting data from students in private and government universities in Jordan. Structural equation modeling using SmartPLS 2.0 is employed to test the proposed research hypotheses.

The results revealed that all the antecedents and consequences suggested in the research model have positive significant relationships with university identification in the Jordanian higher education sector.

University identification has been less precisely conceptualized and empirically tested in the higher education context in developing countries. The results improve our understanding of the antecedents and consequences of university identification for students in higher education. In addition, the constructs of university identification and strength of attachment are incorporated in the research conceptual model and have not been tested before.

Universities worldwide struggle to retain students, so it is important to identify the factors that may improve retention levels. The research investigates key factors that have an impact upon student satisfaction and students' staying and supportive intentions. Of particular interest is the extent to which organizational identification and institution reputation influence student satisfaction and behaviors.

A conceptual model was developed and tested using covariance-based structural equation modeling. The data were obtained from a survey of 419 first year full-time undergraduate students in the United Arab Emirates.

Perceived quality of teaching, organizational identification and institution reputation were found to be significant predictors of student satisfaction in our model, with student satisfaction having both direct and mediating influences on students' staying and supportive intentions.

The findings suggest that universities should undertake activities that strengthen student-university identification and institution reputation, as these may strongly influence students' attitudes and behaviors. The paper discusses strategies that institutions may implement to develop and maintain organizational identification among students.

The research highlights that although perceived quality of teaching has an influence on student satisfaction, the influences of organizational identification and institution reputation are stronger.

The purpose of this paper is to integrate branding and higher education literature to conceptualize, develop, and empirically examine a model of university social augmenters’ brand equity.

Drawing on an empirical survey of 401 undergraduate students enrolled in private universities in Egypt, this study model was tested using structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal that university social augmenters’ reputation, coach-to-student interactions, and student-to-student interactions influence students’ satisfaction with social augmenters. The results also suggest that students satisfied with university social augmenters are more likely to exhibit outcomes of brand equity – namely, brand identification, willingness to recommend, and willingness to incur an additional premium cost.

The results offer managerial implications for university administrators in their quest to enrich students’ university experiences and build strong sub-brands within the university setting. University social augmenters are found to have strong brand equity manifestations and may hold the potential to differentiate university brands in an industry dominated by experience and credence.

This research contributes to the extant literature by filling two gaps in university branding literature. First, previous research has never unified separate streams of literature related to augmented services and brand equity. Second, limited conceptual and empirical research on university branding in general and university social augmentation in particular has been conducted in emerging markets, which has resulted in conceptual ambiguity for the key factors constructing students’ university social experiences.

This paper aims to corroborate the importance of university social responsibility (USR) for universities and to establish a rationale for their investment in a strategically implement socially responsible initiatives and programmes and gain returns from such investments. This purpose can be achieved by examining a complex conceptual model connecting USR with many desired student-related outcomes that leverage the university's competitiveness, long sustainability and contribution to the triple bottom line – “people, planet, and profit”.

The authors conducted a cross-country comparative study using quantitative techniques. Their analysis was guided by a holistic conceptual model constructed and experimentally evaluated using obtained primary data. The robustness of the suggested model was evaluated using structural equation modelling with partial least squares.

The findings validate the hypothesized associations and indicate that adopting USR initiatives increases student satisfaction and alumni loyalty through student-university identification, perceived university image, and service quality. In addition, the cross-country analysis finds no variation in the strength of the connections owing to cultural variations, except for the association between service quality and institution image.

Incorporating USR at the centre of university's strategy not only complements its teaching and research goals but also answers the requirements and expectations of stakeholders, increases competitiveness and assures sustainable performance.

This cross-cultural USR study uses a mix of methods to show that, even though USR is important, until now, its importance has been overlooked.

A fuller understanding of the information search behaviour of prospective students in the digital era is one of the keys to success in university recruitment. The purpose of this paper is to investigate students’ university choice factors in relation to the online environment.

In total, 637 samples from 11 private higher education institutions were collected and tested against assumptions before performing statistical analysis including exploratory factor analysis and mean comparison.

The findings revealed that there are some significant differences in gender and academic discipline in the use of the internet to search for university information. In addition, four constructs of university information were identified that are perceived as important by students in their search behaviour: “university reputation”, “eligibility and affordability”, “teaching and learning” and “university tangibility”. The outcomes of this research provide some noteworthy insights which have numerous strategic digital marketing implications.

While most existing studies have explored types of social media apps or online channels that prospective students use, little research has touched on students’ university choice factors in relation to the online environment. Responding to Constantinides and Zinck Stagno (2011) and Hemsley-Brown et al.’s (2016) call, this paper aims to address this research gap by investigating students’ university information search in relation to the online environment.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the lived experiences of the international students using their university’s social media, through a lens of customer engagement (CE) in the services marketing literature.

A case study was conducted in an Australian university. Three semi-structured focus groups with ten international students, along with a preliminary netnographic analysis of the university’s social media account, provided a rich description of the phenomenon in the real-world context.

The results suggest that these students are likely to engage in their university’s social media as part of their acculturation and social identity construction strategy. Their engagement was cognitive and emotional, being influenced by the instrumental value of the social media page, engagement with campus rituals and artefacts, social identity and bonds with other students and perceptions of the page administrator. Furthermore, these students’ engagement influenced their identification with the university and its student community, manifested in a sense of belonging and pride.

The paper contributes to the higher education literature by offering relationship implications of social media CE. Limitations include small sample size and the single institutional context.

The paper informs student communication practice, especially the design of university-initiated social media content and policy.

Universities and faculties today use social media to engage with students outside classrooms. However, little has been known about how international student sojourners view and respond to such initiatives. The paper addresses this gap by offering insight into how they engage with their university on social media and its relationship implications.

This study introduces three variables related to brands that have the potential to enhance university students' advocacy intentions. The research explores how university brand identification, the perceived prestige of the university brand and the social benefits associated with the university brand impact students' advocacy intentions. Additionally, the study examines the moderating role of gender in these relationships.

Cross-sectional surveys of 326 undergraduate students enrolled in a Spanish university, and structural equation modeling was used to test and validate the conceptual model.

The findings from the structural equation modeling indicate that university brand identification, perceived university brand prestige and university brand social benefits significantly influence students' advocacy intentions. Furthermore, the multigroup analysis reveals a gender difference in the factors influencing advocacy intentions. Female students demonstrate significance in all three antecedents, whereas male students only show significance in university brand identification and perceived university brand prestige.

The current study's findings provide several insights for higher education institutions in developing enduring and committed relationships with their students.

This study offers relevant insights into the body of research on university branding, explaining the students' advocacy intentions through the variables of university brand identification, perceived university brand prestige and university brand social benefits. Also, this study is a novelty in introducing empirical evidence for the importance of the moderating role of students' gender.