Relationship between service quality, ICT orientation and facebook usage with university brand image: mediating role of student satisfaction

Recently, branding policies and strategies have shifted from goods to other services, including education. Inculcation in marketing practices, intense competition among universities demands a distinctive brand image to gain competitive advantage. In higher education, brand building echoes more than brand image and leaves knowledge gap for research. Therefore, this study aims to test the relationships of various dimensions of service quality, Information and communication technology (ICT) orientation, and Facebook usage on university brand image and students‟ satisfaction. It further scrutinizes mediating effect of students‟ satisfaction among these variables. This research is driven by the prepositions of organizational image management theory and SERVQUAL model. Subsequently, undergraduate students of four private universities were target population. The study used quantitative research methodology and survey questionnaire method was employed. Data was collected using stratified random sampling and PLS-SEM was used for statistical analysis. In addition, findings revealed that measurement model was found appropriate and acceptable based on satisfactory and sufficient evidence of reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. Furthermore, after an assessment and testing of measurement
and structural model, the results revealed that service quality, ICT orientation and Facebook usage had positive relationships towards university brand image and students‟ satisfaction. Moreover, students‟ satisfaction also significantly mediated the relationship among these variables. While, few relationships were found to be
insignificant due to contextual factors and particular research settings. Conclusively, this study enriches the body of knowledge by integrating university provided services and its impacts on brand image of higher education institutions in Pakistan. It also
provides guidelines to policy makers and other universities regarding building the brand image of their institutions effectively and contributes to marketing communication and branding in higher education context as well.