ABSTRACT

Marketing and branding of higher education occupy an important space today in the extremely competitive B-school market. This paper aims to explore the drivers of brand loyalty and advocacy in the context of business school brands. The study examines the connections between brand experience, brand love and brand trust in the context of business schools. A cross-sectional study amongst the students of select business schools in the emerging economy of India was conducted to explore the mechanism through which brand experience can finally lead to the building of a loved as well as trusted business school brand. Data were collected from selected young adult business school students and analyzed using structural equation modeling and Hayes [2017. Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach (2nd ed.). Guilford Publications] process macro to validate the theoretical framework. The findings delineate that brand experience predicts brand trust both directly and through the mediation of brand love, highlighting the mediating effect to be stronger than the direct effect. The research also lends support to the argument that trust in business school brand builds brand loyalty and brand advocacy.

摘要

在当今竞争激烈的商学院市场中，高等教育的营销和品牌化占据了重要的空间。本文旨在探讨商学院品牌背景下品牌忠诚度和宣传的驱动因素。该研究考察了商学院背景下品牌体验、品牌喜爱和品牌信任之间的联系。在印度新兴经济体中选定商学院的学生中进行了一项横断面研究，以探索品牌体验最终导致建立受人喜爱和值得信赖的商学院品牌的机制。数据是从选定的年轻成年商学院学生那里收集的，并使用结构方程模型和 Hayes [2017] 进行分析。中介、调节和条件过程分析简介：基于回归的方法（第 2 版）。Guilford Publications] 过程宏来验证理论框架。研究结果描绘了品牌体验直接和通过品牌爱的中介预测品牌信任，突出中介效应强于直接效应。该研究还支持对商学院品牌的信任建立品牌忠诚度和品牌宣传的论点。