Abstract

Extant literature examines the role of alumni in supporting higher education institutions (HEIs) through donation behavior. However, scant empirical studies examine the influence of alumni in the context of extra-role brand building behaviour in HEIs. This study examines university identification and university social community identification in influencing university brand evangelism when mediated with a sense of belonging. The study collected data from 606 alumni of 15 HEIs in Tanzania and analyzed it using structural equation modelling. The findings reveal that most alumni engage in university brand evangelism when they are highly identified with their university and its entire social community. Furthermore, the findings confirm that a higher level of identification is inadequate to predict and explain university brand evangelism, unless a sense of belonging is included as a mediator. Therefore, HEIs’ management should build social and personal identification to stimulate a sense of belonging, which fuels alumni intent to engage in university brand evangelism.

摘要

现有文献考察了校友在通过捐赠行为支持高等教育机构 (HEIs) 中的作用。然而，很少有实证研究考察校友在高等教育机构中角色外品牌建设行为的影响。本研究考察了大学认同和大学社会社区认同在以归属感为中介时对大学品牌传播的影响。该研究收集了坦桑尼亚 15 所高校的 606 名校友的数据，并使用结构方程模型对其进行了分析。调查结果表明，大多数校友在对大学及其整个社会社区高度认同时都会参与大学品牌宣传。此外，研究结果证实，更高水平的认同不足以预测和解释大学品牌传播，除非归属感作为中介。因此，高校管理层应建立社会认同和个人认同，激发归属感，从而激发校友参与大学品牌传播的意愿。