Page 69 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

Tuba Bingöl, Leila Samii, Tej Dhakar: Co-Communication and Brand Reflection in Higher Education:
Perceptions of Enrollment Intention and Recommending

3.PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY AND SURVEY DESIGN

Objective of this study is to examine the role of social media communications and
branding on university enrollment intentions.
In this study, university created communication (UCC), user generated content
(UGC), brand image (BI) and brand attitude (BA) were tested to determine enrollment
intentions of international students. The model by Schivinski & Dabrowski (2016)
firm created communication, brand equity, user generated content (UGC), brand
attitude predicting purchase decision was extended to university level and enrollment
intention. The survey included following questions;

University enrollment decision: International students are asked questions based on
brand image, brand attitude, university created communication and user generated
content (UGC) to understand the relationship between communications and branding
of social media with university enrollment intentions.

University created communication: Satisfaction and attractiveness of university
social media communications and comparation of social media between university of
respondents and other universities are included for survey questionnaire.

User Generated Content: Performance, satisfaction and attractiveness of the content
of the university, created by other users are evaluated by participants.

Brand Image: Uniqueness, positive and strong image of the brand for university are
analyzed to understand the relationship of brand image and international student
intentions to enroll.

Brand Attitude: Reputation and associating positive characteristics with university
are focused to examine how international student think and feel about university.

4.DATA COLLECTION

Survey questionnaire was sent to around 200 international students through social
media and 145 students completed all questions. Active users of social media sites
were surveyed and observed for this research. Survey questions were taken from
constructs and measurements model for social media effect on brand perception of
consumers. Firm created communication, brand equity and user generated content
(UGC) were replaced with university created communication, brand image and UGC
for higher education institutions in order (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016). Brand
equity was replaced with brand image for institutions since brand image conveys the

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