Dr Osman Sahin
Business and Management Department, Ishik University, Erbil, Iraq
Email: [email protected]
Doi:10.23918/icabep2018p17
(Full Paper)
Abstract
This study investigates the university’s brand image with the aim of explaining the components of the image and effects of the image on students’ university selection and also the study examines the relationships between the different components of the university image. The main objective was to clarify how different private university constructs their image. This research is aimed at finding the importance of brand image for the persuasion of students in the selection of university for higher education. An exploratory method of research is assumed to explore a new dimension. The geographic scope is selected as the Kurdistan region of Iraq where higher education is one of the most important needs for the population to grow intellectually. The study measures the effectiveness of universities stakeholders’ personal factors as well as social ones in brand image building of an academic institution through a conceptual model. The study is deductive research where different concepts are taken to constitute the independent and dependent construct leading to building a new concept. The study is descriptive in nature and for this purpose, both the sources of data were used i.e. the primary source of data and secondary source of data. Firstly the secondary data was used as a literature review to understand the existing theories in North Iraq and around the globe. The purpose solved by the visit of different online libraries published articles available with different online databases and the printed published journals, magazines, newspapers and books. Secondly, the primary data was collected using a structured survey questionnaires. The survey was carried out with a sample of 481 full-time undergraduate students in 3 private universities in Kurdistan Region. The stratified sampling method of probability sampling was used to select the respondent from the whole population, a stratum selected based on a cluster of students, out of which respondents selected randomly. In the questionnaire, different scales of measurement were used such as nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio scales. For collecting interval scale data, a five-point Likert scale from 1 to 5 was used, where “1” accounted for the minimum possible value and “5” for the maximum possible value. Qualitative data interpreted and descriptively presented while quantitative data analyzed using statistical multivariate data analysis techniques, such as T-test, Anova and regressions. SPSS software package was used to analyze the data. Here the study has evidence that the university brand image gets affected by all the aforesaid variables in the case of the private university.
Keywords: Brand image, the brand image of the university, social factors, personal factors.
ISBN 978-0-9962570-9-1
Faculty of Administrative Sciences and Economics
Tishk International University
