The Impact of Brand Attitude on Chinese Students’ Private University Choice in the Context of Social Media

Research problem: Chinese private universities need help with the problems of homogeneous development and low social recognition, which leads to the long-term disadvantage of private universities in the competition for high-quality students. To address these problems, the current study investigated the main influencing factors of brand attitudes in Chinese private universities. At the same time, the study discussed how to actively use social media tools to enhance the brand marketing capability of private universities. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how brand attitudes affect Chinese students’ decision-making in choice of private universities by exploring the main factors that influence the formation of students’ brand attitudes when they enrol in private universities, and in particular by exploring the role of social media in the formation of brand attitudes. This in turn provides Chinese private universities with practical policy recommendations to enhance their precision marketing, improve the quality of enrolment, and promote the recognition and influence of their brands. Design/methodology/approach: This study mainly uses the research methods of case study and qualitative analysis. 25 individuals from 12 different private universities were selectedto conduct interviews. Within the 25 individuals, there are 12 university managers and 13 first year students. The thematic analysis method was used to discover the main factors influencing brand attitudes and the importance of social media for communicating these factors. Findings: Candidates’ primary considerations for choosing a private university are ‘hardware’ conditions such as location, living conditions, and campus environment; and ‘software’ conditions such as majors, employment rate, and university history. Social media is the most important and influential platform to disseminate these factors. Limitations: This study uses mainly qualitative research, which can only obtain the direction of the influence of a particular factor, but not the size of the influence effect, which makes it difficult to quantitatively rank the degree of leverage of each type of factor more accurately. Originality/value: This study is the first to develop a conceptual model of brand attitudes applicable to the private higher education market in China. It finds that the new habits of the younger generation of consumers, who have been deeply influenced by social media, also play a role in their decision-making process in choosing a university. This study is of great practical significance for quality improvement of China’s higher education, as well as having implications for the development of higher education in other countries.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

dba

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Wang, He

• HF Masnach
• LB2300 Addysg Uwch

Dc Identifier Grantnumber

UWTSD

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.uwtsd.ac.uk:3176