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What’s in a university logo? Building commitment in higher education

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Abstract

Achieving commitment can be challenging for the service industry, particularly for universities. If these service organizations can align and convey that their identity or image is beneficial toward their stakeholders, commitment is achievable. The present article examines a specific form of brand identity and image, namely brand logo benefit, and establishes that self-congruence is the driver of ‘brand logo benefit’ and that brand logo benefit positively influences commitment. Drawing on the self-concept theory, the study develops and empirically tests a conceptual model using survey data collected from 478 students in Indonesia. The study demonstrates that self-congruence (actual or ideal) affects the perceived brand logo benefit and brand logo benefit positively affects commitment. In addition, brand logo benefit partially mediates the link between self-congruence and commitment. Results indicate that actual self-congruence is a slightly better predictor of brand logo benefit compared with ideal self-congruence. Interestingly, ideal self-congruence is a slightly better predictor of commitment. Discussions and implications are provided.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, Faculty of Economics, Tarumanagara University, Jakarta, 11470, Indonesia

    Arnold Japutra

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  1. Arnold Japutra
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  2. Keni Keni
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  3. Bang Nguyen
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Correspondence to Arnold Japutra.

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Japutra, A., Keni, K. & Nguyen, B. What’s in a university logo? Building commitment in higher education. J Brand Manag 23, 137–152 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2016.1

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