Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Commerce - Department of Business Administration

JUSTIFICATION: In today{u2019}s world marketplace, higher education institutions facing intense challenges such as increasing competition due to globalization, decreasing financial support from governments, the decline in the university-going population, etc. Thus, higher education institutions are increasingly adopting marketing and branding strategies that have been proved effective in the business domain to overcome those challenges and enhance their competitiveness. Self-identification relationship from the social identity perspective (i.e., Social Identity Theory) has been proposed as a useful strategy to build deep, committed, and enduring relationships with the target of the identification in the organizational settings (where the organization is the target of the identification) and in the marketing context where the brand/company is the target of the identification). However little attention has been paid to investigate the notion of self-identification relationship in the university context.PURPOSE: The general objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive conceptual framework for the cognitive antecedents of university brand identification and its consequences on student{u2019}s attitudes and behaviors toward the university. Precisely, this study aims to investigate the predicting role of university-self similarity, university prestige, university distinctiveness, and university social responsibility on university brand identification directly and indirectly through university brand attractiveness. It also aims to examine the influence of university brand identification on student loyalty directly and indirectly via student satisfaction and student trust. Finally, this study also seeks to study the mediating role of university brand identification in the linkage between university brand attractiveness and student satisfaction, student trust, and student loyalty

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