Cultivating university brand ambassadorship behaviour among students of higher education institutions in Tanzania

Abstract

The literature emphasizes students as prominent ambassadors representing Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to prospective students and other key stakeholders. The survival and growth of HEIs depend on students as university assets. Therefore, special attention should be invested to investigate how HEIs can engage them to gain preferable benefits, including ambassadorship. However, little is known about the predictors of the university brand ambassadorship behaviour to students of HEIs. This is an attempt to examine how university brand ambassadorship behaviour can be cultivated in students of HEIs. The model was developed and tested using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to 309 students of two colleges of the Higher education sector in Tanzania. The findings show that Internal Market Orientation (IMO) cultivates university brand ambassadorship to students of HEIs. Additionally, university brand knowledge and university brand identification mediate the relationship between IMO and university brand ambassadorship behaviour. The findings suggest that brand ambassadorship behaviour is relationship-based behaviuor, and hence relational investment should be considered a driver of such behavior. Therefore, HEIs should invest in IMO as an internal branding tool to build university brand ambassadorship behaviour to their students.