How social media-based brand communities influence the choice intention of higher education institutions: the mediating role of brand attitude

Ousama El-Merabet (), Siham Kinani () and Zouhair El-Merabet ()
Additional contact information
Ousama El-Merabet: Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University
Siham Kinani: Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University
Zouhair El-Merabet: Wsb University

International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, 2025, vol. 22, issue 2, No 10, 465-488

Abstract: Abstract Higher education institutions increasingly need innovative strategies to convert members of their social media-based brand communities into enrolled students. This study manipulates the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991) along with relevant aspects of social media community experiences to offer context-specific insights into how social media-based brand communities influence the intention to select higher education institutions. Data from 401 prospective students were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4 software to test the research hypotheses. According to the study findings, social interaction, homophily experience, subjective norms, and perceived credibility predict brand attitude. However, perceived behavioral control has no significant impact on brand attitude. Furthermore, this study shows that prospective students’ interactions with higher education institutions’ social media-based brand communities do not directly impact their choice intention but rely on brand attitude as a mediator. The study assists higher education administrators in understanding how to cultivate students’ brand attitudes and select effective levers for their social media-based recruitment strategies.

Keywords: Higher education institution; Social media-based brand community; Theory of planned behavior; Choice intention; Social interaction; Homophily experience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12208-025-00434-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:irpnmk:v:22:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s12208-025-00434-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/business/journal/12208

DOI: 10.1007/s12208-025-00434-z

Access Statistics for this article

International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing is currently edited by Helena Maria Alves

More articles in International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing from Springer, International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().