The impact of university brand identification and eWOM behaviour on students’ psychological well-being: a multi-group analysis among active and passive social media users

ABSTRACT

Encouraging students to share positive online reviews should not be regarded only as a marketing tool. This study aims to examine (i) the relationship between positive online reviews behaviour for university and students’ well-being; and (ii) the impact of eWOM behaviour on students’ psychological well-being among active (those who share and read information) and passive (those who only read information) social media users. An online survey was conducted to examine the interplay of university brand identification, positive eWOM behaviour, and university life satisfaction on students’ psychological well-being. Results found that students who share positive reviews about university on social media tend to have better psychological health. This study also revealed that active social media users benefit more in terms of well-being through sharing positive online reviews about their universities. Implications for theory and practice of social media marketing in the higher education context are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• University brand identification
• social media
• online reviews
• eWOM
• psychological well-being

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daisy Lee

Daisy Lee is a Senior Lecturer and Assistant Programme Director in Marketing at the School of Professional Education and Executive Development, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. She holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in Information Engineering, an MBA, and a DBA (The University of Newcastle, Australia). Her research interests include digital marketing, health communications, and marketing for non-profit organisations. Her publications appear in peer-reviewed journals and top-tier conference proceedings including the International Journal of Educational Management, and American Marketing Association conference proceeding.

Peggy M. L. Ng

Peggy M. L. Ng works as a Senior Lecturer at the School of Professional Education and Executive Development (SPEED), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of British Columbia (UBC). After graduating from UBC, she pursued a Postgraduate Certificate in Professional, Vocational and Higher Education at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and a Master of Business at Curtin University of Technology. She obtained her DBA at Heriot-Watt University in 2014. In 2013 and 2014, she received research grants from FSTE (Federation for Self-Financing Tertiary Education) Small Research Grant Scheme (SRGS). Dr. Ng was also involved in research projects in the area of learning analytics and digital marketing. Her research interests include strategic enrolment management, student competency, digital marketing, knowledge management, and technology management. Her work has been published in academic journals, such as Higher Education, Asia Pacific Education Review and International Journal of Educational Management.

Svetlana Bogomolova

Svetlana Bogomolova is an Associate Professor at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, University of South Australia Business School. Svetlana’s area of expertise covers consumer behaviour and decision-making in relation to healthy and less healthy behaviours. Svetlana’s discoveries have been adopted by industry partners (e.g. national and international commercial and non-for-profit organisations), as well as have been used to inform government policies about protecting consumer interests. Svetlana’s academic contributions have been recognised with a national fellowship by the Australian Research Council, multiple awards for research excellence and community engagement, and numerous publications in leading marketing and health promotion journals.