Promoting university brand through student co-creation behaviors : the role of online brand posts

Purpose - This study investigates the role of social media brand posts on customer response and whether said impacts foster engagement in brand co-creation behaviors, especially in the higher education sector. The study further explores the moderating role of a university's reputation in strengthening the effects on student response and co-creation behaviors. Design/methodology/approach - The authors conducted this research by using the dual processes of the heuristic-systematic model to understand the effects of brand post‐characteristics on student's responses and behaviors. A dataset obtained from a survey of 755 students was employed to estimate the proposed research model. Findings - The results illustrated two key characteristics of brand posts, namely argument quality (systematic processing) and quantity of posts (heuristic processing), positively affect cognitive and affective responses, thus encouraging students to co-create value for a university brand. Moreover, our study also found that university reputation plays a significant moderating role in strengthening the relationship between recipients' responses and co-creation behavior. Originality/value - Online brand posts not only enable institutions to exchange brand information but also allow students to contribute their own resources to co-create brand value. Thus, the study findings can help brand managers successfully implement co-branding efforts and foster students in the co-creation process.