Driving brand advocacy in higher education marketing: an integrative perspective on China students studying overseas

This study proposes a model to investigate brand advocacy in the context of higher education marketing. The model examines the impact of social media marketing, instructor behaviour, reputation, and brand personality on engagement and subsequent brand advocacy. Data were collected from a China sample. The study revealed that social media marketing, instructor behaviour, reputation, and brand personality exert a positive impact on student engagement, which subsequently translates into brand advocacy. The moderating role of value congruity and altruism is verified. The findings provide higher education institution administrators with some guidelines to strategize their marketing and branding communication to foster engagement and brand advocacy.