Social media use, University brand personality, attitude and students’ behavioral intentions’ to enroll for postgraduate studies in selected Universities in Kenya

Abstract

There is an increase in interest from scholars and practitioners to understand students’ behavioral intentions and how they make decisions about which university to enroll. This is due to a drop-in number of students enrolling in these institutions of higher learning. The purpose of this study was to examine how social media, brand personality and attitude affects students’ behavioral intentions to enroll in universities for postgraduate studies. Specific objectives were to examine the effect of; social media, brand personality and attitude on students’ behavioral intentions to enroll, to determine the effect of social media on brand personality, the mediating effect of brand personality on the relationship between social media and students’ behavioral intentions, the moderating effect of attitude on the relationship between; social media and brand personality, social media and students’ behavioral intentions, brand personality and students’ behavioral intentions. Finally, the study sought to determine the moderating effect of attitude on the strength of the indirect relationship between social media and students’ behavioral intentions via brand personality. The study was guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior, Technology Acceptance Model and Self Congruity Theory. Positivism research philosophy and explanatory research design were adopted, employing Multistage, simple random and systematic sampling techniques in collecting data from a sample size of 504 undergraduate finalist students in universities located in Western Kenya, using a self-administered questionnaire. Cronbach alpha and factor analysis were applied to test reliability and validity of research instrument, respectively. Hierarchical and multiple regression models using Hayes Process macro were used to analyze data obtained and to test the hypotheses. The study found that; social media (β =.40, p=.00, R2 =.25, ∆R2 =.20), brand personality (β =.25, p=.00, R2 =.31, ∆R2 =.06) and attitude (β =.09, p =.04, R2 =.32, ∆R2 =.006) positively and significantly affects students’ behavioral intentions. In addition, results show that social media directly influences brand personality (β =.36, p =.00, R2 =.22, ∆R2 =.13), brand personality mediates the relationship between social media and students’ behavioral intentions (β =.11, CI=.06, .15), attitude moderates the link between; social media and students’ behavioral intentions (β = -.16, p=.003), R2 =.34 and university brand personality and students’ behavioral intentions (β =.13, p=.007). Finally, attitude was found to moderate the strength of the indirect relationship between social media and students’ behavioral intentions via university brand personality, and the conditional indirect effect is much stronger at higher levels of attitude (β =.11, CI =.06, .18). The study contributes to knowledge by revealing a complimentary mediation and that brand personality mediates the relationship between social media and students’ behavioral intentions. Additional contribution to knowledge is evident in the moderation model of attitude between the variables of the study. Finally, the study brings new insights that attitude moderates the indirect links between social media and students’ behavioral intentions, thus, provides greater predictive power than when testing the direct, mediating, and moderating effects alone. University management and policy makers should therefore develop effective strategies, policies and techniques that attract potential students through unique university brand personality dimensions and social media platforms. This will help students and universities to reach out to one another in an easier and quicker way. The study used quantitative data; future studies may consider using mixed approaches as these may uncover other issues which could affect the behavioral intentions of students to enroll in higher learning institutions in general.