Social brand engagement and brand positioning for higher educational institutions: an empirical study in Sri Lanka

The widespread popularity of social media facilitates many changes in the higher education sector including the branding activities of Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in developing countries. Drawing from the uses and gratifications theory, this paper examines the influence of social brand engagement among prospective students on brand positioning of HEIs taking into consideration brand co-creation, and brand trust as mediators and brand usage experience as a moderator. The quantitative findings from 384 undergraduates from Sri Lanka indicated that undergraduates' social engagement with HEIs via social media develops a distinctive HEI brand positioning among the students. Brand co-creation and brand trust were found to mediate the effect of social brand engagement on brand positioning. In addition, brand usage experience mediates the effect of brand co-creation and brand trust on brand positioning.