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Abstract: In today’s competitive environment, the education institutes have to offer a lot more than ever before.
The prestige of the institutes (especially universities) is heavily dependent on certain factors. A modern day
students’ perception about the university is totally different from those of old times. Students’ expectations have
changed dramatically. In a modern world, for a university to stay in the competition, it is mandatory to know
how to build profitable relationship with students it has & how to keep them loyal enough not only to remain
satisfied themselves but to recommend others that the respective university is the one to be a part of the purpose
of this research article is to help out the management in decision making through analyzing what actually
creates positive brand image of an educational institute by studying the relationship between brand image &
service quality, and the factors that affect brand image such as: tangibility, assurance, reliability,
responsiveness & empathy. Hypotheses were created on the basis of cause & effect relationship. Keeping in
view the fact that research is quantitative, primary data was collected. The questionnaire was prepared based
on likert scale contained multiple close-ended questions. Responses were collected specially from the students,
their parents & teachers of reputed private sector institutes. Responses to Questions were analyzed using
regression analysis on SPSS. Findings revealed that tangibility, assurance & reliability are the key factors of
service quality as they do affect students’ perception and help create positive brand image.
Keywords: Service Quality. Educational Institute, Brand Image, Private Sector Universities
Introduction Background
Overview: Times have changed. The level of Students and their parents have become much more
awareness in people has grown quite magnificently. selective and concerned than observed in past
The choice of what to choose and what not to is decades for the higher education. Universities are
based on their perception. Anything that is not considered and chosen on the basis of what is offered
consistent with their self-image is ignored or they there. The quality of services offered by any
chose substitutes. As far as selection of an educational institute is of the prime significance.
educational institute for higher studies is concerned, Everyone is becoming more brand conscious day by
students are not willing to compromise at all. They day.
want to be a part of such an institute where they get
the best they can in the form of quality education and The reason for being attached or far from
excellent service quality. the brand depends on the perception of consumer for
such brand. The competition has become tougher
Such educational institutes where the than ever for the universities as to stay in the market
factors of service quality are considered and students they have to be on top as far as their promotional
are provided with the timely services when required activities and quality of services offered are
are preferred by most the students. Therefore, it concerned. Investing in Education has its charm as it
should be a matter of greater concern for the always pays you back. The universities and
management of such entities to maintain standards in institutions where service quality is monitored and
improved quality so accordingly it will create better maintained properly and jobs are managed efficiently
perception and „brand image‟ in the minds students have succeed to develop an unmatched positive
for such educational institution [1]. boodle of associations in the minds of the target
market. The Higher Authorities of the educational
institutes should always lay stress on enhancing the
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International Journal of Research Scholars (IJRS) Volume-1, Issue-1, 2017
ISSN 2521-3547,http://www.ijrs.pk
learning ability of students through improve and decisions. Strong policies will be made as a result
advance services to students[1]. and chances to failure will reduce to minimum.
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International Journal of Research Scholars (IJRS) Volume-1, Issue-1, 2017
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industry is growing rapidly and due to the fact it Result shows that the main things that students
plays a fundamental role in the development of consider for the service quality are the study
overall society. material, social interaction, encouragement,
persuasion, recognition and durability and all of
One of the important service sectors in Pakistani these have the positive impact on service quality and
industry is the education sector. Lot depends on it. they also result in increasing students‟ satisfaction.
Great challenges are to be faced. Plenty of hurdles
are to be overcome. In recent times, many In accordance with Caruana service loyalty is
universities, colleges and schools are opened funded gained through the provision of service quality [7].
both by public & private sector in order to meet the The outcomes of the study proved to produce an
ever-rising need for the availability of quality interesting conclusion as it shows that gender and
institutes of education [3]. marital status do not have any impact on the service
loyalty but the educational factor and age group do
Ultimately in the educational institutes what have a significant impact and play a vital role in the
matters the most is students‟ satisfaction. The customer satisfaction for the service loyalty. CHAID
question arises how can we get satisfaction from analysis was used as a tool for analysis in the
them? Well, it can only be done by figuring out what research that shows education and the age factor is
they consider when making a judgment about an the major variable.
institute. It has been noticed that quality of education
is important and so are the facilities provided to the It was identified that if businesses achieve their
students, but nowadays, with all these factors there goal to satisfy customer then they win loyal
are many more such as positive word of mouth, customers as well. However, aims can merely be
promotional activities etc. which can be considered attained through better quality service rendered to
for getting new students‟ attraction as well as their customers. 53 percent of service quality is found as
retention. the major participation for customer satisfaction.
The management of educational sector has a main
Reeves found out a very important conclusion focus on the customer satisfaction and in which they
when they went on to conduct a study [4]. They give service quality as the first preference.
redefined the concept of what quality actually is. The
concept of quality is not as simple as it may seem. It According to Kheng [8] this is a varying era and
is deeply rooted. Beginning from excellence, respondents didn‟t give us importance due to the
moving forward to value, adding conformance and accessibility of self-examines technology [8]. He has
specification all the way through to living up to done his research on the banking sector for the
customers or even exceeding them. Factors such as service quality. He suggests the banking sector to
product & service quality are believed to be very focus on the online services as compare to the
essential & important. interior design of their offices. The use of IT and the
internet banking has decrease the importance of
In accordance with Avdjieva [5] and Barnes [6] in material office and the equipment for the customer
the academic world, students are the ultimate satisfaction.
clienteles. Their retention power and good word of
mouth can bring about success for an educational Reliability has the positive impact on the
institute. New admissions are attracted by old customer loyalty but it adversely influences customer
students. The burning issue in consideration is how satisfaction since human desires are progressive and
the institute can manage giving maximum merely improved quality may satisfy them
satisfaction to students & improving quality of effectively. Findings of the study demonstrate the
services offered to them. relationship between the responsiveness and service
quality is irrelevant but the customer loyalty is
In the research of Ijaz [3] the hypothesis are based always the important factors for the banks to retain
on the positive and negative effect of tangibility, customers and attract respondents to gain return by
reputation, corporation and support, durability the positive word of mouth.
persuasion and the quality of education rendered by
business institutions. This research is based on the Customers who use a picky banking service and
public sector institutions under the list of top 10 they think switching service is a big problem so
schools ranked by higher education commission of banks have to improve their service program to meet
Pakistan. the customers demand because customers are well
educated and well-informed. Loyalty programs are
one of the best tool to retain customers.
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International Journal of Research Scholars (IJRS) Volume-1, Issue-1, 2017
ISSN 2521-3547,http://www.ijrs.pk
The administration department plays a vital role The perceptibility, recognition, durability and
in developing a logical, reasonable and transparent persuasion have the positive impact in the academic
academic environment. The academic department institutions on the student‟s satisfaction. The friendly
should focus on the other activities like the sports and supportive dealings of managerial staff and
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International Journal of Research Scholars (IJRS) Volume-1, Issue-1, 2017
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authorities with students who need their assistance customers are now well informed and have full
play an important role to retain students because concern on how to deliver the services and these all
students want all the extracurricular activities that depends on the customer satisfaction. The
can be managed by the administrative staff. researchers have found that the production process is
more important in the customer‟s satisfaction.
The nature of administrative staff should be
empathy, nobleness and kindness that students Memo wrote an article similar to the topic in
expect from them. Universities challenge the mental question, it compared the quality of services rendered
capabilities of students. In order to balance the by public and private educational institutions and
quality of services rendered and satisfy students‟ found out their variation and intensity [14].
need for food and sports canteens, sports clubs and Moreover, how these differences would help
gymnasiums are built. These places provide businesses to generate profits competitively.
opportunity for physical exercises and games. It
helps in developing informal organizations as well. It Student‟s satisfaction, internal environment and
recreates the students‟ perception and enhances external environment of the institutes, and superior‟s
positive brand image. These all can ease the students feedback are the key important roles in this research
learning environment and also help to improve the article. The Malaysian higher education institutes
name of the college in the academic society and also work hard for the student‟s satisfaction not just to
that increase the new admissions by good word of attract new students but also to hang on to the
mouth. existing.
Another research article is written by the Nilsson Students are very conscious about their future but
under the name of “The effects of satisfaction & when they got the good environment and also the
loyalty on Profits & Growths” [12]. quality education and surroundings from which they
belong they feel the proud and got satisfied about
This research article is based on the quality their career. The social interactions are significant to
practices that if companies work more on the service develop the culture. Strong culture is preferable and
practices they can earn more profit and loyalty. enhances students‟ satisfaction because students are
naturally more social in aboard as compare to the
Services are judged by the price they are offering locals so they feel more satisfied and also made
in because customers are now very price conscious social networks and circles. This research article is
and they think the highly priced product or service also shows that the superior‟s feedback is also play a
has good quality than the low price. Customers think vital role in the student‟s satisfaction.
that the low price or the complimentary service are
very cheap and have no trust level that cannot build Sakhaei based their research on the different
the satisfaction level. aspects of the service quality in banking sector like
durability, performance, feedback, fulfillment,
The result of this research shows that the loyalty safety/confidentiality and design of operations [15].
has no impact on the performance of the firm. The These dimensions in service quality help to increase
customer‟s behavior and their intention give the idea the customer satisfaction.
about how they behave in the future and will they
come back again in the firm or not. Customers not The result of this research shows that the
compulsory spend more amount when they come reliability index impact mainly on the customer
back it‟s basically all depends on how good they got satisfaction but the website design has the smallest
the deal or they are satisfied or they want to visit the impact on the customer satisfaction than the other
company. factors of service quality on customer satisfaction.
Satisfaction and loyalty are not come together so Another article written by Donaldson they
the companies have to work more for the customer‟s emphasize the role of service providers and claimed
satisfaction rather than to get the loyalty. that the quality of services would be consistent with
the motivation and efficiency of service provider
Bo Edvardsson, stated that In manufacturing [16]. The higher the motivation/efficiency of service
organizations the firms has more concert on the provider, the greater the quality of service rendered.
employee‟s development and training and firms are
more process oriented than the customer oriented but Tessema said that there are many factors that
the customers are only interested in the final product directly affect the student‟s satisfaction in but eleven
[13]. Whereas in the service oriented organizations academically related factors are the most important
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International Journal of Research Scholars (IJRS) Volume-1, Issue-1, 2017
ISSN 2521-3547,http://www.ijrs.pk
factors that absolutely have a significant influence on by providing good curricular and non-curricular
the level of satisfaction [17]. Findings of the study activities.
give us planning process to determine the
effectiveness of academic institutes like colleges, The tangible factor of service quality affects the
institutions and different departments and other most on the student‟s satisfaction. Universities need
programs and also the ways to analyzes the problems to work hard and face all challenges in order to
and improve them to get the higher satisfaction level. maintain the standards of quality standards like
update and diversify their curriculum. It needs to be
Conducting, analyzing, storing, and utilizing consistent with all other local competitors‟
satisfaction surveys should be done by universities, institutions as well as to meet international
institutions to get the student‟s satisfaction. The requirements.
result taken by the review should be public to the
relevant colleges and institution‟s offices to take the Saleem carried out a research in order to
improvement decisions. The competition among the investigate the association among quality of service
different universities and institutions are giving stress with customer loyalty, satisfaction and perception
to students to choose a good academic institute for [20]. In their study, the former variable remains
them and also the fees of these institutions. constant while rest of three variables keep changing.
They found positive relation between quality of
The researches of this study conclude that the service and the level of satisfaction. The greater the
satisfaction level of college student is important to quality of service the higher will be the satisfaction
know but not compulsory. The identification of and vice versa. Consequently, satisfied customer
different factors for student satisfaction with respect will stick to the entity to demonstrate their loyalty.
to academic concern is critical to evaluate. Long-term customer retention due to better quality
ultimately influences brand image for potential
The research article which helps me to understand customers. This sequence of association will apply to
the different problems of student‟s satisfaction and every service sector either in hotel, banking or
different factors that determine the satisfaction level education.
is defined by another research article with the name
linking student satisfaction and service quality Research Hypotheses
perceptions: the case of university education [18]. On the basis of above discussion following
hypothesis were developed:
The outcome of the study precise demonstrates
that quality in the minds of students (perceived H1: The association between tangibility of service
quality) is one of the important factors to get the quality and brand image of an educational
consumer or students satisfaction. The path analysis institute is of significant nature.
method shows that the perceived quality has effect H2: The association between assurance of service
on communication behavior. quality tangibility of service quality and
brand image of an educational institute is of
Attitude of students prior to enrolment is also very significant nature.
effective in determination of students‟ satisfaction H3: The association between reliability of service
and perceived brand image. It has been concluded quality and brand image of an educational
that attitude before and after enrollment are not very institute is of significant nature.
different. It is more or less identical. However, H4: The association between
providing the existing and potential students with responsiveness(student‟s feedback) about
quality education has become a prime goal of quality of service on brand image of an
educational institutions come under the scope of educational institute is of significant nature.
Higher Education. H5: The association between empathy of service
quality and brand image of an educational
Asaduzzaman found five major factors that affect institute is of significant nature.
in the ascending order the first one effect the more
instead of the last one [19]. These include material Research Methods
resources, durability, persuasion, recognition and
proactive. Service quality is a trait and cannot be This study is conducted to carry out analysis on
precisely measured. It is a difficult task with respect motive for selecting educational institute for higher
to customer‟s satisfaction but with the help of service studies. Firstly, variables were evaluated which have
providers it becomes easy. The universities are now somewhat effect on selection of institute and
trying to meet the concept of service that is quality secondly the impact of these independent variables
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International Journal of Research Scholars (IJRS) Volume-1, Issue-1, 2017
ISSN 2521-3547,http://www.ijrs.pk
on dependent variable was carried out by applying Questionnaire. The result of a pre-test shown that it
regression analysis as Statistical tool. was difficult for the respondents to understand the
queries as the responses were not consistent for the
Method of Data Collection same variable.
To collect data is a very significant part of On the other hand with the analysis of Reliability
conducting research. In primary research if the data it becomes easier to study the measurement‟s scales
is not collected from the people it is supposed to be, and how they are built up. Individual item‟s
it can give misleading results. Owing to the fact, association and how frequently a particular
great emphasis was given when choosing the method procedure is used all such information is achieved
for data collection. Ultimately, survey was conducted through reliability test.
in which different universities was visited. Data is
gathered through primary source. A questionnaire
with close ended questions was used. The Validity and Reliability test
respondents belong to universities and other
education department.
Sampling Technique
Sample Size
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International Journal of Research Scholars (IJRS) Volume-1, Issue-1, 2017
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Model:
Where:
Results
Hypothesis Assessment Summary
Report Findings and Its Interpretation Table 4:Hypothesis Assessment Summary
When between dependent variable (brand Image)
and five independent variables linear regression
analysis was run on SPSS, the ANOVA was
significant showing that the regression is significant.
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International Journal of Research Scholars (IJRS) Volume-1, Issue-1, 2017
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Policy Implications
All those institutes & universities which are run
by the able management can make most of the study.
By considering the factors mentioned in the study
and by providing what is needed by the students of
the modern times, there can be provided facilities
that can directly influence the brand image
positively. Students, ultimately, are the ones who
play vital role in building or damaging the institute‟s
brand image.
References
Conclusion
1. Palacio, A. B., Meneses, G. D. and
The study concludes that students in the modern Perez, P. J. P. (2002).The configuration
times are much more aware than ever as far as of the university image and its
making the choice of selecting an institute or relationship with the satisfaction of
university for higher education is concerned. Quality students. Journal of Educational
of education offered is essential without any doubt Administration, 40(5), 486-505.
but the factors of service quality are also looked for 2. Jennifer Rowley, (1996) "Retailing
and judged by the potential students. Those institutes and shopping on the
that live up to students‟ expectations are considered Internet", International Journal of Retail
to be the ones to be part of. As a result, the name of & Distribution Management, Vol. 24
the institute becomes a strong brand and manages to Issue: 3, pp.26-37.
create positive brand image. 3. Dr. A. Ijaz, S.M. Irfan,S. Shahbaz, M
Awan, and M. Sabir,( 2011). An
Empirical Model of student satisfaction:
case of Pakistani Public Sector Business
Schools. Journal of Quality
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