Social Media Marketing and Customer-Based Brand Equity for Higher Educational Institutions - Case of Vietnam and Sri Lanka

This book examines the extent to which social media marketing influences the customer-based brand equity of higher education institutes. Higher  education  institutions  operate  in  a  strong  competitive  environment  due  to  the homogenous  nature  of  their  services  and  always  look  for  new  marketing  strategies  to  be competitive  in  the  marketplace.  Therefore,  building  customer-based  brand  equity  has  become crucial  for  higher  education  institutions  to  differentiate  themselves  from  others  to  attract prospective  students.  Social  media-based  marketing  facilitated  prospective  students  to communicate and collaborate to gather information relevant to higher education institutions and their respective brand equity. However, many models on customer-based brand equity received limited support in the higher education sector, particularly in emerging Asian countries. As  such,  drawing  from  social  information  processing  theory,  this  book empirically investigates how higher education institutions can develop customer-based brand equity by using social media marketing and subjective norms mediated by brand credibility, taking cross-country comparisons between Sri Lanka and Vietnam. The book goes on to examine the applications and implications of the findings for higher education institutions in developing branding strategies through social media.

Dr.Charitha Harshani Perera is a lecturer at the Faculty of Business and Law, Northumbria University, United Kingdom.  Charitha Harshani Perera has completed her Ph.D. in the School of Business and Management at RMIT University.  Her research interests are branding, and consumer behaviour in digital marketing platforms. Over the years, she has built a broad area of expertise across the marketing discipline. Her research has been published in several journals, and at international conferences.  She is actively engaged in digital marketing and branding activities, and she has already completed several certificate courses in digital marketing to advance her knowledge in the field of marketing. 

Rajkishore Nayak is currently working as an Associate Professor at the Centre of Communication and Design, RMIT University, Vietnam. He completed his  Ph.D.  from the  School of  Fashion and  Textiles,  RMIT  University, Australia. He has around 20 years of experience in teaching and research related to Fashion and Textiles. He is working in collaboration with some universities in Africa, Europe, and Asia. He has more than 150 journal publications, 13 books, 30 book chapters and 25 conference publications. He has received the RMIT excellence in Learning & Teaching 2019 Award, the RMIT Research Excellence Award 2015, RMIT Excellence in Research and Teaching 2012 and the RMIT University Teaching and Research Excellence Award-2012 and RMIT University International Scholarship-  2008. He worked with the School of Fashion and Textiles, RMIT University, Australia, from 2012 to 2016 in teaching and research.

Dr. Long Van Thang Nguyen is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Communication and Design at RMIT University, Vietnam. His research interests are sustainability, health communication, work-integrated learning, and collective empowerment in cyberspace. His research has been published in the Health Communication, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Journal of Strategic Marketing, Australasian Marketing Journal, and a range of global conferences (AMA, Service Frontier, EMAC, ANZMAC). Prior to joining academia, Long spent a decade working in sales and marketing and held a range of senior management roles in several hospitality organizations including the Ascott Limited in Singapore and Saigontourist in Vietnam.