Sustaining Competitive Advantage in Private Universities: A case study of Southern Region of Nigeria
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A limited number of persons can afford the fees of private universities; hence, enrolment
determines survival. The choice of those who can afford the fees depends on the institution's
corporate reputation. In a service-providing organization, the development and sustenance
of a strong brand is seen as the principal function of the Marketing and Corporate Affairs Unit.
This practice relegates the employees of other departments in the drive for competitive
advantage and corporate reputation. The objective of the study is to determine the effect of
Employee-based brand equity (information generation and knowledge dissemination) on
financial performance. The study adopted the quantitative research method, using the
questionnaire as the research instrument. 700 questionnaires (soft and hard copies) were
administered to six private universities’ staff in the nation’s southern region. The randomly
selected respondents returned 594 copies of the questionnaires. The data collected were
analyzed using the Structural Equation Model, specifically the Partial Least Square. The tested
hypotheses revealed that information generation and knowledge dissemination have a
significant effect on financial performance. The findings revealed that the perceived
corporate reputation of the universities by the employees affected their relationship with the
institutions' external customers. The study recommends that the managers of private
universities should educate employees on institution's brand promise and establish a
feedback mechanism that enables employees report their experiences on the field with
external customers. Such feedback should be injected into the decision–making processes and
individual knowledge should be institutionalized.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General)