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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Allanah Johnston, Professor Andrea Whittle
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Emerald Publishing, 2018.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
The branding of universities is increasingly recognized to present a different set of challenges than in corporate, for-profit sectors. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how faculty make sense of branding in the context of Higher Education, specifically considering branding initiatives in business schools. The paper is based on qualitative interviews with faculty regarding their responses to organizational branding at four business schools. Discourse analysis was used to analyse the interview data. The study reveals varied, fluid and reflexive faculty interpretations of organizational branding. Faculty interviewed in the study adopted a number of stances towards their Schools’ branding efforts. In particular, the study identifies three main faculty responses to branding: endorsement, ambivalence and cynicism. The study contributes by highlighting the ambiguities and ambivalence generated by brand-management initiatives in the higher education context, offering original insights into the multiple ways that faculty exploit, frame and resist attempts to brand their organizations. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for branding in university contexts.
Author(s): Frandsen S, Gotsi M, Johnston A, Whittle A, Frenkel S, Spicer A
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: European Journal of Marketing
Year: 2018
Volume: 52
Issue: 5/6
Pages: 1128-1153
Print publication date: 01/05/2018
Online publication date: 12/02/2018
Acceptance date: 04/01/2018
Date deposited: 03/01/2018
ISSN (print): 0309-0566
ISSN (electronic): 1758-7123
Publisher: Emerald Publishing
URL: https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-11-2016-0628
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-11-2016-0628
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