Relationship between Students and Higher Education Institutions (HEI): Emotional Commitment, Loyalty and Love Brand

Resumo

Currently, education in Brazil is a sector with many competitors, who have bet on the potential growth of the sector in the country given its notorious public educational deficit. In this context, differentiation strategies by Higher Education Institutions (HEI) become necessary in the search for attracting and retaining students. The purpose of this research consisted on investigate the Relationship Quality-Based Student Loyalty model proposed by Hennig-Thurau, Langer and Hansen (2001) in the context of the Brazilian HEI sector adding also a new construct to the previous model that is brand love. To collect empirical evidence, a survey was conducted with 306 students. The research showed the strength of three antecedents in the construction of students' emotional commitment to HEI, namely: social and academic integration, perceived quality and trust. These results also found that brand love is an outcome of student's loyalty to the HEI. Thus, the greater the emotional commitment, the greater the student's loyalty and, consequently, his brand love to the HEI.