Participating anonymous online student communities and university brand relationship outcomes

Abstract

Besides official social pages of organizations, the anonymous online consumer communities are emerging phenomena. Participating these communities may affect the relationship between consumers and brands. Focusing on the higher education context, where consumers and brands have strong relationship, this work examines the impact of participating “Confessions pages”- the anonymous community on the brand relationship outcomes. Quantitative data were collected from 480 university students in Ho Chi Minh city who have followed Confessions pages. Findings indicate that online interaction propensity in university confessions page and attitude toward confessions page have no relationship with brand relational outcomes while higher education involvement has significant impact on satisfaction and image. The research explores the effect of anonymous online communities on brand and provide suggestions for universities to deal with this emerging phenomenon.

Keywords

• anonymous online communities
• student satisfaction
• university image
• student loyalty
• student trust