Frandsen, S. and Gotsi, Manto and Johnston, A. and Whittle, A. and Frenkel, S. and Spicer, A. (2018) Faculty responses to business-school branding: a discursive approach. European Journal of Marketing 52 (5-6), pp. 1128-1153. ISSN 0309-0566.
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Abstract
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.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Business and Law > Birkbeck Business School |
| Research Centres and Institutes: | Innovation Management Research, Birkbeck Centre for |
| Depositing User: | Manto Gotsi |
| Date Deposited: | 09 Sep 2019 12:06 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 17:53 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/28830 |
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