Development of Dynamic System Approach: A Tool for Determining Effective Factors in the Employer Branding Model in Islamic Azad Universities

In view of the importance of the issue of brand management in higher education on the one hand, and universities’ achievement of success by creating and maintaining competitive advantage and increasing the power of influence among other competitors on the other, this research aims at providing the possibility of employer branding model in Islamic Azad universities designed in a dynamic and flexible way. The present study operationalizes the dynamics of the system as a quantitative and flexible approach in designing and simulating employer branding model in Islamic Azad University, Qazvin.

Based on dynamic system approach, at first, factors such as the identity and image of the employer, in the two existing and desired states as effective factors on the employer branding at the university, are set. After validation through a preliminary study and the obtained data from existing documents, in the academic year of 96-1395, interviews were arranged with university experts who were selected through random sampling, aimed to confirm the dynamic behavior of the model of a number of scenarios. Finally, the behavior of the model in the selected sample has been evaluated and verified.

By implementing the model in a -10year period and considering the initial values of the variables and the relationships among them in the sample, it was found that the university has had a developmental trend in providing a favorable image to their external audience. Using the above simulation model, we can examine the effects of the variables in the sample, in addition to examining the results and implications of the proposed policies.

The results of modeling with the dynamic system approach showed that the system is controllable and observable: that is, system inputs control the state of the system variables, and each state variable affects some of the system outputs, and according to the simulation data, the system is stable.