Validation of Successful Brand Status in Technical and Vocational Universities with Structural Equation Modeling Approach

The success of a brand, particularly in the service sector, has been considered by many researchers. The purpose of this study was to identify the components of a successful brand and to validate the status of a successful brand in higher education. The method of this research was hybrid. The statistical community in the qualitative part included experts of the Technical and Vocational University. 10 people were selected using the snowball sampling method. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Content analysis and open coding method were used to analyze the data. In the quantitative part, the statistical population included the staff of Technical and Vocational University. First 17 experts were selected for analysis and then 67 university staff were selected as a sample by simple random sampling method. In order to analyze the data, the structural equation modeling approach with SmartPLS version 2 was used. Qualitative findings showed that a successful brand consists of the categories of university image, costs and finances, university services and facilities, out-of-university advertising and communication, educational planning and success, and university position. Path analysis findings showed that the factor load of the questions related to each variable was higher than the standard, so the questions could explain the relevant variables well. Statistical t also showed that there was a significant relationship between the questions and the relevant variables. The findings illustrated that the greatest gap between the current and favorable situation was related to the categories of university credibility, university partnership with society, perception of individuals and society of the name of the university and the quality of education.