To Brand or Not to Brand: Linking Organizational Gatekeepers' Awareness of a University Brand and Willingness to Hire its Graduates

Students’ employability is one of the key indicators of university success, and Russian higher education institutions are developing various strategies to help their students and alumni be competitive in the labor market. Nowadays, along with the quality of education provided, universities could utilize branding activities to make their students attractive to the companies, especially to recruiters and hiring managers as the first representatives of potential employers. Previous studies have examined the effects of the elements of the university brand image on the various stakeholders, mainly students. However, there is a lack of information in the field of university branding regarding how gatekeepers — recruiters and hiring managers — perceive the university brand and how their perception affects their decision to hire recent graduates. This study aims to identify the relationship between awareness of hiring managers of a university brand and their willingness to hire its graduates. The role of a university brand image elements and university brand attitude in this relationship is also explored. A survey was carried out among Russian gatekeepers to gather information on their perceptions of a university brand and their desire to hire its graduates based on the well-known Russian higher education institution (HEI). Further, the regression analysis was conducted in R to identify the relationship between university brand awareness and willingness to hire the graduates of the university, with mediating effect of the brand image elements and brand attitude. The contribution of this study includes the development of a concept of university brand image that integrates the concepts of university reputation, prestige, and personality in the employability field and proving its importance for the recruiters and hiring managers. The results of the research suggest that gatekeepers' perceptions of brand and their attitude to HEIs influence their willingness to hire recent graduates. Hence, universities should consider investing in developing their brands, since an established university brand leads to higher graduates' employability, which is an important marker of a university's overall success.