Branding and Isomorphism: The Case of Higher Education

Abstract

Since the New Public Management movement began, public and nonprofit organizations have been adopting and adapting businesslike practices, including branding and marketing. There remains a knowledge gap in understanding why organizational actors choose to allocate resources to adopt branding and marketing policies. This article explores organizational branding initiatives within the context of research extensive (N = 109) higher education institutions in the United States from 2006 to 2013. Seventy‐two universities (66 percent) have introduced branding initiatives since 2006. Findings suggest that the publicness of organizations influences branding and marketing isomorphism in nuanced ways and that organizations are more likely to adopt new branding initiatives to promote higher general performance. Organizations adopt branding strategies in response to national trends and efforts to capitalize on their own strong performance rather than mimicking stronger‐performing peers.

Determinantes de la divulgación de información en las universidades Latinoamericanas para un buen gobierno corporativo

“…La teoría institucional (Dimaggio y Powell, 1983) aborda la influencia de los mecanismos de gobernanza externos, los que inciden en los mandos superiores de transparencia mediante una mayor divulgación de la información en las universidades, entidades acreditadoras, organismos que establecen políticas públicas sobre educación superior y las partes interesadas (Harris, 2013;Fay y Zavattaro, 2016;Fowles et al, 2016;Nurunnabi, 2015).…”

Exploring the link between government funding and efficiency in nonprofit colleges

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Organizational changes towards a European academic field. A case study of frictions in the narratives of Europeanization at a German university from an institutional perspective

“…This mechanism is at play at universities as well (Stensaker and Norgård 2001;Fay and Zavattaro 2016;DiMaggio and Powell 1983). Isomorphic strategies comprise three types.…”