Student Advocacy in Higher Education: The Roles of Institutional DEI, Online Brand Community Engagement, and Service Quality

This study examines how perceived institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion, online brand community engagement, and service quality shape student advocacy in higher education through brand attitude and student-university identification. Drawing on the S-O-R framework and social identity theory, the study develops a model in which institutional signals influence student advocacy through evaluative and identity-based mechanisms. Data were collected from 217 students enrolled at a university in Greece and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The findings show that perceived institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion, online brand community engagement, and service quality all positively influence brand attitude. Perceived institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion and online brand community engagement also positively influence student-university identification, whereas the effect of service quality on student-university identification is not significant. Both brand attitude and student-university identification positively influence student advocacy, with student-university identification emerging as the stronger predictor. In addition, brand attitude mediates the effects of all three institutional signals on student advocacy, whereas student-university identification mediates only the effects of perceived institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion and online brand community engagement. The study highlights the importance of inclusive institutional values and digitally mediated engagement in shaping supportive student behavior in higher education.