Trends in Research on Strategic Communication, Strategic Integrated Communication, Personal Branding and Brand Advocacy in the Context of Higher Education.

Higher education institutions in South Africa find themselves in situations of strategic complexity due to contextual changes in the higher education landscape. One of these challenges is the complexity of stakeholders within the higher education context, specifically students and alumni. In this r...

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Main Authors: Jacobus M. De Villiers, Anette Degenaar, Lynnette Fourie
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Johannesburg 2025-05-01
Series:Communicare
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Online Access:https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/2956
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author Jacobus M. De Villiers
Anette Degenaar
Lynnette Fourie
author_facet Jacobus M. De Villiers
Anette Degenaar
Lynnette Fourie
author_sort Jacobus M. De Villiers
collection DOAJ
description Higher education institutions in South Africa find themselves in situations of strategic complexity due to contextual changes in the higher education landscape. One of these challenges is the complexity of stakeholders within the higher education context, specifically students and alumni. In this regard, students function as internal stakeholders, and once they graduate, they become external stakeholders. Furthermore, due to their connection with a higher education institution, both students and alumni, through their personal brands, can contribute to or diminish strategic communication endeavours by higher education brands. Thus, an integrated communication approach is needed to strategically align student and alumni personal brands with higher education institution brands. Through a systematic literature review, this study explored the integration of relevant concepts to the problem at hand: strategic communication, strategic integrated communication, brand advocacy and personal branding. The conducted review found that these theoretical concepts had limited theoretical overlap with concepts covered in academic articles found on selected academic databases. The absence of interrelatedness between the theoretical foundations and empirical evidence of these concepts highlights the gap in research on the complexity of stakeholders in higher education from a strategic communication perspective. This article adds value to the perspectives on stakeholders in higher education institutions.
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spelling doaj-art-9e4bf2d75a4046e4bdbfbf540e8d83e72025-08-20T03:48:31ZengUniversity of JohannesburgCommunicare0259-00692957-79502025-05-0144110.36615/rjj5g096Trends in Research on Strategic Communication, Strategic Integrated Communication, Personal Branding and Brand Advocacy in the Context of Higher Education.Jacobus M. De Villiers0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7789-117XAnette Degenaar1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2767-5986Lynnette Fourie2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7128-4958North-West UniversityNorth-West UniversityNorth-West University Higher education institutions in South Africa find themselves in situations of strategic complexity due to contextual changes in the higher education landscape. One of these challenges is the complexity of stakeholders within the higher education context, specifically students and alumni. In this regard, students function as internal stakeholders, and once they graduate, they become external stakeholders. Furthermore, due to their connection with a higher education institution, both students and alumni, through their personal brands, can contribute to or diminish strategic communication endeavours by higher education brands. Thus, an integrated communication approach is needed to strategically align student and alumni personal brands with higher education institution brands. Through a systematic literature review, this study explored the integration of relevant concepts to the problem at hand: strategic communication, strategic integrated communication, brand advocacy and personal branding. The conducted review found that these theoretical concepts had limited theoretical overlap with concepts covered in academic articles found on selected academic databases. The absence of interrelatedness between the theoretical foundations and empirical evidence of these concepts highlights the gap in research on the complexity of stakeholders in higher education from a strategic communication perspective. This article adds value to the perspectives on stakeholders in higher education institutions. https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/2956Brand advocacyhigher educationpersonal brandingstrategic communicationstrategic integrated communicationsystematic literature review
spellingShingle Jacobus M. De Villiers
Anette Degenaar
Lynnette Fourie
Trends in Research on Strategic Communication, Strategic Integrated Communication, Personal Branding and Brand Advocacy in the Context of Higher Education.
Communicare
Brand advocacy
higher education
personal branding
strategic communication
strategic integrated communication
systematic literature review
title Trends in Research on Strategic Communication, Strategic Integrated Communication, Personal Branding and Brand Advocacy in the Context of Higher Education.
title_full Trends in Research on Strategic Communication, Strategic Integrated Communication, Personal Branding and Brand Advocacy in the Context of Higher Education.
title_fullStr Trends in Research on Strategic Communication, Strategic Integrated Communication, Personal Branding and Brand Advocacy in the Context of Higher Education.
title_full_unstemmed Trends in Research on Strategic Communication, Strategic Integrated Communication, Personal Branding and Brand Advocacy in the Context of Higher Education.
title_short Trends in Research on Strategic Communication, Strategic Integrated Communication, Personal Branding and Brand Advocacy in the Context of Higher Education.
title_sort trends in research on strategic communication strategic integrated communication personal branding and brand advocacy in the context of higher education
topic Brand advocacy
higher education
personal branding
strategic communication
strategic integrated communication
systematic literature review
url https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/2956
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AT anettedegenaar trendsinresearchonstrategiccommunicationstrategicintegratedcommunicationpersonalbrandingandbrandadvocacyinthecontextofhighereducation
AT lynnettefourie trendsinresearchonstrategiccommunicationstrategicintegratedcommunicationpersonalbrandingandbrandadvocacyinthecontextofhighereducation