ORIGINAL ARTICLE How service quality affects university brand performance, university brand image and behavioural intention: the mediating effects of satisfaction and trust and moderating roles of gender and study mode Parves Sultan 1 • Ho Yin Wong 2 Revised: 24 September 2017 Ó Macmillan Publishers Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract University brand (UniBrand) is a recent concept, and its theoretical modelling is still somewhat inadequate. This paper examines how perceived service quality affects UniBrand performance, UniBrand image and behavioural intention. Using an online student survey, the present study obtained 528 usable responses. The conceptual model was validated using structural equation modelling. The study makes an innovative theoretical contribution by establish- ing a relationship between experience-centric brand per- formance and brand image, and the antecedents and consequences of this link. In addition, student satisfaction and trust were demonstrated to mediate the relationship between perceived service quality, brand performance, brand image and behavioural intention in a higher educa- tion context. However, there were no moderating effects of gender or mode-of-study on the model, confirming that the model is invariant across these variables. Overall, this model suggests the importance of experience-centric ser- vice quality attributes and how they affect university branding strategies for sustained positive intentions. Keywords Service quality Á Satisfaction Á Trust Á Brand performance Á Brand image Á Behavioural intention Introduction ‘Branding’ of universities is a recent marketing tool that aims to attract, engage and retain students and position universities in the competitive higher education environ- ment (Wilson and Elliot 2016; Sultan and Wong 2014). As higher education continues to grow and becomes increas- ingly globalised, increased competition and reduced gov- ernment funds place more significant pressure on institutions to market their courses and programs. There are several reasons why universities need to adopt customer- oriented marketing and branding strategies, including to improve funding through greater numbers of domestic and international students, to cover rising tuition fees and increased promotional costs, and to attract top academics and executives, more donated and research money, media attention and more strategic partners (Nguyen et al. 2016; Hemsley-Brown et al. 2016; Joseph et al. 2012). Univer- sities are social institutions as well, as students not only get an academic degree but also engage themselves in a complex educational and social system (Rutter et al. 2017). For example, graduates from universities contribute to sociopolitical and economic transformations and may become valuable alumnae and component of their respec- tive university brands. Therefore, branding a university brings both economic and social outcomes. Branding involves developing emotional and rational expectations of consumers that differentiate a brand from its competitors (Keller 2002; de Chernatony and McWil- liam 1990). For example, in the domain of higher educa- tion, integrated marketing communications (that is, social media and other advertising avenues) can create brand awareness, image, positioning, reputation and, finally, brand identification, in progressive effect (Foroudi et al. 2017). A university’s brand comprises the institution’s & Parves Sultan p.sultan@cqu.edu.au Ho Yin Wong ho.wong@deakin.edu.au 1 School of Business and Law, Central Queensland University, Office: 4.08, 120 Spencer Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia 2 Department of Marketing, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, VIC, Australia J Brand Manag https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-018-0131-3