The Relationship between Image, Legitimacy, and Reputation as a Sustainable Strategy: Students’ Versus Professors’ Perceptions in the Higher Education Sector

Abstract

Higher education institutions operate in a highly competitive sector where attracting resources has become a complicated task. Intangible assets such as image, legitimacy, and reputation have been considered as crucial elements for the survival and success of organizations. Within the literature, authors have highlighted their relevance; however, the differences and relationships between these variables remains unclear. Under these circumstances, the aim of this paper is to measure the relationship between image, legitimacy, and reputation in the Public University as part of a sustainable strategy. This evaluation will be made considering students’ and professors’ perceptions to compare the results because many authors have highlighted the complexity of managing the relationship with these groups and obtaining positive assessments due to their diverse characteristics. To meet this objective, a review on the literature will be carried out, followed by analysis of the results obtained through a survey distribution. To treat the data, PLS-SEM (Partial Least Square) was used, and the corresponding measurement invariance of composite method (MICOM) and multigroup analysis (MGA) was carried out. The results confirm the proposed hypotheses on the relationship between the three variables; however, the moderating effect of the stakeholder group was not confirmed. The findings provide additional empirical evidence on the relationship between the considered variables as well as on considering more than one stakeholder group for the analysis. Managers could apply this information to improve their university´s image, reputation, and legitimacy.