The identification-loyalty relationship in a university context of crisis: the moderating role of students and graduates

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyse the relationship between identification and loyalty in a public higher education institution in an institutional crisis context. In addition, the differences regarding the possible moderating effect that two of its main stakeholder categories can have on this relationship are studied, which are students and graduates. The information needed to conduct the empirical analysis was obtained from an online survey. Data processing was carried out using the PLS-SEM technique. The results show that in a context of institutional crisis, identification influences university loyalty positively and significantly. However, the existence of certain differences between the two stakeholder categories considered is detected, with the moderating effect being more intense in the group of students than in the group of graduates. It is a useful contribution as it is one of the first studies in which the proposed relationships are analysed in a context of organizational crisis and, in addition, it is concerned with investigating the possible existence of differences in the moderating role played by two fundamental stakeholder categories. This contribution becomes more significant when comparing the moderating effects by using two non-parametric methods (PLS-MGA and permutations), which compared to other techniques have significant advantages to examine the proposed relationship. Important practical implications arise from the results of this work, which can be particularly useful for managers of the type of organisations analysed.