The brand identity role and attitude toward donations: an American-Italian comparison in the higher education context

This paper aims to analyse, on the one hand, the effect of brand identity and alumni involvement (alumni support, engagement and commitment) on attitude toward donations in the American and Italian contexts of higher education institutions and, on the other, to examine the relations between alumni involvement and brand identity. A structural equation technique was adopted and tested on two samples of Italian (n=314) and American (n=318) alumni. For both countries, results confirm that brand identity and alumni engagement are the main antecedents of attitude toward donations, and that engagement and commitment are the main predictors of universities’ brand identity. The effect of alumni support and commitment on attitude toward donations is, rather, significant only for the American universities. The work also underlines managerial implications for higher education institutions.