Inclination to Conspicuous Consumption as on of the Factors, Identifying University Brand Perception among the Applicants of High-profile Moscow Universities

<p>The research aimed at analyzing the factors identifying university brand perception among the applicants of high-profile moscow universities. As potential factors, such socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, as gender, wealth, study progress, parents education and inclination to conspicuous consumption were considered. The relevancy of the paper is supported by the lack of research on the mentioned topic. The paper will help to understand not only the factors identifying university brand perception, but also the degree to which inclination to conspicuous consumption is important in comparison to other factors.</p><p>As empirical object of the study the applicants for places in MSIIR, NRU HSE, FU, SUM, RSHU and MESI were chosen. The list of universities was formed by the author based on the ranking of the high-profile universities. The data was gathered with the help of online questionnaire in universities&rsquo; communities at <a href="http://vk.com">vk.com</a>.</p><p><strong>Main research tasks were:</strong></p><p style="margin-left:53.45pt;">1)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; the revelation of university brand perception among the applicants of high-profile moscow universities;</p><p style="margin-left:53.45pt;">2)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; the measurement of inclination to conspicuous consumption among the applicants;</p><p style="margin-left:53.45pt;">3)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; the examination of the connection between university brand perception and such socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, as gender, wealth, study progress, parents education and inclination to conspicuous consumption among the universities&rsquo; applicants.</p><p><strong>Main findings:</strong></p><p style="margin-left:53.45pt;">1)&nbsp;&nbsp; As a result of cluster analysis it was concluded that applicants of high-profile moscow universities perceive university brand as &laquo;comfortable education&raquo; (53%), &laquo;qualitative education&raquo; (8%), &laquo;object of conspicuous consumption&raquo; (26%) and &laquo;good career perspectives&raquo; (13%).</p><p style="margin-left:53.45pt;">2)&nbsp;&nbsp; As a result of measuring the inclination of applicants to conspicuous consumption with the help of Laykert Scale<strong><em>, </em></strong>it was concluded that among the majority of the respondents have medium inclination to conspicuous consumption&nbsp; and high inclination to cospicuous consumption is distributed.</p><p style="margin-left:53.45pt;">3)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; As a result of application of multinomial logistic regression it was discovered that such factors as gender, parents&rsquo; education and inclination to conspicuous consumption influence on university brand perception. The hypothesis of the higher level of importance of inclination to conspicuous consumptions among the other factors was not confirmed.</p>