Assesment of indicators building corporate reputation at higher education institutions

Straipsnyje nagrinėjamas aukštųjų mokyklų korporatyvinės reputacijos formavimas. Suformulavus aukštųjų mokyklų korporatyvinės reputacijos sampratą, atskleidžiama korporatyvinės reputacijos svarba aukštosioms mokykloms bei korporatyvinę reputaciją formuojančių rodiklių problematika, pateikiami aukštųjų mokyklų korporatyvinę reputaciją formuojančių rodiklių tyrimo rezultatai.Corporate reputation of higher education institutions can be defined as subjective and collective recognition, perception, attitude and judgment of higher education institution established over time between all stakeholders (internal and external) of a higher education institution that are based on specific qualitative indicators, past time behavior, communication, symbolism, possibility and potential of a higher education institution to fulfill future expectations comparing to competitive higher education institutions. Researchers have no doubts about the importance of corporate reputation to higher education institutions. As corporate reputation became one of the most important criteria between stakeholders in the evaluation of higher education institutions, effective corporate reputation building and management gained great importance. Considering emerging threats to higher education institutions created by intensifying competitive conditions, decreasing financial support from the government, increasing demands and demographic processes, corporate reputation of higher education institutions has become a very important factor contributing to the attraction of the best secondary school students, retention of existing higher education students and maintenance of close and positive relationships with higher education graduates. Researchers agree that corporate reputation is built and managed on the basis of corporate reputation indicators. It is determined that judgment of corporate reputation indicators becomes the basis on which stakeholders establish good or bad opinion about the organization. Despite the increased interest in corporate reputation building and management in the context of higher education and existing belief that research of corporate reputation indicators towards higher education customers requires explicit attention, comprehensive and representative empirical research that determines corporate reputation indicators of higher education institutions and evaluates their importance to higher education customers is not common. This paper analyzes corporate reputation building at higher education institutions. It presents empirical research that identifies corporate reputation indicators of higher education institutions and assesses its importance to secondary school students, higher education students and graduates. The aim of this paper is to identify and evaluate corporate reputation indicators of higher education institutions. The objectives of the paper are as follows: (1) determine higher education institutions corporate reputation definition, disclose the importance of corporate reputation in the context of higher education and problematic aspects of higher education institutions corporate reputation indicators; (2) determine corporate reputation indicators that are relevant to customers of higher education institutions and assess its importance. The research results confirm that corporate reputation of higher education institutions is important to all three customer segments. Higher education graduates rate corporate reputation as the most important, while secondary school students rate it as the least important. The research also indicates at what level corporate reputation indicators build corporate reputation of higher education institutions