Education is considered a fundamental element in society's development, and higher education institutions (HEIs) must direct a part of their activity towards supporting countries’ social, economic and cultural progress. It is crucial that HEIs develop diverse marketing and management strategies, above all image management, since this will make them competitive in the market and provide their managers with decision-making capacity. Regarding the image of HEIs, the literature presents different measurement models, with no consensus about the variables to include in them. The main aim of this research is to analyze studies presenting models of university image, search for synergies among the models’ variables and develop a model that combines all of them. Other variables not found in these studies have been included, since the bibliography on the subject considers them relevant. The sample is formed of 438 students from two universities, a private university in Spain and a State university in Portugal. The results show that image has a conceptualization formed of four constructs: external communication and values, national and international recognition, economic value, and facilities. We conclude with confirmation of a model that measures university image with variables that are significant in previous studies, but with some added variables.

Research on the role brand image plays in higher education (HE) suggests that it is crucial to understand students’ perceptions of their university. This study builds on existing empirical work by Alcaide-Pulido, Alves, and Gutierrez-Villar ( 2017 Alcaide-Pulido, P. , Alves, H. , & Gutiérrez-Villar, B. (2017). Development of a model to analyze HEI image: A case based on a private and a public university. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 27(2), 162–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841241.2017.1388330 [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] ) exploring themes of national and international recognition, economic value, university campus facilities, and external communications and values. It employs a structural equation modelling approach with Partial Least Squares (PLS) and Decision Trees Analysis through a sample of 624 undergraduate students from England, Spain, and Portugal. The findings highlight areas of commonality as well as differences between the different cultures and nationalities examined as part of the study. They show areas that brand managers from each country should concentrate on, making recommendations that could help to shape the marketing direction of universities in each of the nations included in the research. The English and Portuguese should prioritise communication to students through their institutional website, whereas Spaniards should attend to ethical values and social responsibility. Economic value is an aspect that Spanish and English universities should focus on. Spaniards and English agree that campus facilities are important, whereas class size is key for Portuguese. Finally, Portuguese students’ highly value the national recognition of their university.

Happiness at work is a consolidated topic. Perhaps the PR and communication sector, often at the forefront of organizational change, is one of the industries where most progress has been made in this regard. The objective of the present study was to carry out an exploratory analysis on the extent to which PR is a profession that enables the development of happiness in the workplace. To this end, a questionnaire was administered to a sample of PR professionals in Spain (N = 256). The questionnaire consisted of the PERMA-profiler, a model where work relationships, engagement, positive affections/emotions, vital sense/purpose and achievements are measured. The results show a remarkable level of happiness among surveyed professionals, especially among women, who obtained higher scores on all five factors, although with a statistically significant difference only in two of the five factors in PERMA (Engagement and Relationships). Neither age nor the hierarchical level of the respondent had any incidence. Therefore, PR can be a profession that notably enables human flourishing at work, even more so among women.

Today, the higher education sector can be considered a market and, within it, private university education is a common marketable service in the literature on higher education management. Research on the analysis of the variables that generate the university image has been the subject of numerous investigations. Although there is no generally accepted definition, most authors approach the measurement of image through multi-factor scales, with variables relating to functional and psychological elements. This research aims to contribute to study of the most determinant variables in measuring a product’s image, assessing especially the effect of the reputation construct. This was done through measuring the image of the “private university” product as perceived by citizens of Andalusia, based on a standardized model with three dimensions—functional and affective aspects and reputation. After adapting and validating the questionnaire, a two-phase procedure is performed with double validation through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The results show an adapted scale valid for measuring the image of a generic product; with presentation and discussion of a series of advantages of incorporating reputation and measuring image through models with three dimensions. This article goes deeper into the possible influence of reputation as a determinant factor in measuring image, an assumption arising from some models for measuring image, something that so far has not been sufficiently contrasted.

Según los resultados obtenidos por Edelman Trust Barometer, en 2022, tras la pandemia, la ciudadanía ha perdido confianza en las empresas, gobiernos, ONG y medios de comunicación. Ante esto, sin una fuente de liderazgo de confianza a la que los/las usuarios/as puedan acudir, muchos y muchas influencers han decidido aprovechar sus canales de TikTok para alfabetizar a la sociedad y, sobre todo, a los/las más jóvenes –que se informan fundamentalmente a través de redes sociales–. Así, los y las influencers actúan como referentes informativos y nuevos periodistas de la denominada generación Z. Por tanto, el objetivo de este estudio es analizar, a través de una metodología mixta -cuantitativa y cualitativa-, la actividad de siete influencers divulgadores/as de información en TikTok. Se seleccionaron estas siete cuentas por ser referentes especialmente conocidos/as en España y populares por su poder de alfabetización: @charleyokei, @doctorfision, @cienciascomportamiento, @farmaceuticofernandez, @lawtips, @ladyscience y @raquelmascaraque. Los resultados obtenidos arrojan luz sobre las reacciones de la audiencia ante las estrategias discursivas e intenciones informativas de cada perfil. En conclusión, se observa que las estrategias narrativas y audiovisuales, entre otros parámetros, utilizadas por cada influencer en sus vídeos determinan no solo la reacciones positivas y comentarios de las personas que le siguen, sino también el grado de identificación de los/las jóvenes de la generación Z con esos/as referentes informativos en TikTok.

Currently, the higher education sector can be considered a marketplace, within which university education is considered a marketable service in the literature on higher education management. The analysis of the variables that generate university image has been the subject of numerous studies on higher education institutions (HEIs). The purpose of this study was to analyse the comparative weightage of these variables to increase the robustness of the model developed in a previous study by Alcaide-Pulido et al. ( 2017 Alcaide-Pulido, P. , Alves, H. , & Gutiérrez-Villar, B. (2017). Development of a model to analyze HEI image: A case based on a private and a public university. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 27(2), 162–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841241.2017.1388330 [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] ) for the purpose of identifying the variables with greater explanatory power of the image that undergraduate students have of their universities. This work uses a sample of 438 undergraduate students (Spain and Portugal), using a support vector machine to classify them and conduct sensitivity analysis to detect key variables with greater weights. The findings reveal four determining variables: ‘value for money’, ‘ethical values and social responsibility’, ‘social networks’, and ‘university rankings’.