英文摘要 |
The purpose of this study was to construct a reliable and valid brand equity scale for preschools through rigorous analysis. The current status of brand equity at preschools was explored using importance-performance analysis (IPA). A 2-dimensional matrix was used to identify a balance between brand building and future direction adjustment. Stakeholders from various sources replied to a self-edited questionnaire. We selected 1,200 staff members and parents from private preschools in Taiwan by using stratified random sampling and obtained 735 valid samples. A series of competing models was adopted to test the scale. The results indicated that the hierarchical factor model, which comprised 4 dimensions (brand awareness, perceived quality, brand association, and brand loyalty), was the most parsimonious. A total of 17 attributes with high reliability and validity could be referenced when evaluating the brand equity of preschools. Regarding most of the attributes, performance was lower than cognitive importance, indicating that a preschool manager must expend great effort to strengthen brand equity. In the IPA, most of the attributes fell in Quadrant B (keep up the good work) and Quadrant C (low priority), and most of the attributes provided by educators and parents were located in the same quadrants. We recommend that, to optimize the performance of brand equity, preschool managers must identify a balance among attributes that exhibit a gap. |