Enhancing university's brand performance during the COVID-19 outbreak: The role of ICT orientation, perceived service quality, trust, and student's satisfaction

Chaudhary, Muhammad Amir; Chaudhary, Naveed Iqbal; Ali, Alina Zulfiqar Article Enhancing university's brand performance during the COVID-19 outbreak: The role of ICT orientation, perceived service quality, trust, and student's satisfaction Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences (PJCSS) Provided in Cooperation with: Johar Education Society, Pakistan (JESPK) Suggested Citation: Chaudhary, Muhammad Amir; Chaudhary, Naveed Iqbal; Ali, Alina Zulfiqar (2020) : Enhancing university's brand performance during the COVID-19 outbreak: The role of ICT orientation, perceived service quality, trust, and student's satisfaction, Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences (PJCSS), ISSN 2309-8619, Johar Education Society, Pakistan (JESPK), Lahore, Vol. 14, Iss. 3, pp. 629-651 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/224954 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. 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If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences 2020, Vol. 14 (3), 629-651 Pak J Commer Soc Sci Enhancing University’s Brand Performance during the COVID-19 Outbreak: The Role of ICT Orientation, Perceived Service Quality, Trust, and Student’s Satisfaction Muhammad Amir Chaudhary (Corresponding author) Department of Commerce, University of the Punjab, Gujranwala Campus, Pakistan Email: [email protected] Naveed Iqbal Chaudhary Department of Business Administration, University of the Punjab, Gujranwala Campus, Pakistan Email: naveed.iqb[email protected]u.pk Alina Zulfiqar Ali Institute of Administrative Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan Email: [email protected] Article History Received: 09 May 2020 Revised: 15 Sept 2020 Accepted: 21 Sept 2020 Published: 30 Sept 2020 Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of information & communication technology (ICT) orientation on university’s brand performance along with the mediating role of student’s satisfaction and moderating role of trust and perceived service quality in times of COVID-19. To achieve this purpose, a quantitative methodological approach was adopted in which the data was collected online through 417 structured questionnaires from university students of Pakistan. The data was analyzed using SPSS and AMOS in which structural equation modeling was performed for testing hypotheses of the study. Results of the current study indicate that the ICT orientation has a significant positive effect on student’s satisfaction and university’s brand performance while the student’s satisfaction significantly mediates the relationship between ICT orientation and university’s brand performance. It has been further found that the perceived service quality acts as a significant but negative moderator in the relationship between ICT orientation and student’s satisfaction. Results further reveal that the trust acts as a positive moderator in the relationship between student’s satisfaction and university’s brand performance. The current study is expected to be an important contribution to the literature and practice as it provides useful implications that how universities can enhance and maintain their brand performance and student’s satisfaction during the COVID-19 outbreak by adopting techniques and tools of ICT. Enhancing University’s Brand Performance during the COVID-19 Outbreak 630 Keywords: information & communication technology (ICT) orientation, perceived service quality, student’s satisfaction, trust, university’s brand performance, higher education, coronavirus (COVID-19). 1. Introduction A novel virus that was unknown to people till 2019, named as corona virus COVID-19 has now dramatically affected the whole world. This virus was first detected in China’s city named as Wuhan in December, 2019 after which it spread to other countries rapidly and affected more than 180 countries of the world (Duncan & Lyall, 2020). COVID-19 refers to a family of virus, which consists of a single strand of RNA and it mostly affects the mammals, birds, and reptiles. This virus causes flu and affects the respiratory system of the carrier in serious cases. In severe case, this virus leads the patient to enteric and neurological diseases, pneumonia, acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and death (Anthony & Fauci, 2020). This virus spreads through respiratory droplets, contact, and sometimes, through airborne transmission. The incubation of strain from person to person is still not clear but symptoms of virus become prominent in 2 to 14 days (Bouaziz et al., 2020; Callaway & Cyranoski, 2020; Zu et al., 2020). A single person carrying this virus can affect 1.4 to 2.5 people as it transfers to other person by coughing, sneezing and simple interaction (Control & Prevention, 2020). The speedy transmission of virus led government of different countries including Pakistan to put lockdown and close the schools, universities, offices, malls, and other public spots in order to reduce and control the physical interaction and meetings of people. Figure 1 shows that how fast this virus is spreading from one person to others in short span of time. Figure 1: COVID-19 Virus Spreading Status The COVID-19 has shattered the world drastically as it has largely affected and reshaped various sectors worldwide. This COVID-19 outbreak has substantially altered the educational sector and its operations worldwide (Crawford et al., 2020; Nicola et al., 2020). The educational sector of Pakistan does not get exemption from this outbreak as the lockdown during this pandemic has shifted almost all education activities to online 0 200000 400000 600000 800000 1000000 1200000 10-Jan 20-Jan 30-Jan 9-Feb 19-Feb 29-Feb 10-Mar 20-Mar 30-Mar Virus Spreading Status Total cases Total deaths Chaudhary et al. 631 system. The universities have shifted almost all their academic activities and operations to online system. In this crucial time, universities of Pakistan and other countries are trying to deliver best possible facilities to their pupil through online platforms. For competing, surviving, and succeeding in the market during this COVID-19 outbreak, they have to build and maintain a strong brand for which they need to adopt proper strategies and techniques (Akram et al., 2020; Shahzad, Hussain, Sarwat, Ghani, & Saleem, 2020). Therefore, universities of Pakistan are looking for ways through which they can satisfy their students and enhance their brand performance in the market in order to survive and succeed during this pandemic. The ICT orientation is one of the best way to cope with this pandemic as the physical operations and activities have been largely hindered during this critical time. It means that universities of Pakistan need to adopt proper ICT for the continuity of their operations and educational activities through online platforms and for maintaining their brand performance in the market (Arshad, 2020; Javaid et al., 2020). The branding of the university is its marketing tool, which helps it to capture, involve, and retain students for maintaining the image and performance of university in this competitive era (Wilson & Elliot, 2016). The effective branding helps universities in maintaining their image in the mind of their customer and gaining competitive edge over other universities. (Keller & Lehmann, 2006). Therefore, the current study aims to explain the phenomenon through which universities of Pakistan can improve their brand performance during this COVID-19 outbreak. In 21st century, the latest technologies are being adopted in every area of life worldwide. During this century, large progress has been made in ICT so that, people can connect with one another virtually while sitting at home or anywhere in the world. Although people are already rapidly adopting the ICT during this century but the COVID-19 outbreak has significantly accelerated the ICT adoption rate worldwide as people are now relying more on virtual meetings (Allam & Jones, 2020). The temporary closure of universities and other organizations has largely increased the ICT adoption rate in Pakistan because people are unable to travel to and visit their institutions physically during this pandemic. The closure of universities has caused many problems for students and staff members by affecting their schedule. However, ICT adoption and online classes have helped them a lot to cope with this challenge and continue their study activities. Information & communication technology helps in transmission of audio and video processing, media broad casting, telecommunication etc. so, students and teachers are able to have virtual meetings and perform their activities and operations online (Akram et al., 2020; Shahzad et al., 2020). ICT digitally combines people and organization through devices, networking system, and internet applications. It provides people with different modes of communication to manage and control their societal, professional, and interpersonal interactions worldwide. In short, people can now work, learn, and perform their task digitally through ICT. The COVID-19 has also affected other customer-related and organizational factors as this pandemic has altered the way of thinking and doing things. The attitudes, trust, perceptions, and behavior of customers have been affected by this pandemic largely. For example, people are now less optimistic so, they are less likely to trust brands easily Enhancing University’s Brand Performance during the COVID-19 Outbreak 632 (Addo, Jiaming, Kulbo, & Liangqiang, 2020; Karpen & Conduit, 2020). The similar is the case with students as the COVID-19 and the pandemic associated with it has disturbed their study activities, planning, and schedule. Therefore, it has become difficult and challenging for universities to attain customer satisfaction and gain and maintain the trust of customers/students during this pandemic without physical interactions because the branding and trust building activities of organizations are totally reliant on online platforms (Addo et al., 2020; Karpen & Conduit, 2020; Limaye et al., 2020). Trust is the belief of customer in the reliability, ability, and capability of the organization to provide best facility to its customers (Ricky & Pratiwi, 2017). As per this situation, it is important to note that the ICT is meeting the standards of perceived service quality and helping universities to keep their students satisfied and confident about the services provided by them. In this way, ICT is contributing towards the brand performance of universities by maintaining student’s satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is the main antecedent of university’s brand performance. The customer/student’s satisfaction refers to the perceptions and feelings of students that the actual services provided by an organization/university are fulfilling his/her expectations associated with those services (González-Mansilla, Berenguer-Contrí, & Serra-Cantallops, 2019; O'Cass & Viet Ngo, 2011; Saeidi, Sofian, Saeidi, Saeidi, & Saaeidi, 2015). Universities need to adopt such practices and strategies through which they can build and maintain trust of students with universities in order strengthen their brand. Service quality is another important factor, which helps the organization in building strong brand. University’s performance is viewed by students as the quality of the service provided by them. Based on university’s brand performance, customers develop an image and perception of the facilities provided by respective university (Ghobehei, Sadeghvaziri, Ebrahimi, & Bakeshloo, 2019; Sultan & Wong, 2019). It means that it is important to ensure for universities that their services and facilities are meeting the standards of service quality according to the expectations of students through ICT during this pandemic. However, existing studies in the literature do not efficiently address and empirically explain the phenomenon through which universities in Pakistan can maintain and enhance their brand performance and customer satisfaction through ICT orientation during COVID-19. Therefore, it is needed to empirically examine that how the organization/university can achieve and maintain high brand performance through ICT orientation in this pandemic. The current study draws its support from “theory of planned behavior”, which suggests that the external stimuli, customers’ attitudes, perceptions, and perceived behavioral controls have the potential to direct his/her feelings, behavior and intentions towards a brand (Ajzen, 2015; Chu, Chen, & Sung, 2016; Kalafatis, Pollard, East, & Tsogas, 1999). This study also examines that how the perceptions of students about the service quality and perceived ICT orientation can shape their satisfaction and perceived brand performance. Given the great importance of ICT, customer satisfaction, perceived service quality, and trust in improving the brand performance, objectives of the study include examining the effect of ICT orientation on university’s brand performance, evaluating the mediating role of customer satisfaction between ICT orientation and university’s brand performance, assessing the moderating impact of perceived serviced quality on the relationship between ICT orientation and customer satisfaction, and analyzing the moderating role of customer’s trust on the Chaudhary et al. 633 relationship between customer satisfaction and university’s brand performance during pandemic of COVID-19. This study is of great significance due to its theoretical and practical importance particularly during this pandemic as its findings will extend the literature about the theory of planned behavior and the role of ICT orientation and customer satisfaction in improving the brand performance. This study addresses a fresh area of research i.e. COVID-19 in terms of its connection with different organizational factors. Therefore, this study will be a value addition to the literature due to its empirical evidence of this phenomenon through which the organization can enhance its brand performance in this pandemic. Practically, this study will help universities of Pakistan to understand that how they can maintain high brand performance by increasing their ICT orientation and improving customer satisfaction during COVID-19 outbreak. Section 2 of this paper reviews the past studies related to the phenomenon and variables under current examination, section 3 covers the methodology adopted for the current study, section 4 analyzes the data, and section 5 discussed the results and concludes the whole study. 2. Literature Review 2.1 ICT Orientation and Student’s satisfaction During this pandemic, ICT is helping universities in meeting the standards of perceived service quality and helping universities to keep their students satisfied and confident about the services provided by them. In this way, ICT orientation of universities seems to contribute towards the student’s satisfaction as it enables the university to give feelings to students that the university is concerned about their interests and the actual services provided by an organization/university are fulfilling their expectations associated with those services. The “theory of planned behavior” suggests that the external stimuli, customers’ attitudes, perceptions, and perceived behavioral controls shape and direct their feelings, behavior and intentions towards a brand (Ajzen, 2015; Chu et al., 2016; Kalafatis et al., 1999). It means that when customers/students thinks that the university is providing them updated facilities by using latest technology, then they may become more likely to have positive feelings about the university, which increase their satisfaction with the university. Therefore, it is argued here that Information & communication technology orientation effectively plays an important role in increasing the satisfaction of students. Various studies examined the impact of ICT usage on student performance and their satisfaction in the past. For instance, Shinn (2001) recommended that the usage of ICT nowadays improve the student skills, learning, and satisfaction by giving them opportunity to experience advanced and updated education system. Biasutti and Heba (2012) also examined the role of using ICT in education system in improving the student satisfaction, They reveal that using ICT in education system leads to higher student satisfaction as it helps the institution to provide updated facilities and techniques to students. Studies of Endres, Chowdhury, Frye, and Hurtubis (2009), Manochehri and Young (2006), Mitić, Nikolić, Jankov, Vukonjanski, and Terek (2017), and Gray and DiLoreto (2016) also provide indirect support to the current argument that the advanced ICT adopted by organizations/universities can help them to achieve higher customers Enhancing University’s Brand Performance during the COVID-19 Outbreak 634 satisfaction. However, these studies have not efficiently explained that whether the ICT can directly increase the satisfaction of students with university or not. Therefore, the current study hypothesizes that:  H1: There is significant impact of ICT orientation on Student’s satisfaction 2.2 Student’s Satisfaction and University’s Brand Performance When students are satisfied with the facilities and services provided by the university, they tend to have positive perceptions about the brand performance. A study performed by Sultan and Wong (2019) examined the role of student’s satisfaction in determining the university’s brand performance. They reveal that higher customers’ satisfaction with the university leads to higher brand performance of the university. Similarly, Alwi et al. (2019) also suggest that the customer/student satisfaction acts as the key component to project the brand image of the university because the higher customers satisfaction results in higher brand image, which acts as the competitive advantage for the university, and thus contributes towards the brand performance (Panda et al., 2019). Hashim, Mohd Yasin, and Ya’kob (2020) suggest that the satisfaction of the student with the university play an important role in establishing the student-university brand relationship. It means that the customer satisfaction (i.e. student’s satisfaction) play an important role in branding of university. Sultan and Wong (2019) examined different antecedents of brand performance of university through which they found that the student’s satisfaction acts as an important predictor of university’s brand performance. The role of customer satisfaction in determining the brand performance of university is also supported by some other past studies e.g. (Iglesias et al., 2019; Sallam & Wahid, 2015; Susanty & Kenny, 2015). However, most of these studies examine the linkage of customer satisfaction with different branding outcomes e.g. brand loyalty, brand equity, brand love etc. while the direct impact of student’s satisfaction on brand performance has been scarcely checked. Based on this discussion of past studies, the current study intends to check the following hypothesis:  H2: Student’s satisfaction has a significant effect on university’s brand performance 2.3 ICT Orientation and University’s Brand performance As all the universities in the world are working to serve to students with advanced facilities and modernizations. The usage of ICT is becoming popular in institutes and this facility is continuously enhancing the ways of learning and teaching in universities (Tsai, Shen, & Chiang, 2013). These type of innovations and advanced technologies are effectively helping in increasing the brand performance of universities (Prokopenko, Holmberg, & Omelyanenko, 2018). Annison (2002) revealed that universities which train their teachers with ICT usage have gained favorable results in university performance. Karamti (2016) conducted a study to see the impact of ICT on Tunisia university’s performance and found that the influence of ICT on performance is not significant, which may be due to not having the proper understanding of gadgets and software and using them. This mentioned study recommended to conduct further research to check the role of ICT usage in achieving different organizational and brand outcomes. The role of ICT usage in improving the brand performance of the organization is also supported by Malhotra and Majchrzak (2014), Jung, Nam, Yang, and Kim (2018), and Mendoza-Fong Chaudhary et al. 635 et al. (2018) but these studies do not explain the role of ICT usage in deriving the university’s brand performance specifically. Therefore, the current study hypothesizes that:  H3: ICT Orientation has a significant impact on university’s brand performance 2.4 Mediating Role of Student’s Satisfaction It has been discussed in previous sections that the ICT orientation has the potential to satisfy the students with improved and updated facilities and services, and the satisfaction of students ultimately enhances the perceptions of student about the brand performance of university. Therefore, it is argued here that the student’s satisfaction tends to mediate the relationship between ICT orientation and university’s brand performance. The impact of ICT usage on customer satisfaction is supported by Biasutti and Heba (2012), Endres et al. (2009), Manochehri and Young (2006), Mitić et al. (2017), and Gray and DiLoreto (2016) because they suggest that advanced information and communication techniques and technologies used by the firm help it in gaining satisfaction of customers by providing them best services and facilities. The customer satisfaction in turn increases the brand performance of the university because a number of past studies including Sultan and Wong (2019), Hanson, Bryant, and Lyman (2019), Alwi et al. (2019), Hashim et al. (2020) provide support to this argument. However, not a single past study has empirically addressed the phenomenon through which the student’s satisfaction can mediate the relationship between ICT orientation and brand performance of universities in Pakistan. Based on these studies, it is hypothesizing here that:  H4: Student’s satisfaction significantly mediates between ICT orientation and university’s brand performance 2.5 Role of Perceived Service Quality between ICT Orientation and Customer Satisfaction Perceived service quality means that the quality of the service provided by the organization is meeting the expectations of customer associated with the service (Ghobehei et al., 2019; Sultan & Wong, 2019). In the era of e-learning and ICT orientation, student’s satisfaction is achieved by improving the positive perception of service quality. The perceived service quality is regarded as an important predictor of brand equity by Soni and Govender (2018) who examined effects of different service quality dimensions on brand equity of universities of South Africa in perspective of students. It means that perceived service quality entails a large important in determining different brand and customer-related outcomes. A study conducted in Vietnam on universities examined that ICT has a direct effect on student’s satisfaction and this relationship is moderated by perceived service quality (Pham et al., 2019). It has been examined in another study that perceived service quality does not directly affect the relation of ICT with student’s satisfaction. Khan and Fasih (2014) suggest that the perceived service quality has the potential to enhance the customer satisfaction. It means that when students have positive perceptions of the service quality of the university, then ICT orientation is more likely to increase the customer satisfaction. Hence, the presence of positively perceived service quality boosts the effect of ICT usage on brand performance of university. The role of perceived service quality in deriving the customer satisfaction is also Enhancing University’s Brand Performance during the COVID-19 Outbreak 636 supported by many other studies e.g. (Bei & Chiao, 2001; Chetthamrongchai & Saengchai, 2019; Zaibaf et al., 2013). Given the insights from past literature, it is hypothesized that:  H5: The perceived service quality acts as a significant positive moderator in the relationship between ICT orientation and student’s satisfaction 2.6 Role of Trust between Student’s Satisfaction and Brand Performance An important factor playing crucial role in gaining the satisfaction of students and enhancing the brand performance is the trust of students with the brand because if students have the trust that the university will provide them with best and updated facilities and services, then their satisfaction will lead to positive perception of university’s brand performance. The “theory of planned behavior” suggests that the external stimuli, customers’ attitudes, trust, and perceived behavioral controls can shape and direct their perceptions and intentions towards a brand (Ajzen, 2015; Chu et al., 2016; Kalafatis et al., 1999). It means that when customers/students have trust on university, then they may become more likely to have positive perceptions about the brand of the university. For instance, Chaudhuri and Holbrook (2001) support the idea that customers’ trust on the brand improves their perceptions about the brand performance of the firm. Leninkumar (2017), Erciş et al. (2012), and Afzal et al. (2010) also support the idea that higher trust of the customer with brand has the potential to improve certain brand outcomes so, student’s trust with the university can strengthen the brand. Based on these supporting studies, it can be hypothesized that if a student has trust on the university, then his/her satisfaction with the university will lead to higher brand performance of the university.  H6: Trust acts as a significant moderator in the relationship between student’s satisfaction and university’s brand performance 2.7 Theoretical framework Based on the review of literature conducted in previous section, following theoretical framework is developed for the current study in which the ICT orientation is the independent variable, which is measured through dimension named as advantage, compatibility, ease of use, and perception. The dependent variable in this study is university’s brand performance. Student’s satisfaction acts as mediator between ICT orientation and university’s brand performance. The relationship between ICT orientation and student’s satisfaction is moderated by perceived service quality while the trust act as moderator in the relationship between student’s satisfaction and university’s brand performance. Chaudhary et al. 643 Figure 4: Structural Equation Modeling Graph 1: Moderating Effect of PSQ between ICT Orientation and Student’s Satisfaction The graph 1 shows the moderating effect of perceived service quality between ICT orientation and student’s satisfaction. The moderating effect of perceived service quality is significant because two lines are not parallel to each other. However, this effect is negative. It is showing that the presence of perceived quality reduced the impact of ICT on student’s satisfaction. 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 Low ICTO High ICTO Stud Satis Moderator Low PSQ High PSQ Enhancing University’s Brand Performance during the COVID-19 Outbreak 644 Graph 2: Moderating Effect of Trust between Student’s Satisfaction and University’s Brand Performance The graph 2 shows the moderating effect of trust on the relationship between student’s satisfaction and university’s brand performance. The results show that moderating influence of trust in this relationship is positive and significant because two lines are not parallel to each other. It means that the presence of trust significantly increased the impact of student’s satisfaction on the university’s brand performance. 5. Discussion and Conclusion 5.1 Discussion of Findings The current study examined the effect of ICT orientation on university’s brand performance, mediating role of student’s satisfaction between ICT and university’s brand performance, moderating role of perceived service quality on the relationship between ICT and students’ satisfaction, and moderating impact of trust in the relationship between student’s satisfaction and university’s brand performance through SEM. In response to the H1, results of this study have revealed that ICT orientation has a significant and positive influence on student’s satisfaction. Therefore, this hypothesis is accepted. These results are in line with suggestions and findings of Biasutti and Heba (2012), Endres et al. (2009), Manochehri and Young (2006), Mitić et al. (2017), and Gray and DiLoreto (2016) as they also supported positive role of the advanced ICT adopted by organizations/universities in achieving higher customers satisfaction. Based on these findings, it is suggested to universities that they should increase their focus on ICT so that, they can satisfy their students and achieve certain positive brand outcomes. In response to the H2, results of this study have revealed that student’s satisfaction has a significant and positive influence on university’s brand performance. Therefore, this hypothesis is accepted. These results are aligned with suggestions of Sultan and Wong (2019), Alwi et al. (2019), and Hashim et al. (2020) who supported the positive contribution of student’s satisfaction towards the brand of the firm. Therefore, it is recommended to universities that they need to focus on student’s satisfaction during this pandemic so that, they can develop positive image and perceptions of their brand in minds of students. In response to the H3, results of this study have revealed that ICT 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 Low Stud Satis High Stud Satis Uni Brand Perf Moderator Low Truts High Truts Chaudhary et al. 645 orientation has a significant and positive influence on university’s brand performance. Therefore, this hypothesis is also accepted. These results are consistent with findings of Prokopenko et al. (2018), Annison (2002), Karamti (2016), Malhotra and Majchrzak (2014), Jung et al. (2018), and Mendoza-Fong et al. (2018) who supported in different studies that ICT adoption supports the brand performance of the firm. Therefore, it is suggested to universities that they should adopt latest ICT tools and techniques for improving their services and facilities so that, they can strengthen their brand during COVID-19. In response to the H4, results of this study have revealed that student’s satisfaction has a significant positive mediating role between ICT orientation and university’s brand performance. Therefore, this hypothesis is also accepted. These results find theoretical support from previous studies including Biasutti and Heba (2012), Endres et al. (2009), Manochehri and Young (2006), Mitić et al. (2017), Gray and DiLoreto (2016), Sultan and Wong (2019), Alwi et al. (2019), and Hashim et al. (2020) who support the positive contribution of ICT towards the customer satisfaction and positive contribution of customer satisfaction towards brand performance of firm in separate studies. Therefore, it is suggested to universities that they can improve their brand performance during COVID-19 outbreak by increasing their focus on ICT so that, they can satisfy their students and strengthen their brand in this pandemic. In response to the H5, results of this study reveals that perceived service quality does not significantly positively affect/moderate the relationship between ICT orientation and student’s satisfaction. Rather, the perceived service quality has negatively moderated this relationship. Therefore, H5 is rejected. These results are contrary to a number of past finding e.g. Pham, Limbu, Bui, Nguyen, and Pham (2019) and Khan and Fasih (2014). These mentioned studies supported the positive contribution of perceived quality towards the customer satisfaction while the current findings have shown the negative moderation of perceived service quality on the student’s satisfaction. This contradiction of findings may be due to the difference of context of studies because previous studies did not explain the role of perceived service quality in universities of Pakistan while the current results are limited to Pakistani universities and times of COVID-19. It means that the perceived service quality may be less or not important for improving the satisfaction of students during the COVID-19 outbreak in Pakistani universities. Therefore, the difference of findings of this study from previous studies can be attributed to the difference of context and COVID-19 outbreak. In response to the H6, results of this study have revealed that trust acts as a significant and positive moderator in the relationship between student’s satisfaction and university’s brand performance. Therefore, this hypothesis is also accepted. These results also find support from previous studies including Chaudhuri and Holbrook (2001), Leninkumar (2017), Erciş et al. (2012), and Afzal et al. (2010) who support the idea that higher trust of the customer with brand has the potential to improve certain brand outcomes. Therefore, it is suggested that building higher trust of students with the university can help universities to enhance the positive role of student’s satisfaction in increasing their brand performance during COVID-19 outbreak. 5.2 Conclusion The study assessed the effect of ICT orientation on university’s brand performance with role of student’s satisfaction between ICT and university’s brand performance, moderating effect Enhancing University’s Brand Performance during the COVID-19 Outbreak 646 of trust on the relationship between student’s satisfaction and university’s brand performance, and moderating effect of perceived service quality on the relationship between ICT and student’s satisfaction. Quantitative research has been performed in which the data is collected from students of universities of Pakistan through online questionnaire. The data analyzed through different testing approaches of AMOS and SPSS reveals that the ICT orientation significantly and positively affects the university’s brand performance. The utilization of elearning increases the brand performance of universities. Results further prove that the student’s satisfaction is positively and substantially reliant on ICT orientation because it facilitates students with time, new mode of learning, advanced facilities etc. during COVID19 outbreak. It has been further found that the student’s satisfaction in turn, improved the brand performance of university because higher the satisfaction of student with the university, better image of the brand will be developed in mind of student regarding the university. Therefore, it is concluded that the student’s satisfaction plays a significant mediating role between ICT orientation and brand performance of universities of Pakistan during this COVID-19 outbreak. Therefore, universities of Pakistan should increase their focus on ICT so that, they can provide up-to-date facilities to its students for satisfying them and achieving higher brand performance. Results of this study have further revealed that the perceived service quality reduces the effect of ICT orientation on student’s satisfaction as it acts as a negative moderation between ICT and student’s satisfaction. However, the trust of the student positively and significantly moderates the relationship between student’s satisfaction and brand performance of the university. Therefore, universities need to enhance their focus on customer satisfaction and student’s trust for achieving higher brand performance during their pandemic of COVID-19. 5.2.1 Research Implication The main concern of this study is to emphasize the use of technology in academic field during COVID-19 outbreak so that, universities of Pakistan can maintain their brand performance effectively. This study entails great significance due to its theoretical and practical contributions to the theory and practice particularly during this pandemic. The findings of this study are expected to enhance the literature about the theory of planned behavior and the role of ICT orientation and customer satisfaction in improving the brand performance during this COVID-19 outbreak. It will enhance the limited literature about the COVID-19 in terms of its connection with university’s performance and branding. Therefore, this study will be a value addition to the literature, as it will provide an empirical evidence and theoretical guidelines to researchers that how the COVID-19 has affected the educational sector and how the brand performance of universities can be maintained during this pandemic. This study also tends to make significant practical contributions as the findings and guidelines of this study will help universities of Pakistan to realize the need for ICT orientation in order to maintain and enhance their brand performance and customer satisfaction during this COVID-19 outbreak. In this way, they will be better able to make strategies about ICT adoption and branding so that, they can achieve branding and performance outcomes for the university. The policymakers will also get useful assistance from the guidelines and findings of this study as they will come to know that how much the ICT orientation is important in the educational sector. Hence, they will be able to come up with better policies about the educational sector of Pakistan. Chaudhary et al. 647 5.2.2 Limitation and Further Suggestion This study highlights the importance of ICT during this COVID-19 outbreak but there are a few limitations in this study that can hinder the applicability of these findings to other sectors, countries, or situations. First, these findings are purely related to the COVID-19 outbreak so, the role of ICT orientation, customer satisfaction, and other variables included in this study in determining the brand performance may be different during other times or crisis. Secondly, this research and its findings are particularly limited to university students of Pakistan while the results may be different in perspective of college or school students or students of other countries during this pandemic. Therefore, future researchers are recommended to perform cross-sector and cross-country studies in order to enhance the findings. 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