| 摘要: | Higher education has become an increasingly competitive service across the globe. This trend has resulted in some mainstream studies examined higher education from marketing perspective. Similar to other service providers, higher education institutions need to establish and maintain an enduring relationship with their customers (i.e. students).
In view of higher education as a service relationship, this study examines some mediating effects on the association between value and loyalty. To address this issue, based on the incorporation of the expectation-disconfirmation model, the involvement commitment model and the expectancy value model, the author proposes an integrated framework with five main direct and indirect determinants of student loyalty, including: disconfirmation, satisfaction, adjusted expectation, commitment and value. Precisely, this study endeavors to investigate role of value, satisfaction, commitment and adjusted expectation as direct determinants of student loyalty. Second, the mediation effects of satisfaction, adjusted expectation and commitment on the routes between student loyalty and its indirect antecedents are also accessed. Instead of focusing on domestic higher education as most existing studies in marketing education did, this study intends to place emphasis on the international counterpart. At this contemporary era, international higher education is becoming crucial as oversea students are not only the source of financial income but also future qualified human resources for host countries. And it is observed that the psychological behavior of international students is not always consistent with domestic students’.
Sample data are collected from some Facebook-based groups of Vietnamese oversea students in more than 15 countries across the globe and then, are analyzed with structural equation model. Results of this study are 3-folds: First, my empirical findings consolidate the role of value, satisfaction, commitment and adjusted expectation as direct predictor of attitudinal loyalty. However, in contrast to the findings pertaining to attitudinal loyalty, none of hypothesized directing liaisons from value, satisfaction, commitment and adjusted expectation to behavioral loyalty are verified. Second, the study highlights the interrelationships among mediators (i.e. satisfaction, commitment, disconfirmation and adjusted expectation) on the liaison attitudinal loyalty – value. Specifically, the study reveal a new fully mediating effect of commitment on the relationship between disconfirmation and attitudinal loyalty. Third, the study estimates the total impact, including both direct and indirect ones of five antecedents i.e. value, disconfirmation, satisfaction, commitment and adjusted expectation on attitudinal loyalty. It was found that among others, value is the most influencing antecedent of attitudinal loyalty, followed by satisfaction, disconfirmation, commitment and adjusted expectation.
The findings of this research have expanded the current knowledge about the relative impacts of different indirect and direct antecedents of student loyalty as well as their interplaying mechanism that result in the two components of student loyalty i.e. behavioral and attitudinal. Besides, this study is also among the first pioneering attempts to address the international students as target sample for research purpose. Apart from academic implications, the results of this study also shed light for policy makers, university managers and stakeholders in order to achieve enduring relationships with international students. |
