College choice and the university brand: exploring the consumer decision framework

Stephenson, Amber L.; Heckert, Alex; Yerger, David B.

doi:10.1007/s10734-015-9919-1

Cited by 49 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Countries, states and institutions can all -from the perspective of international students as young consumers -be considered brands; awareness, perceptions and images thereof are therefore absolutely critical. Though the notion of branding in higher education is not a new one per se (see, e.g., Stephenson, Heckert & Yerger, 2016), consideration of media via which to extend and strengthen said brands in the international arena remains underdeveloped, e.g., the establishment and active management of social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter (in multiple languages) by universities and their international offices. Related, and also not considered in this study, the role of international alumni is likely substantial in promulgating university prestige and reputation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influences on International Student Choice of Study Destination: Evidence from the United States

Nicholls

2018

jis

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Competition to attract international students continues to grow and understanding the factors that influence study destination choice is critical to the marketing efforts of nations, states, and institutions. This surveybased study of international students at Michigan State University demonstrates that they appear to choose the country in which to study, and/or the specific school, with less regard for school location. The most critical influences on their choices were expected quality of education, reputation/ranking of the university and individual departments/programs, safety/security, and cost/affordability. Differences in relative importance by nationality, gender, and level of education sought were also identified. Implications of these findings, for the marketing, promotion, and recruitment efforts of universities and national/regional economic development agencies, are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influences on International Student Choice of Study Destination: Evidence from the United States

Nicholls

2018

jis

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“…The way in which EI is perceived; impressions and symbolic value that people have from the EI in general. Palacio, Meneses and Pérez (2002), Valerio and Pizzinatto (2003), Silva et al (2008), Safón (2009), Alves and Raposo (2010), Stephenson and Yerger (2014), Wilkins and Huisman (2015), Stephenson, Heckert and Yerger (2016), Walsh, Flannery and Cullinan (2018).…”

Section: Trademark / Imagementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The EI can establish a competitive advantage over their competitors just by understanding the importance of the trademark image in the students' retention and attraction. (Alves, & Raposo, 2010;Stephenson, & Yerger, 2014;Wilkins, & Huisman, 2015;Stephenson, Heckert, & Yerger, 2016;Walsh et al, 2018).…”

Section: Wom Marketingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Indirect Influence of Mouth-to-Mouth Marketing on the Choice Criterion of Public Education Institutions

Dalmonech¹,

Monte-mor²

2020

Revista Gestão e Inovação

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Several studies show a positive influence from word of mouth [WOM] marketing on the choice criterion of an Education Institution [EI]. However, these researches did not investigate the indirect effect from WOM marketing on such choices. Moreover, the setting commonly used is also influenced by self-selection problems, which could result in biased estimators for the effect of WOM marketing on choice criterion for an EI. This study aims to verify if prior suggestion by students' Education Institution through WOM marketing influences indirectly the choice criterion of new students for such institution. A model that compare the choice criterion of students that were exposed to WOM marketing with students that were not was built to mitigate endogenous features related to these criteria and also minimize self-selection problems. We performed a questionary with students from an EI that were and were not exposed to WOM marketing based on the seven most widely factors that influence the choice criteria. At the end, we obtained 1220 valid answers. Multiple linear regression tests were carried out to verify the degree of association between the EI criteria and each one of the seven factors among both groups of students. The results show there is no evidence that WOM marketing systematically has straight effect on students' choice criterion by an IE. However, other results review that WOM marketing can enhance influence on some variables that interfere on students' choice criterion by an IE.

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“…Quality of teaching, in terms of the amount of contact time and qualifications of teaching staff (James et al 1999;Foskett and Hemsley-Brown 2001), and academic reputation, such as the university brand (Stephenson et al 2016) or position in league tables or national rankings (Brooks 2002;Pasternak 2005;Clarke 2007;Hazelkorn 2015), have been found to have a significant impact too. Other proxies for institutional quality that were used in empirical studies include selectivity, rejection rate, retention rate, tuition fees, faculty salary and student-to-faculty ratio (Eide et al 1998;Smith 2004, 2006;Long 2010).…”

Section: Literature Review: Modeling Consumers' Preferences For Educamentioning

confidence: 99%

Choosing the Future: Economic Preferences for Higher Education Using Discrete Choice Experiment Method

et al. 2019

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This study illustrates how respondents' stated choices (the discrete choice experiment method) combined with the random utility framework can be used to model preferences for higher education. The flexibility offered by stated preference data circumvents limitations of other approaches, and allows quantifying young people' preferences for selected attributes of higher education programs that are typically highly correlated in revealed preference data. The empirical study presented here is based on a survey of 20,000 Polish respondents aged 18-30, who stated their preferences for higher education programs in carefully prepared hypothetical choice situations. The attributes considered include tuition fee, expected salary after graduation, quality of institution, interest in the field of study, distance from home, and mode of study. Using random parameters and latent class mixed multinomial logit models, young peoples' preferences are formally described, and the financial trade-offs they are willing to make are identified (willingness to pay for specific attribute levels in terms of increased tuition fees or expected salary after graduation). Accounting for respondents' observed and unobserved preference heterogeneity addresses a few research questions related to, for example, distinct preferences of students with parents who never attained tertiary education, students from lower socioeconomic groups, or students of a particular gender. Overall, the usefulness of stated preference methods as a tool for exploring economic preferences is demonstrated, allowing for better understanding the determinants of choices, forecasting, and designing the services offered by higher education institutions in an optimal way.

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College choice and the university brand: exploring the consumer decision framework

Cited by 49 publications

References 35 publications

Influences on International Student Choice of Study Destination: Evidence from the United States

Influences on International Student Choice of Study Destination: Evidence from the United States

The Indirect Influence of Mouth-to-Mouth Marketing on the Choice Criterion of Public Education Institutions

Choosing the Future: Economic Preferences for Higher Education Using Discrete Choice Experiment Method

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