Explaining university student loyalty: theory, method, and empirical research in Chile

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explain student loyalty beyond its customary relationship with student satisfaction by including two relational variables, trust and commitment, two cognitive traits (service familiarity and communication) and one affective trait (opportunism) as moderators of the impact of trust and commitment on loyalty. Design/methodology/approach Two relational constructs (trust and commitment) are employed to improve the loyalty model and key comparisons are performed to know if career, cohort and sourcing school generate differences in the explanation of student loyalty. Findings Results show that the explanation chain that starts with student satisfaction but continues with the development of student trust and the reaching of student commitment culminates with student loyalty. The moderators (student opportunism, service familiarity, communication, age and available income for education) significantly contribute to the explanatory power of the model. Career is a meaningful differentiator in reaching student loyalty as are student cohort and the type of high school from which the student came. Research limitations/implications This is one of first empirical studies on university student loyalty. Future research could test the same or new hypotheses using different samples and contexts. Practical implications University policies may benefit from the inclusion of norms regarding relational processes and outcomes such as the value of trust in the interactions and systematic recognition and awards assigned to student commitment achievements. Originality/value The explanation chain of customer loyalty was successfully applied to student loyalty, and strengthened with the addition of meaningful moderating variables.

Explaining Loyalty in Higher Education: A Model and Comparative Analysis from the Policy of Gratuity, a Case Applied to Chile

“…Trust and commitment, the two relational variables, are unidimensional constructs with all coefficients above the threshold. Finally, product familiarity, communication and student opportunism, the three moderating constructs used in this study, are all unidimensional and demonstrate all coefficients above the threshold [15].…”

“…For this, a structured questionnaire was used with items to be graded on a Likert scale to adequately establish each of the constructs used and thus verify the proposed hypotheses [15,39]. The proposed model begins with the satisfaction of the student, followed by trust and commitment, and finishing with the students' loyalty.…”

“…Even though there exists abundant literature that explains the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty, there are scarce studies carried out in higher education [10,15,65] that explain the perception of students' loyalty through a comparison of two higher education institutions that are differentiated mainly through the financing of their fees. At an international level, the closest evidence is in the comparison between public and private universities that shows significant differences in how students perceive quality and how it contributes to the satisfaction.…”

“…The satisfaction of the student can be understood as the result of the evaluation of the student's educational experience with the higher education institution [13][14][15]. Studies have shown that the satisfaction of a student has a positive impact on her or his motivation, increases rates of retention and graduation, diminishes the efforts to capture enrolment, and increases the provision of funding [16].…”

The Impact of Student Satisfaction on Student Loyalty: The Role of Student Trust

“…The measurement of each construct uses previous studies as bases (Austin & Pervaiz, 2017) (Orozco & Arroyo, 2017) (Gallegos & Vasquez, 2019)which are adapted according to the context of this research, including the pandemic situation in which the research is conducted in. All constructs are measured using a 6-point numerical scale.…”