Investigating the impact of university image on international students’ participation behavior: An empirical study

Abstract

Background: The competition among higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world coupled with the rising mobility of international postgraduate students has created challenges for universities to maintain their competitive advantage. There is continuous emphasis from higher education administrators and governments on internationalization and creating global prominence in this sector. As an emerging hub in southeast Asia, Malaysia is no exception to this. Realizing this need for internationalization, this study has attempted to analyze the impact of university image as a higher-order formative construct on international students' participation behavior as a multidimensional construct. Methods: The sample of this study comprised 150 international students from public and private HEIs in Malaysia. The study focused on this group of students as their participation in university life and face-to-face interactions with university personnel have been significantly affected due to the restrictions on global travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. Purposive sampling was employed to select the respondents. A structured questionnaire based on a seven-point Likert scale was used to collect the responses. The hypothesized relationships of this cross-sectional study were examined using partial least square-based structured equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Results: The results showed that all the four hypotheses developed in relation to the dimensions of participation behavior were supported. This research outcome has evidenced that university image can influence international students’ participation behavior such as information seeking, and information sharing behavior that can be perceived as positive behavioral outcomes towards their respective HEIs. Conclusions: Since the present study was conducted in one country, future studies may reproduce this in other southeast Asian countries. While cross-validation to local students lies outside the scope of this study, this empirically tested behavior model offers practical implications for universities, particularly in this uncertain period where HEIs are going through tremendous challenges to uphold their strong rapport with international students.