Becoming an education provider of choice in Hong Kong: an inquiry into student decision making
International Journal of Educational Management
ISSN: 0951-354X
Article publication date: 3 June 2014
Abstract
Purpose
Managers in higher education require cost effective ways to attract the optimal number of students. The purpose of this paper is to address that general problem at the college level, and in doing so, it points toward strategies that could also be relevant at university and at national level. Two crucial issues are whether potential students are more influenced by parents or by peers when it comes to choosing a college; and whether spending money on advertising is more efficacious than spending money on making direct contact with potential students. The findings provide essential market intelligence for strategically managing the scarce resources available for attracting students.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered through a survey instrument and the partial least squares (PLS) technique was subsequently applied to 314 responses.
Findings
Secondary school guidance counselors, followed by current and previous college students were the highlights in order of magnitude for non-marketing information sources for college choice. Social life received the highest loadings among college attributes and phone calls from the admissions office received the highest loading among marketer controlled variables. The results reflect the nature of Chinese culture, which is regarded as being highly collectivist.
Research limitations/implications
The model proposed in this study is applicable to students of sub-degree courses, but may need to be adapted to degree and postgraduate courses students.
Practical implications
This study helps educational managers to identify which factors most strongly influence choice of higher education provider, and as a consequence enable managers to make more strategic use of scarce resources.
Originality/value
This is one of very few studies which employ PLS analysis to discover the key factors that influence student selection of a higher education provider, and one of few studies that focusses on Hong Kong.
Keywords
Citation
Po Cheung Lai, A., Gibson, P. and Muthaly, S. (2014), "Becoming an education provider of choice in Hong Kong: an inquiry into student decision making", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 28 No. 5, pp. 590-609. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-05-2013-0082
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited