High on emotion! perceived value: influencing decision-making processes at international student recruitment trade shows

ABSTRACT

Transnational education students are an increasingly important source of income for higher education institutes. Student recruitment trade shows as a marketing communication tool are being used by the majority of higher education institutes and despite multi-million-dollar investments, little is known about the impact they have on the decision-making processes of transnational education students and the student recruitment efforts of the exhibiting higher education institutes. This research project discusses how international student recruitment trade shows can positively influence the perceived value students obtain from visiting these trade shows. The findings of this qualitative study show the positive effect higher levels of social emotions have on students’ perceptions of international study options from pre-purchase to post-consumption and on the effectiveness of student recruitment trade shows.

KEYWORDS:

• Student recruitment
• perceived value
• trade shows
• emotions
• globalization and international higher education
• internationalization of higher education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Udo Rainer Gottlieb http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1439-4341

Amanda Beatson http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7741-2060

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Queensland University of Technology ECARD grant.