Exploring the role of decision-making factors in international student marketing engagement

ABSTRACT

This study applies the pre-purchase decision-making model for services to higher education context in order to understand international students' post-acquisition marketing engagement. The research categorizes three types of decision-making factors (i.e. internal, external, and risk) and two types of customer marketing engagement (CME) (i.e. in-role and extra-role). Data from 174 U.S. schools with international student engagement shows that student's internal factor has significantly relationship with all five dimensions of CME (i.e. interactive, affective, calculative, persuasive, and benevolent). The difficulty of the program has least influences, but all three types of decision making factors affect persuasive engagement. Student satisfaction moderates the relationship between in-role and extra-role CME. Theoretical, empirical, and managerial contribution are discussed subsequently.

KEYWORDS:

• Decision making factors
• interactive
• affective
• calculative
• persuasive
• benevolent
• satisfaction
• customer marketing engagement
• in-role CME
• extra-role CME

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.