Journal
JOURNAL OF MARKETING FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
Volume 32, Issue 2, Pages 278-304Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/08841241.2020.1868038
Keywords
Marketing; Higher Education; online Education; consumer decision-making; MBA
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The research findings suggest that accreditation, price, and rankings have the most influence on consumer decision-making among prospective online MBA students, with international students' decision-making process being more extensive compared to their UK counterparts.
This research investigates the influential factors impacting CDM among prospective online MBA students, using qualitative interviews. This research focus is contextualised with analysis on the CDM process and the disparity between UK and international students, to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics of the influential factors. The findings of this research point to accreditation, price and rankings having the most influence on CDM among prospective online MBA students. It suggests that the CDM process among international students is more extensive than among UK students. International students' searches had a longer duration, compared more programme alternatives, favoured detailed information such as course content and marketing materials, and searches often culminated in an application to more than one university. Meanwhile, UK students were more influenced by outbound university phone communications, which the data imply is attributable to English being their first language. Concluding practical recommendations include marketing messaging optimisation, strategic focus on rankings, accreditation and pricing and driving brand loyalty among prospective international students.
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