International students’
decision-making process
Jose
´
Marı
´
a Cubillo
Polytechnic University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Joaquı
´
nSa
´
nchez
Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain, and
Julio Cervin
˜
o
Carlos III University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical model that integrates the different
groups of factors which influence the decision making process of international students, analysing
different dimensions of this process and explaining those factors which determine students’ choice.
Design/methodology/approach A hypothetical model is presented which shows the purchase
intention as an independent variable dependent on five factors: personal reasons; the effect of country
image, influenced by city image; institution image; and the evaluation of the programme of study. The
consideration, whether conscious or unconscious on the part of the prospective student, of the different
elements making up the factors included in this study will determine the final choice made by that
student.
Findings The limitations of this study stem from the nature of the study itself. As a theoretical
model, it aims to integrate the factors identified in the existing literature. Thus, future research must
try to examine the existing relationships among the aforementioned factors. In particular, it must
analyse the weight of each factor on the purchase intention, and the relative importance of each
element for the factor it belongs to. Therefore, determining the relative importance of each element and
factor would constitute an important source of information for future work in international marketing.
Originality/value There are few studies which try to tackle the decision making process of the
prospective international student from an integrated point of view. This paper contributes to bridging
that gap.
Keywords Decision making, Higher education, International business, Overseas students
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
In order to be successful in the present global environment, students must develop
some key global cultural skills (Cant, 2004). This need has increased international
students’ search for higher education around the world (Enders, 2004; Teichler, 2004).
The growing number of international students in search of higher education and the
inclusion of new countries as destinations for this purpose have increased the need for
understanding the behaviour of consumers from a cross-national perspective.
Global trends within the field of higher education have brought new competitors
(Ivy, 2001), involved in an increasing and intense struggle to attract new students
(Nicholls et al., 1995; Soutar and Turner, 2002). In this context, educational institutions
must maintain their competitive advantage by developing a distinctive image (Ivy,
2001; Va
¨
limaa, 2004) and positioning.
Competence for attracting international students has expanded to regional and
national Governments. The UK Government has sponsored several initiatives to
attract more international students with the purpose of becoming the world’s leading
nation in international education (Binsardi and Ekwulugo, 2003).
Likewise, the USA and Australia have been applying aggressive international
marketing strategies for education (Michael, 1990; Mazzarol and Hosie, 1996). Recently,
due to the increasing number of Latin American students, the Regional Government of
the Community of Madrid (Spain) has studied the possibility of opening a specific
office for the management of this international demand from Latin countries and to
increase the capacity of existing facilities.
This reality makes international students’ preferences a very interesting subject to
study, focusing not only on higher education institutions involved in
internationalization strategies, but also on national, regional and local governments
interested in promoting their territories as education destinations.
Thus, it is very important for marketers to know the factors influencing the
purchase intention of prospective students and to understand the nature of the
relationship among those factors. Due to the increasing demand for educational
services, marketers need to be more aware of the underlying factors considered by
consumers when evaluating services (Ahmed et al., 2002) if they want to survive in this
competitive environment (Vaira, 2004).
The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical model integrating the different
factors that influence the purchase decision process of international students. Thus,
this work analyses the different dimensions of the decision-making process and tries to
explain those factors determining the students’ choice and the relationships underlying
the process at the moment of selecting their destination country. With this objective in
mind, the present work reviews available literature regarding the students’ selection
process of higher education services published over the last 25 years, and proposes an
integrated purchasing or selection model.
Conceptual framework
Relatively little has been written on the marketing of education within international
markets (Mazzarol, 1998). There is scarce literature analysing the decision-making
process of prospective international students in general.
Existing literature tends to focus on the study of those factors related to the
institution in itself, disregarding the influence of the country choice. Thus, from an
international perspective, dimensions in the decision process are not considered.
Nevertheless, there are some interesting theoretical (Srikatanyoo and Gnoth, 2002) and
empirical (Mazzarol and Hosie, 1996; Peng et al., 2000; Binsardi and Ekwulugo, 2003)
studies on this subject.
The decision to study overseas is one of the most significant and expensive
initiatives that students may ever undertake (Mazzarol, 1998). Therefore, the high costs
of studying abroad make it a complex decision. Most complex and expensive decisions
are more likely to involve deeper buyer deliberation (Assael, 1981, cited in Nicholls
et al., 1995).
In this way, the decision to study abroad increases the complexity of the selection
process. Thus, when the prospective student chooses a country in which to study, he is
2
not only buying the education service but he is also acquiring an important pack of
services jointly provided with the core service.
The nature of educational services
Services show special characteristics that require a particular marketing strategy
application (Stanton, 1974; Andressen et al., 1983; Kotler et al., 1995). By their nature,
services cannot be touched, tasted, or possessed (Edgett and Parkinson, 1993). In
general, services are intangible, heterogeneous, perishable, and require simultaneous
production and consumption (Zeithaml et al., 1985; Ahmed et al., 2002).
Consumers usually associate intangibility with high level of risk. Thus,
intangibility hinders the communication of services to the customer (Rathmell, 1966)
and the setting of prices for international education (Mazzarol, 1998). Consequently, the
decision process of consumers is influenced by indirect mechanisms of service
evaluation. Consumers analyse aspects such as the image of the brand, the institution,
and the country of destination.
On the other hand, a number of services are provided as part of a pack of services
(Zeithaml et al., 1985). A group of services is made up of core and auxiliary services
(Gro
¨
nroos, 1978; Eiglier and Langeard, 1981; Norman, 1984). In general, auxiliary
services are those offered to satisfy consumers’ expectations. Thus, these services
could be a highly significant way to differentiate among competitors (Maister and
Lovelock, 1982).
Education services. Higher education is a pure service and is characterised by a
greater amount of interpersonal contact, complexity, divergence, and customization
than other service businesses (Patterson et al., 1998). Most of the quality attributes in
higher education cannot be perceived, felt, or tested in advance. This nature brings
difficulties to the evaluation of a programme, especially for an international student
(Patterson et al., 1998; Harvey and Busher, 1996; Srikatanyoo and Gnoth, 2002).
For higher education, quality may vary markedly according to different
circumstances: from year to year, class to class, student to student, lecturer to
lecturer (Patterson et al., 1998; Owlia and Spinwall, 1996); and even within different
countries (Srikatanyoo and Gnoth, 2002). Furthermore, service quality has different
meanings for different consumers (Ahmed et al., 2002).
One of the peculiarities of education services is that, during the first step of the
internationalization process, the service must be provided at the host country. In this
way, future students will receive a pack of services comprising a core service, the main
education service; some auxiliary services, related to education activities at the host
institution; and a pack of secondary services, in this case, related to their stay at the
host country and the host city (Gro
¨
nroos, 1994).
In international education, there are several groups of secondary services. The
prospective student will consider various aspects related to living in the host country
such as safety, security, cultural activities, international background, university
environment, quality of life, and visa and entry requirements, among others. Some of
them are related to the host city, and others are related to the host country. In this way,
the country image will influence the final decision of the prospective student.
As Gro
¨
nroos (1997) points out, it is usually impossible to determine when the
service begins. For instance, in the case of higher education, the service will probably
begin when the student contacts the institution by mail, e-mail, or phone, requesting
3
information about the institution, the programmes, and the entry requirements. This is
the first service image impact on the prospective student. This may be the crucial
moment.
In the case of the country selection, service will probably begin when the student
requests the residence visa at the host country’s consulate. In this sense, the work of
Binsardi and Ekwulugo (2003) shows the ease for university entrance and immigration
procedures as the second reason for the selection of the destination country (see
Table I).
The theoretical model
The international education is not a frequent purchase and demands a high level of
involvement from customers (Nicholls et al., 1995). In order to determine their
preferences, prospective students consider what is important for them, and then make
a conscious/unconscious trade-off among the attributes (Soutar and Turner, 2002).
The model presented in this work aims to explain the factors influencing the
purchase intention of international students. The purchase intention is used as a
predictor for the preferential choices of consumers, and is defined as the intention of the
student regarding the destination country as provider of the education service (Peng
et al., 2000; Srikatanyoo and Gnoth, 2002).
The theoretical model comprises the purchase intention, as a dependent and not
observable variable, and four factors with a total of 19 independent variables identified
in existing literature. The factors identified are personal reasons (Krampf and Heinlein,
1981; Dawidow and Uttal, 1989; Oosterbeck et al., 1992; Gro
¨
nroos, 1994; Kotler and Fox,
1995; Qureshi, 1995; Mazzarol and Hosie, 1996; Lin, 1997; Turner, 1998; Bourke, 2000;
Binsardi and Ekwulugo, 2003), country image (Hooley and Lynch, 1981; Lawley, 1998;
Bourke, 2000; Peng et al., 2000; MORI, 2001; Srikatanyoo and Gnoth, 2002; Binsardi and
Ekwulugo, 2003), institution image (Krampf and Heinlein, 1981; Peters, 1992; Hall,
1993; Sullivan, 1993; Qureshi, 1995; Mazzarol and Hosie, 1996; Lin, 1997; Mazzarol,
1998; Turner, 1998; Ford et al., 1999; Ivy, 2001; Soutar and Turner, 2002; Srikatanyoo
and Gnoth, 2002; Gutman and Miaoulis, 2003; Binsardi and Ekwulugo, 2003; Price et al.,
2003), and programme evaluation (Hooley and Lynch, 1981; Krampf and Heinlein, 1981;
Qureshi, 1995; Bourke, 2000; Peng et al., 2000; Srikatanyoo and Gnoth, 2002; Binsardi
and Ekwulugo, 2003). The model is presented in Figure 1.
Personal reasons
Personal improvement. Binsardi and Ekwulugo (2003) point out that when considering
core benefits, students are not buying degrees; they are buying the benefits that a
degree can provide in terms of employment, status and lifestyle, among others. In this
way, employment prospects play an important role in personal motivation.
Thus, among the main personal factors influencing the choice, Bourke (2000) found
enhanced career prospects and higher status implied in studying abroad. Other works
with similar findings are those from Qureshi (1995) and Lin (1997). However,
Oosterbeck et al. (1992) found that for school leavers this is not an important factor in
the choice of university.
Future employers are true customers (Kotler and Fox, 1995) because they will “buy”
the product (trained students). They are the ones who judge the validity of the studies
according to their perception about the programme quality, the institution’s prestige,
4
Reference Type
Number of
surveys
Number
of items Analysis applied
Kind of
study
Population
Surveyed Choice
Top five factors
identified/main findings
Krampf and
Heinlein (1981)
Empirical 196 102 Multiple discriminant analysis QT School leavers UN Identifies the steps a
prospective user would
follow
Hooley and
Lynch (1981)
Empirical 29 22 MONANOVA
Conjoint analysis
QT /QL Secondary school
students
UN Need of segmentation of
prospective students
Programme suitability
Nicholls et al.
(1995)
Theoretical – – – QL – MBA –
Qureshi (1995) Empirical 550 30 Correlation analysis
ANOVA
Model of Consumer Behaviour
QT Undergraduates UN University reputation
Wide selection of courses
Total cost of attendance
Availability of financial aid
Reputation of the Programme
Lin (1997) Empirical nd nd Descriptive analysis
Factorial analysis
QT University students
University
managers
UN Quality of education offered
Degree opportunities
Reputation of institution
Internship opportunities
Faculty qualifications
Mazzarol (1998) Empirical 315 nd Factor analysis
Logistic regression model
QT Education
institutions
– Image and resources
Coalition and forward
integration
Peng et al. (2000) Empirical 280 28 Structural equation model QT Undergraduates MBA Brand image
Ivy (2001) Empirical 174 27 Correspondence analysis QT University
managers
UN Old UK Universities:
Top quality teaching
Research output
The range of course offered
Staff reputations
South African Technikon:
Lower fees
Including bursaries
Physical facilities
Part-time tuition
(continued)
Table I.
Main higher education
choice literature
5
