Satisfaction, commitment, and word-of-mouth intention of students in higher education
Abstract
This research was conducted to evaluate the impact of satisfaction, three forms of
commitment and loyalty on word-of-mouth communication in higher education
environment. Quantitative method was used by collecting data from 456 students
studying various disciplines at three public major universities in Ho Chi Minh City
(Vietnam). Through intermediaries are commitments and loyalty, the relationship
between satisfaction and WOM of students about their schools is examined. From the
result of this study, it can be seen that the lack of-alternative commitment of highsacrifice
commitment does not affect word-of-mouth messages. In addition, affective
commitment is most influenced by satisfaction of students in university. Furthermore,
satisfaction also has significant effect on loyalty and valence of word-of-mouth messages,
rather than word-of-mouth frequency. This research examined studying students most in
economics major at first and second year. The results of this study may not apply to older
students as senior or students at technical major. Differences in regions may affect
findings of this research. Managers of education institutes can use these result to focus on
satisfaction of students. This study also suggests that improving student experiences at
university plays an extremely important role for their loyalty and WOM formation to
enhance student enrolments. WOM is one of the effective marketing tools for attracting
prospective students, maintaining current students and promoting advanced management
of student services.
Keywords: word-of-mouth, higher education, undergraduates, satisfaction,
commitment, loyalty.