Abstract:

Developing intellectual capital has become a key asset for countries. Universities, as integral parts of the educational systems, play an essential role in this process. They are largely responsible for one of the major services required in today’s society, that is, training professionals adapted to its demands. In this sense, they must design and implement learning programs and methodologies that enable them to be market-oriented and to be positioned as innovative service organizations. To achieve this, a more strategic approach in the management of educational institutions as lifelong learning entities is needed (Wong, 2005). As has happened in many sectors, given the dominance of services, marketing has become basic to higher education (Durvasula, et al., 2011). Universities have seen essential to satisfy their customers’ (students) and stakeholders’ needs, analyzing their expectations and needs (Cheng and Tam, 1997). The adoption of a market orientation in universities implies that strategies must be designed focusing on the different profiles of their targets. Previous studies have shown that understanding the behavior of the agents involved in student-university relationships is mainly funded, among other factors, on the study of the sources of the students’ perceived value (Alves, 2011) and the image of the institution (Helgesen y Nesset, 2007). Moreover, improving students’ perception of value and positive image of an educational institution can help enhance their identification with this organization and, in turn, their attachment to the institution when they graduate. Despite the importance of these factors in the higher education context, no studies have examined them as segmentation variables to characterize the graduate market. The objective of this study is thus to identify and profile graduate segments on the basis of the relationships between perceived value, university image and identification with the institution, using a structure of causal relationships between the three variables above mentioned. In particular, we use finite mixture modeling, which has received recently attention in marketing research literature and has been considered the most appropriate technique to capture unobserved heterogeneity. This type of modeling can make a significant contribution to the implementation of segmentation strategies based on perceptual criteria, by helping universities to better understand, explain and predict cognitive-affective patterns related to graduates.

References:
[1] Cheng Y.C., Tam W.M. (1997). Multi-models of quality in education. Quality Assurance in Education 5 (1), pp. 22-31
[2] Alves H (2011) The measurement of perceived value in higher education: a unidimensional approach. The Service Industries Journal 31(12), pp. 1943-1960.
[3] Durvasula, S., Lysonski, S., y Madhavi, A.D. (2011) “Beyond service attributes: do personal
values matter?”, Journal of Services Marketing, 25 (1), pp. 33-46.
[4] Helgesen, Ø, Nesset, E (2007) What accounts for students’ loyalty? Some field study Evidence. International Journal of Educational Management 21 (2), pp. 126-143
[5] Wong E (2005) Operationalization of strategic change in continuing education. The International Journal of Educational Management 19 (5), pp. 383-396

Keywords:

Graduate-university identification, perceived value, university image, segmentation, higher education.