PurposeA fuller understanding of the information search behaviour of prospective students in the digital era is one of the keys to success in university recruitment. The purpose of this paper is to investigate students’ university choice factors in relation to the online environment.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 637 samples from 11 private higher education institutions were collected and tested against assumptions before performing statistical analysis including exploratory factor analysis and mean comparison.FindingsThe findings revealed that there are some significant differences in gender and academic discipline in the use of the internet to search for university information. In addition, four constructs of university information were identified that are perceived as important by students in their search behaviour: “university reputation”, “eligibility and affordability”, “teaching and learning” and “university tangibility”. The outcomes of this research provide some noteworthy insights which have numerous strategic digital marketing implications.Originality/valueWhile most existing studies have explored types of social media apps or online channels that prospective students use, little research has touched on students’ university choice factors in relation to the online environment. Responding to Constantinides and Zinck Stagno (2011) and Hemsley-Brownet al.’s (2016) call, this paper aims to address this research gap by investigating students’ university information search in relation to the online environment.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to ease the methodological application of critical realist multilevel research in business marketing. Although there has been plenty of theoretical contributions in this field, it is not always clear how critical realism can be best applied in business marketing settings. Accordingly, this paper addresses this gap in literature. Also, this paper addresses the calls for a multilevel conceptualization for resilience, based on the critical realist laminated systems. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper, which uses pre-existing literature to develop a critical realist methodological approach for the purposes of multilevel business marketing research. The contribution is based on literature by combining pre-existing ideas in a new way in the context of business marketing. Findings This paper makes a methodological contribution by introducing the critical realist “laminated systems” to business marketing as a multilevel research approach. Furthermore, the authors conceptualize a specific laminated model, the Laminated Interactional Model (LIM), that is designed for the purpose of business marketing research. The LIM is a methodological tool that conceptualizes business marketing based on six levels of analysis, easing the methodological application of critical realism in business marketing settings. In addition, to provide an example, the authors apply the LIM to the literature on resilience, providing a multilevel conceptualization. This is a timely contribution, as resilience has emerged as a central concept addressing interorganizational survival during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originality/value This paper makes three main contributions to business marketing. First, this paper provides a methodological contribution by introducing the critical realist notion of “laminated systems” to business marketing. Second, this paper conceptualizes a specific laminated model for business marketing, namely, the LIM. Third, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper will apply critical realism and the LIM to the notion of resilience, addressing the calls for multilevel conceptualizations.

This paper investigates the nature of the boundaries between the extended self and possessions (including potentially extended possessions) in the context of gift giving for Hong Kong Chinese consumers. Our findings showed that informants narrated stories not only about the gifts that they themselves had received as being their important possessions and thus constituting part of their extended self, but they also described objects that they had given as gifts to close others as part of their own possessions. These extended possessions potentially constituted part of their own extended selves. In addition, by the virtue of their material presence, these extended possessions acted as continuous reminders of these extended selves. The extended possessions hence provided the informants with an anchoring point to increase the relatively stability of their relationships with others, thereby countering the labile nature of ever-changing identity narratives. This paper contributes to current debates concerning the relationships between the self, possessions, and gift giving providing a richer explanation and extending previous work on possessions and the extended self.

Purpose Understanding the influences in the decision-making process of prospective students when choosing a university is crucial in student recruitment. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of perceived source credibility on attitudes and intentions towards taking advice from significant others (e.g. parents, peers and teachers) on university choice. Design/methodology/approach In total, 626 samples from eight government-subsidised secondary schools were collected and tested using the component-based structural equation modelling of partial least squares. Findings The findings verified factors of source credibility that determine prospective students’ attitudes towards taking advice from others. Attitudes and subjective norms explained 49 per cent of the variance in intention to take advice from others on university choice. The findings of the present study provide practical marketing insights for enrolment and recruitment managers. Originality/value While most studies focus on students’ university choice in the recruitment process, studies on perceived source credibility of significant others in the university choice decision-making process are limited.