Academic service quality, student role and WOM communication in higher education

Abstract

Academic service quality in higher education is co-created by all participants of the educational process, including students. Word of mouth communication (WOM) in the education sector is among the main tools to assess the level of training services. In this context, the study investigates the relationship between the student role, academic service quality, word of mouth communication, and electronic word of mouth communication in higher education. The theoretical basis of the research is the principles of behavioural economics and service-dominant logic theory, in particular. Hypotheses were tested using the structural equation model. The research data collected using the questionnaire method were obtained from 164 students in the foreign language preparatory class at a state university in Kyrgyzstan. IBM SPSS AMOS 21 package program was used to test the structural relationships in the research model. The findings showed that student role positively affected academic service quality and WOM communication. In addition, it was concluded that academic service quality positively impacted word of mouth communication, which, in turn, affected electronic word of mouth communication. Among the directions of future research are studies with a larger sample and different research methods and designs used.

Creating Students’ Loyalty in the Aviation Campus

“…The empirical test results from Armelini, (2011) prove that positive word of mouth helps gain and maintain student loyalty and enlarge the existing consumer base. Tehci, (2022) stated that word-of-mouth communication is a story in the form of impressions from consumers to their friends regarding a pleasant service and promotion of a product or service. Word of mouth is an interaction from individual to other individual which contains product information.…”

“…H1: Higher education image has an influence on student loyalty Word of mouth creates 1) positive stories, namely the consumer's intention to tell others about positive things about the product they consume, 2) information, namely the desire of consumers to provide information to others when they are asked about a good product, 3) recommendation, namely the desire of consumers to provide positive information to other people who need information about product quality, and 4) solicitation, namely the willingness of consumers to invite other people for products that have been consumed (Tehci, 2022). Word of mouth communication is able to maintain the strength of student loyalty in higher education (Annamdevula & Bellamkonda, 2016).…”

Internal marketing and employees’ perception of organizational performance in the maritime organization: The mediator and moderator role of satisfaction and work experience

“…Besides, from a marketing viewpoint, internal marketing employees consider the internal customer, the activities as the product and the business as a market (Tsai, Tang, 2008). Internal customers are all employees in the business, regardless of their grade (Tehci, Senbursa, 2023). Considering that the needs of the customers themselves can be best known by the customers, it would be beneficial to reconsider the concept of market orientation from this perspective.…”

The Effect of Service Quality and Student Satisfaction on Word of Mouth: Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Manajemen IMMI Jakarta

“…The structural relationship between the quality of service and student satisfaction has a strong positive influence (Syah & Wijoyo, 2021), a moderate positive impact (Karami & Elahinia, 2019), and a weak positive effect (Yasa et al, 2021). The relationship between service quality and WOM has a strong positive impact (Mestrovic, 2017), a moderately positive effect (Chandra & Suhermin, 2022), weakened positive effects (Tehci, 2022), and a non-significant negative influence (Karlina & Haryanti, 2021). Furthermore, the relationship between students' satisfaction and the WOM is strongly positive (Afridi et al, 2018), moderately positive (Auriza et al, 2022), and not significantly negative (Handayanto, 2018).…”