Antecedents of brand trust in online tertiary education: a tri-nation study

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국마케팅과학회
· 수록지 정보 : Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science(마케팅과학연구) / 22권 / 1호 / 24 ~ 44페이지
· 저자명 : Kim-Choy Chung

초록

Online education, which is centered on the use of the Internet and the World Wide Web, presents a new generation of educational tools. Its ‘anywhere, any time’concept frees the student from the constraints of time and place. Because there are no barriers to information flow over the Internet, it holds promise for a ‘curriculum without walls’ where intellectual richness is available to all. To take advantage of the huge number of potential students worldwide, many universities and commercial education providers have moved rapidly to introduce online tertiary programs to get a share of this market. Online programs are now commonplace in many learning institutions. However, Internet-based education has not attracted as many students as had been expected. Specifically, online tertiary education has not attracted as many students as had been expected in Singapore (Gagnon, 2002; Tan & Lambe, 2002;Wong, Gerber, & Toh, 2003); Brunei (Leong, 2006); and Malaysia (Alhabshi, 2002).
There is still a lack of confidence among students, parents and educators in Singapore (Tan & Lambe, 2002; Wong et al., 2003) that online education could be an effective medium for imparting knowledge/skills, even though distance education has already taken root in the country (as shown by the wide popularity of offshore degrees and twining programs). The low preference for web peer-to-peer interaction among online learners presents tough obstacles ahead for any attempts to build online learning communities in Singapore (Tan & Lambe, 2002). In Brunei, online tertiary degree programs have had a slow start, needing time to establish their reputation for quality offerings and because of the lack of resources (Leong, 2006).
Similarly, Alhabshi (2002) indicates that the Internet-based degree has not attracted as many students as had been expected in Malaysia, which is similar culturally to Singapore and Brunei (in terms of population ethnicity). Further, studies of brand impact on the student’s choice of online tertiary providers are scarce. The brand,with its underlying appeals, can function as a route map for students through the bewildering variety of choices/information about tertiary education in our increasingly networked society. Tertiary education brands can assist students in identifying appropriate/reputable programs or courses, and therefore reduce search costs; provide assurance of the quality associated with a particular tertiary brand thereby reducing perceived risk; and give psychological rewards of prestige and status, helping to reduce the social and psychological risks that are associated with socially-inappropriate programs/courses. This study suggests that trust is the antecedent of brand choice for online tertiary education, because trust acts to decrease the perceived risk of using a virtual service. Following an extensive review of literature, this study conceptualized brand trust as an individual’s conscious inclination to place his/her confidence in a brand’s qualities or attributes in situations entailing risk to themselves as a consumer, and proposed four hypotheses,presented as a linear model, to be empirically tested through structural equation modelling.
An interviewer-assisted questionnaire – where respondents rank the importance (using a 7-point Likert scale) to trusting online tertiary education of institutional and course assurance factors, direct brand experience, and indirect brand experience factors – was then developed (using altogether 17 measurement variables). Nine hundred questionnaires (using a mall-intercept method) were distributed in three malls in Singapore, three malls in three major cities in Malaysia (Johore Bahru,Kuala Lumpur and Kuching) and one mall in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. Out of the 637 questionnaires returned, 235 were from Singapore, 121 from Brunei and 281from Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur n ¼ 95, Johore Bahru n ¼ 89, Kuching n ¼ 97). The response data was normally distributed allowing parametric analysis. No major differences between Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei were found with all measurement variables (two-tail tests, p . 0.05). Next, all measurement variables in the proposed linear model were subjected to exploratory factor analysis using SPSS’s principal component analysis (PCA, varimax rotation). The KMO value was 0.782 and the Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (Sig ¼ 0.0), showing factor analysis is appropriate. The PCA pattern matrix table showed clear structure with the loaded variables similar to the proposed linear model. The average variance extracted for all four factors was above the recommended threshold of 0.5 (Hair,Anderson, Tatham, & Black, 1998) for satisfactory convergent validity. A reliability test conducted showed good internal consistency with all factorial measurement scales [composite reliability (CR) . 0.7], confirming that all the measurement scales used in the 4-factor model were statistically valid. Subsequently, structural equation modelling using AMOS ver. 6.0 software on all factorial models showed that the discrepancy between the sample covariance matrix S and the population covariance matrix S(u) was minimal [that is, S 2 S(u) ¼ minimum]. The resulting structural model test (full model) on the 4-factor model supported all four hypotheses,supporting the notion that the antecedents of brand trust in online tertiary education are related to risk aversion, contingent on institutional and courseware design assurance factors. This tri-nation study also revealed that public opinion (friends/family’s opinion about online tertiary education, industry support, word-of-mouth communication via alumni networks) and website quality enhanced learners’experiences and trust in an online tertiary brand. Among the various recommendations made to increase brand trust in online tertiary education are:having a regular classroom session in the form of block teaching to complement online teaching; the need for government recognition or accreditation of online degrees to ensure quality of education; ensuring the presence of up-to-date (relevant)information on, and ease of navigation within, the university website; on-campus orientation for community building; having online programs relevant to career advancement/industry needs; a portfolio of online graduates now at prominent institutions for promotional purposes and building a strong alumni network. These recommendations would enhance the credibility, visibility and trustworthiness of an online tertiary provider.

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