Decision Making Behaviour on the Choice of UK Business School: A Chinese Cultural Perspective

This study aims to contribute to the knowledge of marketing international higher education underpinned by marketing theories and provide managerial implications for education marketers as well. This is carried out with specific reference to Chinese students' choice behaviour of UK business school. The purpose of this dissertation is to systematically examine and evaluate literature in higher education service, decision making theories and Chinese culture to propose theoretical models that integrates the different antecedents and consequences of Chinese cultural that impact on decisions being made on choice of a UK business school. Proposed models are developed based on deduction derived from the literature on the decision making and Chinese cultural value system. In addition, the researcher empirically tests these frameworks on Chinese students' choice behaviour and provides managerial implications for both UK higher educational institutions in general and business school management and marketers as well. This study consists of three major parts. The first part (Chapter 2, 3 and 4) introduces the literature review starting with a discussion of the service characteristics in higher education sector. From USA, UK and Australia's perspectives, it then focuses particularly the increasing trend of education globalization, preference of subjects of study and increasing demand from emerging markers particularly from China. It is followed by a critical assessment of some mainstream decision-making models and proposed the author's new model. Lastly, definitions of culture are critically examined; a systematic review of the Chinese culture value system carried out. The second part deals with the research methodology: research paradigms are discussed in detail firstly then followed by an evaluation of the effectiveness of depth interview as the main method of this study. Lastly, it discusses the questionnaire design and modification, sampling, and measurement procedures. The third part presents the analysis and interpretation in conjunction with model proposed, and on completion of the data analysis, this part summarizes this study and integrates all key research findings to generate research conclusions. Contributions are highlighted; managerial implications discussed, last but not least, the limitations and future research direction pinpointed