Country of origin influence on service evaluation : an insight into Chinese students' choice of British higher education

This thesis aims to examine the country of origin effects on service evaluation by investigating Chinese students’ evaluation of British higher education. How Chinese students evaluated Chinese higher education and other international higher education in general was also of interest to the study. The methodology deployed in this study was McCracken’s (1988) “The long interview”. In addition, the focus group interview suggested by McCracken (1988) was used as the triangulated methodology. This study can be classified into three parts. Part one of the study has identified the COO effects on the service evaluation. First of all, British COO image was generally perceived by Chinese students as positive. Secondly, whilst there was mixed positive and negative evidence, the study found that on balance Chinese COO image tended to be generally perceived as more negative than positive. Chinese students would like to use their COO image to infer the evaluation of British higher education services.Part two of the study aims to evaluate the internal influences that can affect the magnitude of COO effects on service evaluation. The internal influences include a-priori service knowledge and vertical individualism. Chinese students’ familiarity of British higher education is generally limited which will result in the strong COO effects in their evaluation of British higher education services. Additionally, Chinese students’ familiarity of Chinese higher education is generally substantial. This will result in weak COO effects in their evaluation of Chinese higher education services. Moreover, the higher the level of the vertical individualism the students have, the more likely they will have favourable evaluation of British higher education and decide to go to the U.K for higher education. Part three of the study has found that COO effects on service evaluation will be perceived as less important when other related service information cues are considered