The Effect of Service Quality on International Postgraduates Students' Loyalty Mediated by Positive Emotion Satisfaction towards Malaysian Public Universities

ABSTRACT This research aims to examine the effect of higher education performance of service quality on customer loyalty mediator by positive emotional satisfaction among international postgraduate students in Malaysian public universities. The carefully chosen elements were service quality, positive emotion satisfaction, and customer loyalty. The theoretical framework in this study was based on the Social Exchange Theory. A quantitative approach using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was utilised as the main research design. The data was collected from international postgraduate students in Malaysian public universities. A survey questionnaire was developed and verified for its construct validity based on the judgments of 2 experts. A pilot test was conducted to investigate the questionnaire reliability involving 50 respondents selected from Malaysian public universities. Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted on 100 respondents in Malaysian public universities to verify the research variables that could be used in the actual study. The actual survey questionnaire was distributed to 380 respondents, and the data were analysed using SEM to determine the relationship between the variables. The research results indicated that service quality has a significant and positive effect on positive emotional satisfaction. The positive significant relation was (B=0.218, p< 0.05), The research results indicated no effect of service quality on customer loyalty. Therefore, H3 was rejected (p=0142). Moreover, positive emotional satisfaction mediated the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty. The positive significant relation was (B= 0.047, p< 0.05). The main implication of the study is that Malaysian public universities should focus on emotional satisfaction to increase the loyalty of the customers