Exploring the Impact of Universities' Digital Advancement on Students' Perceptions - A Driver of Reputation and WoM Behavior?

Universities nowadays face an increasing competition for high-potential students. As students rely on opinions of their peers when deciding for a study program, universities benefit from positive word-of-mouth (WoM). A good way to increase positive WoM is to establish a favorable reputation among their current students. Therefore, this study investigates reputational drivers with a focus on the influence of digital offers. It explores students’ perceptions of universities’ digital advancement and how it impacts university reputation and their WoM behavior. First, this paper introduces a measurement for students’ perception of their universities’ digital advancement (PDA). The results of a PLS-SEM model underline the quality of the proposed measurement. Second, this paper highlights the explanatory power of the PDA construct on students’ assessment of university reputation and on their WoM behavior. Particularly, results show that the PDA construct is the third most influential driver for universities’ likeability and students’ related WoM behavior