The influence of social and cultural capital of students in private higher education institution on students' satisfaction

摘要

Stiff competition in the higher education sector demands the institutions of higher education to pay more attention in evaluating the overall students? satisfaction and institution loyalty. The theory of push and pull is one of the motivation theories which explains why students pursue higher education and choose a specific higher education institution (HEI). The main purpose of this study is to develop an integrated model to understand college students’ behaviour and try to extend the theoretical and empirical evidence on the causal linkages between the push and pull motivations, the social and cultural capital of student and institution, the overall student’s satisfaction, and the HEI loyalty. This study was conducted in Saudi Arabia by a representative of students from developing countries. The scope of the study covers private higher education institutions in two big Saudi cities. A cluster sampling followed by a judgment sampling was employed to identify the study respondents. A total of 720 questionnaires were distributed and the analysis was based on 569 usable questionnaires. Two main statistical tools were used, i.e., SPSS 21 and AMOS 21. The findings of the current study support seven out of nine hypotheses. The final structural model results presented evidence that the relationship between push motivations and the overall student’s satisfaction as well as pull motivations and the overall student’s satisfaction are statistically supported. In addition, the relationship between the overall student’s satisfaction and HEI loyalty is significant. The moderation role of the social and cultural capital of institution between pull motivations and overall student’s satisfaction is supported. However, the moderation role of the social and cultural capital of student between push motivations and overall student’s satisfaction is not supported. The results of this study should help higher education marketers to develop marketing strategies to attract college students and encourage persistence at HEI. Managerial implications are discussed, as well as several potential recommendations for future studies are identified and a conclusion is drawn.