Academic service quality, student role and WOM communication in higher education

Abstract

Academic service quality in higher education is co-created by all participants of the educational process, including students. Word of mouth communication (WOM) in the education sector is among the main tools to assess the level of training services. In this context, the study investigates the relationship between the student role, academic service quality, word of mouth communication, and electronic word of mouth communication in higher education. The theoretical basis of the research is the principles of behavioural economics and service-dominant logic theory, in particular. Hypotheses were tested using the structural equation model. The research data collected using the questionnaire method were obtained from 164 students in the foreign language preparatory class at a state university in Kyrgyzstan. IBM SPSS AMOS 21 package program was used to test the structural relationships in the research model. The findings showed that student role positively affected academic service quality and WOM communication. In addition, it was concluded that academic service quality positively impacted word of mouth communication, which, in turn, affected electronic word of mouth communication. Among the directions of future research are studies with a larger sample and different research methods and designs used.