The Influence of Social Media on Chinese Students' Choice of Private Universities in China

This study investigates the importance of the social media on Chinese students’ choice of private universities in China and develops strategies to use different type of word-of-mouth. This study adopts a qualitative approach with a plan to conduct an in-depth interview with 25 Chinese private university students in mainland China. This research is also anticipated to add to the roles of offline word-of-mouth, the source credibility, and their relationships. The results indicate the following: 1) Chinese social media online word-of-mouth will directly influence Chinese students’ intention to select private universities. 2) Offline word-of-mouth will indirectly influence Chinese students’ intention to select private universities 3) Information source credibility plays a mediation role between offline word-of-mouth and intention to select private universities. The findings of this study will provide applied knowledge and managerial recommendations for private university who target Chinese students, need to be more actively involved in social media marketing by including online and offline word-of-mouth interactively.