Exploring the Study Abroad Journey: Chinese and Indian Students in U.S. Higher Education

Abstract

Chinese and Indian students represent over half of all international students in the United States. This study explores the study abroad journey of Chinese and Indian international students by connecting their pre-consumption decision-making factors, service experience, and post-consumption consumer marketing engagement (CME) behaviors. The results show that consumer decision-making factors and service experiences have more influence on Chinese international students’ post-acquisition CME than on Indian international students. The prestige and value of a U.S. degree have a positive impact on CME of both Chinese and Indian international students but in different ways. Interestingly, the influence factor inhibits the interactive, persuasive and benevolent aspects of CME behaviors among Chinese international students, while it positively impacts the persuasive aspect of CME among Indian international students, that is, their effort to spread good word of mouth about the U.S. University and their willingness to recommend the university to people in their home country. Besides, international student satisfaction with social opportunities encourages them to promote positive interactive and affective engagement with host universities. Finally, satisfaction with campus quality promotes interactive, cognitive and persuasive aspects of CME. Implications and limitations of the study conclude the paper.