Roles of internal capabilities, government support and marketing-mix strategy on inward export performance satisfaction of Malaysia’s higher education providers

Abstract

Export services play a vital role in the development of a country's economy. The service sector provides opportunities not only for the firms to expand their businesses but also to contribute to national economic growth. Recently, many Malaysian higher education institutions (HEIs), the providers of educational services, have been facing a decline in international students' enrolment. The resulting reduction in the export of higher education services has thus become an area of concern for the Malaysian government, which has urgently begun to seek solutions. However, there is scant knowledge about the determinants of inward export performance (IEP) satisfaction in Malaysia's higher education (HE). Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the direct and indirect impact of internal and external factors influence the IEP satisfaction of Malaysian HEIs through marketing-mix strategy (programme, price, prospectus, prominence, people, promotion, premiums). Data was collected from 152 international student officers working in Malaysian HEIs. The data was analysed descriptively using IBM SPSS 24, while PLS-SEM was used for inferential analysis and hypotheses testing. The structural model analysis revealed that the determinants, including service innovativeness, management commitment, cultural sensitivity, business technology strategy, government support, and marketing-mix strategy, were positively related to the IEP satisfaction of HE. The results also support the mediating role of the marketing-mix strategy on the relationship between service innovativeness, management commitment, business technology strategy, service climate and IEP satisfaction in higher education. However, the marketing-mix strategy did not mediate the influence of cultural sensitivity and government support on IEP satisfaction. The findings of this study contribute to the literature on export performance, IEP satisfaction, export marketing, systematic literature review in HE export, and measuring marketing-mix strategy adaptation/standardisation. Malaysian HE may use the results in designing its strategies to attract international students. Malaysian HEIs seeking success in the inward export market should consider using an adapted export-marketing strategy with respect to the price, people, prospectus, and promotion.