An Empirical Study of Critical Factors Relating to Higher Education Students’ Loyalty in Thailand

Abstract

The study aims to investigate critical factors relating to Thai higher education students’ loyalty by synthesizing causal models from various academic databases. The causal models indicate the hypothesis on the path of factors in a synthesized causal model. The researcher develops the questionnaire (involving a 7-point Likert-scale) that consist of latent variables and indicator items. It is evaluated by experts using a content validity index. After that the questionnaire is completed by 400 Thai higher education students and analysed using confirmatory factor analysis for construct validity. Structural equation modeling approach is applied to judge the consistency between the causal model and empirical data. The research results show that the causal model’s determinants include 5 critical factors relating to Thai higher education students’ loyalty: Perceived quality of teaching provided, Emotional commitment, Service quality, Student satisfaction, Reputation and Image of university. In total, seven hypotheses were supported. The result of this study can be applied to decision making with regard to student relationship management for academic institutes or universities. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.