A model of service quality, price satisfaction, image rating, overall satisfaction, repurchase intention and positive word of mouth in private higher education organisations in Singapore

The state is the primary provider of education in Singapore. The rise of the global knowledge economy, however, has generated an education industry that is worth about USD2.2 trillion per year globally. The Government of Singapore therefore revamped its higher-education sector so that Higher Private Education Organisations (HPEOs) can offer more flexible transnational education to attract fee-paying, overseas students and increase the education industry’s contribution to the national GDP. The private-education industry is currently facing competition from more established markets such as the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. Locally, HPEOs need to upgrade their service standard in order to meet the stringent registration requirements imposed by Singapore’s regulators and, at the same time, compete with each other in a high-cost environment. HPEOs therefore need to gain a better understanding of the relations among variables such as service quality, price satisfaction, image rating, overall satisfaction, repurchase intention and positive word of mouth. A better understanding will allow HPEOs to improve their marketing efforts in order to obtain competitive advantages. Prior research only focused on the correlation of variables and failed to take into account the inter-relationship among two or more variables. The measurement of these variables is often dependent on geographical factors, types of services and types of stakeholders. It is therefore the objective of this study to examine the measurement and relationships among service quality, price satisfaction, image rating, overall satisfaction, repurchase intention and positive word of mouth in the context of HPEOs in Singapore. A survey involving 554 participants from local HPEOs was conducted over a period of three years. Analysis of the data shows that attributes such as image rating and service quality are unique and HPEOs have to customize these attributes to meet the needs and wants of their students. This study found that service quality, price satisfaction, image rating, overall satisfaction, repurchase intention and positive word of mouth are all positively correlated. It was also found that some factors (e.g., overall satisfaction and repurchase intention) are mediators of the relationships between other variables.