Higher Education Marketing Through Digital Community: Understanding the Motivations of Joining and Participating in University-Sponsored Communities and the Effect on Yield.
As enrollment goals and student informational resources increase, universities are scrambling to be more competitive in the marketplace and implement more effective enrollment strategies. Digital closed online communities are one new method universities are using to reach students. Using an online survey, the authors investigated the motivations behind why students join these communities and how they participate in them. In addition, the research also tested how variables correlated to and predicted a student’s behavioral intention to yield, or enroll at, the university. Findings expand Situational Theory of Problem Solving literature and establish connections between certain attributes and enrolling at the university. Specifically, students who had a clear plan to make their college decision, joined the closed online community, and reported more communicative action in the closed online community also reported a higher behavioral intention to enroll at the university associated with the app
