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Higher Education as an Extended Duration Service: An Investigation of the Determinants of Vietnamese Overseas Student Loyalty

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Journal of Studies in International Education

Published online on

Abstract

Regarding higher education as a type of extended duration service, this article proposes a framework considering adjusted expectation, disconfirmation, satisfaction, and commitment in a conceptual model to explain international student loyalty. Employing a structure equation model to the sample data collected from 252 Vietnam overseas students studying in more than 15 countries, this study confirms the direct and indirect roles of satisfaction and commitment in student loyalty. Given the nature of extended duration service for higher education, another important finding is that adjusted expectation mediates the satisfaction–commitment relationship and subsequently affects student loyalty through commitment. An additional discovery is the encounter of a direct path from disconfirmation to adjusted expectation and to commitment, previously overlooked in prior studies. Our findings have implications for university and government strategies for retaining international students.