A Marketing Mix Perspective as Antecedents of Students’ Decisions: Evidence from Five Universities in Indonesia

Abstract

This research was conducted at higher education institutions in North Sumatra, Indonesia. The purpose of this study is to confirm theoretical and empirical models that are built based on theories related to the marketing mix and functional positions. This study describes the causal relationship between exogenous variables, moderating variables, and endogenous variables. In this case the exogenous variables consist of Product, Price, Promotion, Location, People, Process, Service, where the moderating variable is Functional Position and the endogenous variable is Student Decision. The research approach was carried out with a quantitative approach. The sample in this study were lecturers at five universities in North Sumatra Province, namely the Universitas Sumatera Utara, Universitas Negeri Medan, Universitas Medan Area, Universitas Islam Sumatera Utara, and Universitas Prima Indonesia, totaling 303 people. The research results show that product, price, location, promotion, people have no significant effect on student decisions in choosing a doctoral education. Meanwhile, service, process has a positive and significant effect on the decision to choose doctoral education. The research findings also show that functional positions significantly moderate prices, products, services on student decisions. Functional positions did not significantly moderate location, people, and processes on student decisions to choose doctoral education.