Universities are increasingly utilising social media for student recruitment, the most highly used channel for prospective students. However, research on information gathering and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM)-seeking behaviours on social media is generally absent. This paper explores the information sought by prospective students on social media, by analysing data from actual conversations on Quora, a social media question-and-answer site. Content analysis of 865 questions was conducted to examine the information regarding the factors students seek when selecting a university. The findings report information requirements on five major dimensions, namely reputation, career prospect, learning and leaching, administration and student life. This paper contributes to higher education literature by revealing the university information search factors students most commonly seek on social media, utilising a unique data source derived from actual online questions. Through understanding the eWOM-seeking behaviours of prospective students, universities can more accurately target their social media content.

University choice is a high-risk decision for prospective students which requires substantial effort to evaluate a range of choice factors. Understanding this complex process is a crucial task for higher education marketers. Of particular importance are the differences across market segments. This study analyses the importance of choice factors, and the usage of information sources, across domestic/international segments and cross-country segments, and explores which choice factors are delivered via word-of-mouth information sources. Different from previous studies which collected data in the countries of destination, this study employs a data sample of prospective students from the country of origin of Vietnam, an emerging market of international education. The findings provide insight into the key choice factors and information sources by market segment. Future job prospects, teaching quality, staff expertise, and course content were important choice factors across all market segments. Parents are the most influential information source for Vietnamese students.

Purpose: Consumer ethics in Asia has attracted attention from marketing scholars and practitioners. Ethical beliefs and judgements have been predominantly investigated within this area. Recent research argues for consumer ethics to be measured in terms of behaviours rather than attitudinal judgements, due to a potential pitfall of attitudinal scales, which researchers often refer to as an attitude–behaviour gap. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to examine the dimensions of ethically minded consumer behaviour (EMCB) in an Asian emerging market context. Design/methodology/approach: A survey of 316 Vietnamese consumers was conducted to investigate their ethically minded behaviours. Findings: The SEM analyses reveal a significant impact of long-term orientation on EMCB, whereas spirituality has no impact. Collectivism, attitude to ethically minded consumption and subjective norms are found to influence the dimensions of EMCB. Age, income and job levels have effects on EMCB dimensions, but gender, surprisingly, has no effect. Practical implications: The study can be beneficial to businesses and policy makers in Vietnam or any similar Asian markets, especially in encouraging people to engage with ethical consumption. Furthermore, it provides practitioners in Vietnam with a measurement instrument that can be used to profile and segment consumers. Originality/value: This is among the first studies utilising and examining EMCB, especially in Vietnam where research into consumer ethics is scant. It contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a greater understanding of the impact of personal characteristics and cultural environment on consumer ethics, being measured by the EMCB scale which has taken into account the consumption choices. Furthermore, this study adds further validation to the EMCB scale.

Purpose: Word-of-mouth (WOM) literature has identified the roles of source and message in WOM influence, but the relationship between them is yet to be investigated. The purpose of this paper is to explore this relationship by examining the mediation of message on the impact of perceived source characteristics from the perspective of the receiver. The paper also considered the mutual relationships between source characteristics and message quality.Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative survey of prospective students was conducted to empirically examine the proposed conceptual model. A sample of 509 respondents was analysed using structural equation modelling.Findings: The findings suggest the significant impact of expertise, trustworthiness, homophily and opinion leadership of the WOM source on the judgement of message quality and the indirect effects on WOM influence mediated by the message quality. The results also indicate the moderating effects of receiver involvement and the valence of the message on the impact of message quality.Practical implications: The findings of this paper can inform the strategic development of WOM marketing. A deeper understanding of source characteristics and the role of the message may enable marketing practitioners to better target appropriate influencers for seeding programmes that stimulate WOM communication about their brands or products.Originality/value: This study examines how the receiver’s evaluations of message content mediate the relationship between source characteristics and WOM influence. Source and message are two elements of communication which are processed when people receive information. However, nascent research examines their effects on each other. This research contributes to the understanding of this relationship through an empirical examination of the direct effects of primary source characteristics on perceived message quality.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of word-of-mouth (WOM) types, WOM valence, content types and discussion topics of user posts on online engagement in two channels of a consumption community. The posts are composed by users on the discussion forum and shared to the Facebook channel of the consumption community by the administrators. Design/methodology/approach: The data for this study were obtained from a popular car consumption community in Vietnam. A total of 505 user posts on the discussion forum were manually coded and assigned to WOM types, valence and content characteristics. The online engagement metrics were measured by the number of views and replies on the discussion forum, and the number of likes, comments and shares on Facebook. Findings: The results indicate that the WOM types and valence have a significant impact on online engagement and the popularity of posts on Facebook is associated with the number of views on a discussion forum. The content type and discussion topic partially influence some factors of the online engagement metrics. Practical implications: The findings are helpful for consumption community administrators to understand and manage their users’ engagement. Moreover, it indirectly supports brands and companies, since the consumption communities also include sub-communities of particular brands and marketers cooperate with consumption communities for their social media marketing strategies. Originality/value: This research contributes to the literature of online engagement in two aspects. First, this study examines the impact of WOM types and valence. Second, this is the first study investigating the effects of posts by users within an information flow from a discussion forum to Facebook.