The role of information type, communication format, and delivery channel in engaging international students : an examination of university selection process in Hong Kong

Abstract

Higher education institutions have traditionally relied on academic reputation and wordof- mouth rather than on actively crafted marketing activities. It is indeed largely coming from a deep-rooted belief that “great universities naturally sell themselves.” Indeed, the rise of new higher education hubs, particularly those in Asia and beyond, drives a shift from passive reputation-building to active, data-driven marketing outreach. Aiming to match long-established Western destinations, these emerging hubs are investing heavily in order to attract the rapidly expanding international student body. This changing landscape raises an important research question: What marketing message strategies actually work better when the prospective international students, who are digital-native, comparison-shopping, and highly sophisticated, are the audience? In order to address this gap, the present thesis investigates how the message content, presenting format, and delivery channel interact to drive student engagement during the initial exploration stage of the university selection journey. This study offers an empirical opportunity from an Asian hub that is rapidly catching up with the traditional market frontrunners. The work includes three empirical steps. A pilot survey was conducted to initially understand the baseline preferences of prospective international students for information type (search-based vs. experience-based) and for communication format (text vs. video). Based on the insights from the survey, a randomised controlled online experiment (Study 1) was set up that involved the manipulations of Information Type × Communication Format × Delivery Channel in a 2 × 2 × 2 design. A total of 261 genuine prospective international students, who were directly recruited from a university’s admissions database in Hong Kong, participated in this experiment. Study 2 then strengthens the external validity through a field experiment, in which 3,979 real prospective international students participated in the pre-application stage and 801 participated in the post-offer stage, with genuine click-through behaviour captured for analysis. Through the study, three key findings emerge. First, information type matters, but only when format and channel are considered. Second, how the message is presented can amplify or undermine its content in enhancing student engagement. Text consistently outperforms video when it is delivered via email, regardless of information type. Video, by contrast, realises its persuasive potential only when delivering experience-based information through social-media. Third, the delivery channel plays a critical role. Email excels for search-based information presented in text format while social media proves to be superior for experience-based information formatted in video. Misalignment, such as placing video in email suppresses student engagement. Mediation analysis illustrates the mechanisms underlying these effects. Two parallel but distinct pathways, ease of processing and positive affect, are identified. Ease of processing significantly mediated the effectiveness of search-based information in text format via email. On the other hand, positive affect mediated the effectiveness of experience-based information in video format via social media. Trustworthiness, while rated highest for search-based information in text format, does not mediate engagement behaviour once ease of processing and positive affect are controlled, which indicates that credibility is necessary but not sufficient for driving engagement alone. This thesis advances theoretical understanding by demonstrating that the effectiveness of richer versus leaner communication media depends significantly on the context. This finding further supplements Media Richness Theory and complements existing dual-process persuasion frameworks. In practical terms, the research provides advice for university admissions offices: first, use search-based information in text and delivered via email during the initial pre-application stage; second, shift to experience-based content in video delivered through social media in order to build deeper connections with prospective students. In addition, higher education institutions should employ more practical engagement metrics such as scroll-depth and view-through rates to continuously monitor students’ behaviors. Importantly, admissions offices should also consider building teams that combine traditional university admissions expertise with modern digital marketing skills from outside the institutional arena, such as the private sector. Taken together, the two experiments show that effective recruitment communication does not rely on any single, simple strategy. Rather, the sustained success of higher education institutions in recruiting international students depends on how thoughtfully they coordinate "what is said, how it is packaged, and where it is delivered."