University of Wollongong

Research Online
University of Wollongong in Dubai - Papers University of Wollongong in Dubai

2015

Social and peer influences in college choice

Ali Bhayani
University of Wollongong, alib@uow.edu.au

Publication Details
Bhayani, A. 2015, 'Social and peer influences in college choice', ICEBMM 2015: International Conference on Economics and Business
Market Management, World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, United States, pp. 1-20.

Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library:
research-pubs@uow.edu.au
Social and Peer Influences in College Choice
Abstract

College is a high involvement decision making where students are expected

to evaluate several college offerings before selecting a college or a course to
study. However, even in high involvement product like college, students get
influenced by opinion leaders and suffer from social contagion. This narrative
style study, involving 98 first year students, was able to demonstrate that social
contagion differs with regards to gender, ethnicity and personality.
Recommendations from students with academically strong background would
impact on the college choice of the undergraduate students and limit information
search. Study was able to identify the incidence of anchoring heuristics amongst
the students. Managerial implications with regards to design of marketing
campaign follows at the end of the study.

Keywords: Social Contagion, opinion leaders, higher education, consumer behaviour

Dr. Ali Bhayani

University Of Wollongong Dubai - alibhayani@uowdubai.ac.ae

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1. Introduction
Power of Word of Mouth (WOM), whether face to face or online, can never
be underestimated. Corporate world have started investing millions of dollars in
creating positive word of mouth marketing campaign especially focusing on
earned media. Whether it relates to adoption of new product, or selection
between alternative brands or just watching a television show; the WOM plays a
significant role in consumer decision making process.
Universities and colleges, chasing students to increase revenues, have been
slow to react to this change and relying on traditional media to attract students.
Initially WOM was used to increase awareness but nowadays it’s increasingly
being used to shape attitudes of consumers (students in this study). Persuasion
value of WOM has resulted in it becoming an integral part of promotional budgets
of advertisers. One of the reason for this change is realisation, on part of
advertisers, that customers acquired through WOM have more long term value,
as compared to, those acquired by paid advertising (Villanueva et al. 2008).
Moreover, WOM has greater impact on brand choice as compared to traditional
advertising or personal search on the internet (East et al. 2005). It is, therefore,
important for universities and colleges to use social influence in order to shape
the attitudes of the students (Leenders 2002) and let one consumer influence
others (Phelps et al. 2004).
The present study is based on three assumptions about the decision making
process adopted by consumers (students). First, students do get influenced both
face to face and in online setting, while making decision about the university
which means there is a social contagion. Second, some students, termed as
opinion leaders, exert more influence over others with regards to choice of
college and majors. Third, social contagion impacts on the extensiveness of search
amongst students when it comes to decision about the high involvement decision
about the college choice. First two assumptions are based on the several studies
with regards to role of social contagion and WOM in shaping the attitudes of
consumers about adopting or purchasing the product (Chevalier and Mayzlin
2006; Godes and Mayzlin 2004; Huang et al. 2011; Liu 2006; Trusov et al. 2009).
The third assumption is the outcome of the first two assumptions.

2
 However, there are critics who feel that there is overemphasis on the role of
WOM in influencing attitudes, especially when the idea or a concept is new (Van
den Bulte and Stremersch 2004). In many cases, traditional advertising played a
independent role in influencing the attitudes of consumers and supplements the
impact of WOM (Bruce et al. 2012). Still others have questioned the effectiveness
of the opinion leaders in influencing the decision of the consumers (Watts and
Dodds 2007).
This study is unique in the sense that it will assess the social contagion and
opinion leaders’ influence for a high involvement product like college choice and
majors. Normally, student’s choice of college and selection of major is a key
decision in their life and they are expected to carry out an extensive internal and
external search before they make decision about the college or a major.
Assumptions mentioned earlier would be studied with regards to the college
choice.
After developing research questions, the discussion will proceed to research
methodology and design. Marketing implications and contribution to theory
would help conclude the article.

2. Research Questions
2.1 Social Influence
Impact of social influence on consumer decision making process is
established in literature(Dahl et al. 2001). Consumers often rely on evaluation
of their decision by their reference groups and family members. University
education is a public decision and therefore consumers are susceptible to
social influence. There are several studies that have studied social influence
or social contagion from the perspective of new product adoptions (Aral and
Walker 2011; Iyengar et al. 2011; Risselada et al. 2014). Relationship of social
influence and culture and for that matter between social influence and
personal characteristics have been demonstrated(Laroche et al. 2005).
The importance of connected consumer, who can influence others,
has resulted in rapid spread of information among networks as postulated by
social contagion theory and extensively discussed in marketing literature (Aral

3
 and Walker 2011; Bilgicer et al. 2015; De Bruyn and Lilien 2008; Libai et al.
2010; Risselada et al. 2014). Spread of the word of mouth through social
contagion was found to exert influence even after controlling the net
marketing effects and that usage volume of the network by members was
instrumental in spreading the message and creating buzz (Iyengar et al.
2011). Students tend to follow both descriptive and injunctive norms while
selecting the college as it wants to be part of associative or aspirational
reference group.
University education is a highly intangible and variable service that
might be susceptible to external cues for evaluation purposes. This external
cues can be in form of reference groups wherein a consumer wants to be
seen as someone like them(Escalas and Bettman 2005). This impacts choice of
majors and university. Previous, research did take into account the role of
gender, culture, ethnicity with regards to reference groups. However, the
question whether student would like to choose a university that is associated
to one gender, or a particular ethnic or religious group, or are known to
specialize in a particular field, or serve a specific nationality, is not fully
answered with regards to college choice. Role of dissociative reference group
also cannot be taken on the face value either. Normally, consumers would
not like to consume products that are perceived to be used by groups that
they don’t want associate with. For example, men normally avoid feminine
products and vice versa (White and Dahl 2006).
Thus, this research assess whether college choice is as a result of
social influence such that this influence is subjected to gender, personality of
the student, ethnicity, nationality and family ties irrespective of marketing
efforts exerted to influence the student’s decision.

2.2 Opinion Leadership

Another aspect discussed in this article is the role of opinion leaders in
influencing the college choice and majors. We, as human beings, use
approval and liking cues to help maintain relationship and gain approval.
Once students like and approve of either their class fellows or their seniors or

4
for that matter a celebrity, they might take actions to cultivate relationship
with them (Cialdini and Goldstein 2004; Hoorn et al. 2014). Following an
opinion leader, based on what people like and approve of, is based on
heuristics wherein they automatically accept requests and even prompts
from people they believe have better knowledge even though they might be
strangers (Wiltermuth 2012). Opinion leaders, a small group of people, have
influence over vast majority of people (Lazarsfeld and Katz 1955) and have
relevant expertise and are ready to share their expertise with others and are
termed as market mavens (Gielens and Steenkamp 2007).
Influential people on the network have substantial social capital and
are termed as opinion leader or influentials or hubs (Goldenberg et al. 2009;
Ronchetto Jr et al. 1989; Watts et al. 2007) and that these are socially more
influential than other members in the community. While some researchers
have questioned the role of opinion leaders (Watts and Dodds 2007; Watts et
al. 2007), there is growing evidence about the role played by opinion leaders
in shaping the attitudes of the consumers (Goldenberg et al. 2009; Iyengar et
al. 2011; Keller and Berry 2003). This influence need not be face to face but
can be based information about other person (Robins et al. 2001).
Goldenbeg et al. 2009 have identified three traits in opinion leaders.
First, they have power to influence and often charismatic. Second, they are
knowledgeable in general and particularly in their filed. Third, they have very
large following on social networking sites. Opinion leaders are highly involved
and that have tendency to share their marketplace knowledge inputs are
sought due to their expertise as they have knowledge in a product class and
share this information in online communities. Influencers, on the other hand,
are termed as hubs due to their extensive network but might not necessarily
be knowledgeable(Gladwell 2006; Goldenberg et al. 2009). Influentials (or
hubs) due to their extensive network possess a lot of social capital an can aid
in adoption of ideas and product(Keller and Berry 2003). These hubs might
not adopt the product or ideas themselves but due to the repeated exposure
their network might be influenced to adopt(Goldenberg et al. 2005). These
would have directly influence on the speed of adoption and the eventual

5
 market size(Goldenberg et al. 2009). Therefore, online community members
are either classified as influencers or imitators (Van den Bulte and Joshi
2007).
To get deeper understanding, this study focuses on the type of
opinion leaders that exerts higher influence in decision making by students as
this is a high involvement and speciality product with substantial amount of
risk. Whether students follow opinion leader’s behaviour and heuristically
make decision to go to a college or select a major is a question to be explored
in this study.

2.3 Limits on Information Search

Consumer behaviour literature has extensively discussed models of
consumer information search. Several variables are identified to have
influence on consumer’s search for information like ability, motivation, costs,
benefits and product knowledge (Schmidt and Spreng 1996). Perception of
risk would also have result in higher information search amongst consumers
and that includes social risk as well (Hugstad et al. 1987). Information search
might be higher for functional or utilitarian products but lower for value
expressive hedonic products (Park and Moon 2003). Even age is said to limit
the information search with aged people contending with lesser information
while making decision (Mata and Nunes 2010) and so is the gender (Laroche
et al. 2000). Another very significant factor that might limit the search is the
previously held beliefs, attitudes and self-serving conclusions of the
consumer (Jonas et al. 2001).
Consumers might search for less information when they are
influenced by the opinion leaders and would be inclined to make decision
without seeking information. University or a major involves high risk and it’s a
functional product for undergraduate student which would result in higher
information search. The study assumes that social influence of reference
groups and opinion leaders would limit the search of students even though its
high involvement product. Would social influence limit the search for
university or a major? The answer is far from obvious. Students who selected

6
 a university or a major and are credible might be able to sway the opinion of
the students who are predisposed to enrolling in university.
Products that are promoted using normal advertising channel and
have perceived risk with ambiguity would foster contagion influence by
existing heavy users (Iyengar et al. 2011). University, as a service, has all
three aforementioned characteristics and therefore student’s choice is
expected to be influenced by students who are already studying in the
university and are also regarded as experts.

3. Research Methodology and Design

Epistemologically the consumer research uses positivist approach
involving analysis of statistical data. However, there is increasing usage of
interpretivist paradigm for analysis of consumer behaviour with methods like
existential phenomenology which tried to study the human action from a
contextual perspective and postulates that there is a reality beyond abstract
numbers (Goulding 1999; Hirschman and Thompson 1997; Lindberg and
Østergaard 2015; Thompson et al. 1989). One of the methodology emanating
from the interpretivist epistemology is narrative paradigm (Shankar et al.
2001) which is used in this study. Another feature of this study is that its
context dependent trying to understand the whole process rather than parts
of it (Rubin and Rubin 2011).
Narrative paradigm calls for constructing the worldview of
participants as co-creators rather than in an interview form eliciting response.
It’s writing story about their consumption experience. The fundamental
aspect of research paradigm is that the co-creators of narratives and in midst
of similar life experience (Goulding 1999). Here, co-creators are student
themselves who have gone through the college choice and are in the final
year of the undergraduate degree program and author’s students in
consumer behaviour class. Both, participants and the co-creators, have lived
in the same country, have done schooling in and selected the college in the
same context of Dubai. Co-creators and participants can share their

7
 consumption experiences and co-create narratives of the college choice and
major following ‘emic’ approach where participant’s voice was allowed to
emerge (Wallendorf and Brucks 1993).
This study, in particular, used trained students who understand the
consumer behaviour and have read several articles on consumption
behaviour and patterns and have their own recent consumption experience
backed by the knowledge of the cultural and social factors. Author personally
supervised first few sessions of writing of narratives and guiding the process
wherever necessary.
On completion of the writing of the narratives, co-creator and the
participant review the text and present an interpretation agreed by both of
them. This requires rapport between both the co-creator and participants
and therefore a purposive sample was selected. Co-creators identified the
participants who are studying in first year of the degree program at any
university in UAE.
With the aim of studying the college choice amongst the
undergraduate students, there were 6 co-creators who wrote 98 narratives
using structured guidelines to ensure coverage of all aspects of the research
questions. About 31 narratives were incomplete and not usable for the study
and therefore not included in this study. Stratified purposeful sample was
used to ensure that all different types of universities got selected (see Table 1
for types of universities). Federal universities were not included as study in
those universities are for nationals and is free with very high demand, as
compared to, supply.

Table 1 : Profile of Participants

Nationality Gender University
South Asian 31 Male= 40 Branch campus (From G8 Countries) - BC1 37
South East Asian 11 Female= 58 Branch campus (From Non-G8) - BC2 21
4. Middle
R Eastern 19 Public universities - PU 6
Central
e Asian 25 Local university serving a particular ethnic group LU1 11
Africa 12 Local university general - LU2 23
s
ults and Discussions

8
 Analysis of the contents formed the basis of the narrative style
interviews (Schilling 2006) and then the results are compared under
theoretical lenses (Kassarjian 1977). Narratives are then drawn together to
present as an integrated whole (Polkinghorne 1995). The text of the
narratives consisted of 1000+ prosaic text and the task of the author was to
find the structures and themes (Kvale 1992).
Analysis of the results are organised in three themes following the
sequence of the three research questions outlined earlier:
4.1 Level of Social Influence
The decision making process with regards to selection of the college is both
complex and simple. Complex in terms of credence aspect of the offering and
simple with regard to amount of time and efforts spent to make decision to
enrol. The level of social influence in this process was found to be substantial
with more than 90% of the respondents reporting medium to high level of
influence from friends, seniors and family members (excluding parents).
Analysis of the results with regards to social influence are analysed in
following subsections

Table 2: Role Social Influence

Family Fellow
(excluding Associative Seniors in students in No Social
4.1.1 G
parents) Groups School School Influence
e
Gender
nMale 11 13 34 30 12
Female 26 41 15 12 6
d
Nationality
eSouth Asian 14 17 18 37 14
South East Asian 31 11 35 10 13
rMiddle Eastern 23 39 18 14 6
Central Asian 45 9 30 11 5
Africa 51 17 9 19 4
a
Personality
nIndividualistic 37 13 11 16 23
Interdependent 30 31 13 17 9
d
Figures in percentages

Social Influence

9
 Females are more susceptible to social influence with regards to
selection of college and programs. Males were more likely to follow hubs in
their school either they be senior students or fellow students. On the other
hand females were found to follow the college choice suggestions of the
family members and peer groups (See Table 2). One of the student explaining
her choice said:
“My father is a finance professional and has tremendous knowledge
and therefore can guide me better as to what would be helpful in my
career”
However, a student studying at branch campus of a western university
felt that substantial number of his seniors at school choose to go to a
particular university:
“All top scorers in my class choose University of….. and therefore it
was a good choice”
While only 6% of females claims to not get influenced, the figure was
12% for males.
4.1.2 Ethnicity and Social Influence
While analysing the data, an emerging trend that seems to be
dominant is the differences in social influence patterns based on ethnicity.
South Asian and South East Asian indicated a comparatively lower level of
susceptibility to social influence. While South Asian students accept influence
of fellow students, the South East Asian students follow seniors in the school.
Students hailing from these two regions are highly interdependent and can
work well in teams. One of the South Asian student explained her decision to
join university of chosen by her class fellows:
“My class fellows with whom I used to work during my school life
decided to join ……. University which prompted me to join as I can continue to
work with them. We now have a cohesive group and are able to complete a
lot of class projects that involves working in groups”
Students from the Middle East regions were very much predisposed to
be influenced by associative groups outside of school with second most

10
 important factor being the family. One of the student from Syria enlightened
the interviewer explaining the influence:
“One of very close family friend of mine choose to go to a local
university as there was an environment of learning where most of the
students were Arabs and it was very comfortable to interact with them. I did
explore several universities but finally decided to join local university with
significant number of Arab students”
But another student from Iran disagreed joining universities based on
cultural affinity. He explained that how he values multi-cultural environment
which was cited as important factor by 13% of the respondents.
“Many of my friends joined University of …… due to high quality of
teaching and academics. When I visited the university it was very multi-
cultural in nature. Faculty members were highly educated”.
With regards to Central Asian students, it was the family members
and parents that were key decision makers with regards to college selection.
Parents were key decision makers and seems to have actively involved in
college choice with seniors in schools who already came to Dubai were
contacted for reference. Seniors, considered as experts, were like expert
opinion leaders and they have possessed referent power.
Last group of students were from Africa and they also had substantial
influence from family and parents. One of the student explained:
“My family gathered information about several universities in UK and
Canada and then finally decided to choose Dubai. We came here on a visit and
visited several universities and then decided on University of …..”.

4.1.3 Personality Type

Students with individualistic personality are expected to make
decisions on their own and limit social influence. Consistent with the theory
about 23% of the students with individualistic personality indicated that they
were themselves researched about the university and made the decision to
go to the university. One of the students explained the process thus:

11
 “I researched first by exploring the websites of the universities, then
checked the rankings of the universities in their home country and finally
selected to study at ….. University. My decision was based on international
profile of the university”
Interdependent personality type students indicated a higher level of
social influence. However, both type of personality type were relied on the
family members including parents as the parents were primarily responsible
for footing the college bill.

4.2 Role of opinion Leaders

There were four types of opinion leaders identified in this study. They
include fellow students (current or seniors), guidance counsellors at school,
students who are from associative peer groups and family members. The
interviews identified that level of influence of these opinion leaders is
substantial. Students who have an excellent academic track record and have
already selected a particular university were seen to have substantial impact
as compared to current class fellows. Growth of social media has led to
endorsement of the products with many interviewees reported that they
were effected by endorsement of the university on Facebook by either their
student representatives in school or academically strong students. Student’s
word of mouth effects have considerable impact on the decision to select a
university. One of the student explained the process:
“I did an extensive search of the universities and visited 6 to 7
universities. I also went and checked the websites of the universities and
asked for recommendations from my friends on Facebook”
Another student commented thus:
“I read reviews of the university on blogs but that was very limited.
Most important was the guidance counsellors recommendation and then I
visited the university. I did went to one more university and did not do
thorough search.”

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 Female student’s consideration set contains higher number of
universities, as compared to, male students (See Table 3). Most of the
students had at least two universities (43%) in their final consideration set
while 21% had three. Very few students had only one decided university (4%)
and practically all of them were males and individualistic. Extensive search
was carried out by about 13% of the student and most of them were females
a
n Table 3: Universities in Consideration Set
Five or More Four Three Two One
d
Gender
Male 5 8 7 31 4
Female 8 11 14 12 0
i Total 13 19 21 43 4
Personality
n
Individualistic 1 5 9 37 4
t Interdependent 12 14 12 6 0
Total 13 19 21 43 4
e Figures in percentages
rdependent.

Word of mouth or recommendations of opinion leaders (student

representatives or academically strong seniors) also acts as anchor for
student’s choice. Around 50% of students reported that they did select the
universities that was first recommended by opinion leaders though they did
evaluated other universities confirming the anchoring heuristics. Explaining
the decision process one of the student said:
“One of my seniors suggested that I check out ….. University, where
she was enrolled, as university’s faculty was very qualified. I went and had
discussion with admissions staff and was very impressed. I went to another
university to check out but finally selected this university”
The effectiveness of the recommendation of opinion leaders was
based on their actual adoption rather than mere recommendations. This is
the reason why senior students with strong academic background were
considered more trustworthy and seems to possess the required expertise to
evaluate the university and programs. These recommendations from
associative reference groups i.e., students perceived to be similar to their

13
 own are more effective as compared to other students conforming the
previous finding (Berger and Heath 2007).
Role of opinion leaders has been clearly evident with several students
reporting that they did take into account the recommendations of their
fellow students. Most the opinion leaders were perceived as experts.
However, charisma and extensive network of opinion leaders as identified by
Goldenberg et al (2009) was not evident.

4.3 Limits to Information Search

Information search with regards to speciality product like university
education is natural. However, the findings contends that recommendations
of opinion leaders did limit the search. Females searched more, as compared
to, male students (See Table 4). Male students were contended with
websites, exhibition and university visits. On the other hand female students
also connected with fellow students on social networking websites.
Explaining the information search, one of the female students described her
experience thus:
“I went through several brochures, visited two exhibitions, had
conversation with admission staff of universities and also connected with ex-
students from my high school before enrolling into university program.”
One of the other student explained his experience:
“The task of selection of university was simple as there are very few
options in Dubai. We have two to three choices and with the budget it mind, it
was pretty straightforward to select the university….”
Opinion leader’s recommendation did limit the information search
which is awareness stage rather than evaluation stage. This is not consistent
with the findings (Godes and Mayzlin 2009) wherein the social contagion was
found to be operate at evaluation stage. This has substantial implications for
the marketing efforts of the universities wherein they can use opinion leaders
to limit the information search by students. Word of mouth would then play a
substantial role.

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 Table 4: Limits on Information Search

Extensive Intermediate Limited Negligible

Gender
Male 11 19 13 3
Female 19 24 10 1
Total 30 43 23 4
Personality
Individualistic 22 24 7 2
Interdependent 8 19 16 2
Total 30 43 23 4
Figures in percentages

Students with individualistic personality did an extensive search as

mentioned in Table 4. They relied on several pieces of information from
varied sources before making a decision. Their reliance on recommendations
of the opinion leaders was limited. Risk perception did not result in extensive
search and students did follow recommendations of opinion leaders.
Study was able to answer all three research questions and underlined
the presence of social contagion wherein students were influenced by
opinion leader’s recommendation. The level of social contagion varied
depending on gender, ethnicity and personality type. Opinion leaders were
regarded as experts but presence of extensiveness of their network was not
evident. Recommendations of opinion leaders did limit the search amongst
students even though the college education has perceived risk and is a
credence product. Next section will assess the marketing implications arising
from the study.

5. Marketing Implications
Current students with strong academic credentials can serve as brand
ambassadors for the universities in their marketing efforts. These brand
ambassadors need to be nurtured and trained often provided with some
incentives in form of scholarships from the universities. They can represent
universities at their own high schools, at exhibitions, play an active social
media role and during open days. One very clear outcome of the study is to
design campaigns where opinion leaders (current academically strong

15
students) would assume central role. Previous studies were sceptic about
probability of identifying opinion leaders and marketing it to them (Iyengar et
al. 2011; Watts and Dodds 2007). However, with regards to universities, this
is fairly easy as these are their own students coming from varied schools and
personalities and can form associative groups in online communities with
students. Seeding them with marketing messages would be much easier as
they already have positive recommendations to share. This would also limit
the information search amongst prospective students as the study has
demonstrated the role of the opinion leaders in information search i.e.
awareness stage.
Other very important strategy for universities would involve attracting
opinion leaders from every school, possibly, by giving scholarships. These can
then be the brand ambassadors in future and also influences the current
peers in the graduating class in the school. This will help managers to seed
the opinion leaders across targeted schools.
Parents and family members play an influential role as they fund the
higher education in Dubai. Universities need to reach them with marketing
messages but use nudging(Thaler and Sunstein 2009) to convey the
messages. Overt messages might lower the positioning of the university in
minds of the parents who might not be consumer but customers.
Universities need to start the process of marketing and providing
scholarships at the start of the recruitment season due to the incidence of
anchoring heuristics. Opinion leaders who enrol early would serve as anchors
and would lead to comparison of other universities based on the name of the
first university mentioned.
Managers would also like to assign active role for opinion leaders on
social media, predominantly, as brand ambassadors by participating in
discussion and increasing their network (indegree). Large number of
connections would also lend credibility to the opinion leaders and serve as
effective part of the marketing campaign. Again, they need to be trained in
using nudging, rather than, very explicit marketing messages emphasising the

16
 quality of the education and employment opportunities as this was identified
as the main factor in choosing the university.
6. Limitations and Future Study
The above analysis is quite comprehensive but is based on findings from one
city i.e. Dubai. Corroboration of these significant finings can be carried out by
further studies in other cities and countries. Further research with regards to
contagion process would provide insights about how indegree and out degree
would impact on students choice of the university.
Another limitation of the study is its restriction to undergraduate recruitment
as the sample was limited to first year students. However, graduate
recruitment plays a significant on bottom line of many universities.

17
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