The Rising Veto Power of the Checkbook: An Empirical Investigation of Parents’ Impacts on Their Children’s University Enrollment

Abstract

This study drew on different streams in the literature to theorize a power shift in favor of parents in the post-COVID-19 era. The authors investigated the impact of parents’ campus site visits on university enrollment decisions by empirically testing a model that draws on concepts from service marketing and sociology and links university enrollment to parents’ evaluative and intentional constructs. Data were obtained from 339 parents of final-year high school students immediately after their campus site visits and analyzed using structural equation modelling. The results indicate that antecedents of parent university satisfaction include human encounters, university reputation, and physical setting. Satisfaction was found to drive intention to advocate to children and brand preference. These two outcomes affected enrollment. The results offer important theoretical contributions to the field of higher education marketing and present managerial implications for university administrators in their quest to augment student recruitment processes.