Analysis of differences in word-of-mouth factors for UTS students based on gender identity using a structural equation model Available to Purchase

One of the effective promotional strategies used to attract consumer interest is word-of-mouth. A large number of tertiary institutions in Indonesia causes the competition to get student candidates to be tighter so that promotions carried out by universities must be effective in attracting prospective students. Therefore, this study aims to explain how the influence of service quality variables, customer satisfaction variables, and experiential marketing variables that have been carried out by the Universitas Teknologi Sumbawa (UTS) on the word-of-mouth of its students and find out whether there are differences in the factors of student word-of-mouth based on gender identity. The data used in this study are primary data obtained through distributing questionnaires to UTS students who are still active in college. The analysis method used in this research is structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. The results showed that service quality and customer satisfaction had no significant effect on the word-of-mouth of students and female students. Meanwhile, experiential marketing has no significant effect on the word-of-mouth of male students but has a significant effect on the word-of- mouth of female students. In addition, the level of confidence (R²) obtained from the equation model relationship for the male student group is 66%. This means that word-of-mouth decisions made by UTS male students are influenced by service quality, customer satisfaction, and experiential marketing by 66%. The rest is influenced by other variables not used in this study. While the level of confidence (R²) obtained from the relationship model equation for the group of female students is 51%. Therefore, there are differences in word-of-mouth factors among male and female students.