Exploring Educational Institutions' Orientation in Relation to International Student Recruitment Performance: The Strategic Orientation Performance (SOP) Model

International education is an important, and expanding, global industry. However, much remains unknown about the international student recruitment industry, its key variables and its performance outcomes. This study addresses this lack of understanding. The research objectives of this study seek to enhance the current theoretical understanding of performance by initially investigating its relationship with market orientation and learning orientation. Secondly, the study seeks to investigate international student recruitment marketing within educational institutions to determine the relevance of these constructs and to determine the extent to which market orientation, learning orientation and innovativeness influence performance. Thirdly, the study seeks to investigate how the relationship between market orientation, learning orientation and performance differs across educational sectors and international student recruitment (ISR) marketing strategy types. In doing so, prominent strategy typologies are considered for their suitability as an investigative framework to explore ISR marketing strategies within educational institutions. As a result, the Value Discipline typology (Treacy & Wiersema, 1993, 1995) is found to be the most appropriate for this study due to its emphasis on value, rather than profitability or market share. Much of the literature investigating international education focuses on either student choice or student perception. A small body of empirical marketing literature pertaining to educational institutions is found within the literature. For example, within the international education domain, researchers have investigated marketing strategy (Elkin, Farnsworth, & Templer, 2008) and its relationship with performance (Mazzarol & Soutar, 2008) as well as the management of international student recruitment (Ross, Heaney, & Cooper, 2007). A strong positive relationship between market orientation and institutional performance is found within the university sector (Caruana, Ramaseshan, & Ewing, 1998; Hammond, Webster, & Harmon, 2006) although similar studies are not identified within other education sectors (Oplatka & Hemsley-Brown, 2007). Despite calls to understand the importance of learning orientation within the education sector (Austin & Harkins, 2008), the potential benefits of learning orientation to the sector are not yet known (Imants, 2003; Thomas & Allen, 2006). Based on the collective findings from previous studies and considering the relationships between market and learning orientations, innovativeness and performance, the Strategic Orientation Performance (SOP) Model is proposed as a conceptual investigative framework. The SOP Model is a conceptual representation of the relationships proposed to exist between the constructs, market orientation, learning orientation, innovativeness (ISR), perceived external market effects and perceived organisational performance. The study adopted a quantitative methodology using a self-administered questionnaire delivered to respondents via email. The construction of the questionnaire followed a sequential process which involved adapting and pretesting existing scales to ensure the development of a psychometrically sound survey instrument. Data collection resulted in the gathering of 302 surveys appropriate for use in the analysis. Analysis included a number of statistical procedures such as correlation analysis, exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis and Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis. Overall, the findings provided support for the proposed SOP Model. However, significant differences were found across different strategy types and education sectors. The SOP Model extends previous orientation-performance models and enhances the relevance and applicability of this type of model across a wide variety of both profit and not-for-profit contexts. The previously unidentified marketing strategy, entrenched isolation, emerged during the study thus extending the Value Discipline strategy typology. This typology was validated as a means of identifying the prevailing market strategy within services. Lastly, within a discordant body of market orientation literature, this study aligns with one of the dominant paradigms and, thereby, provides a strong impetus for further research. Furthermore, future research will benefit significantly through the use of the SOP Model as a solid foundation for further discovery in this important research domain.