Analyzing the effect of inward- vs. outward-looking activities on student loyalty in Japanese universities

The increasing global competitiveness of university admissions has propelled the need to understand the critical factors underlying students’ loyalty. Although extensive research has been conducted on student loyalty, it focuses predominantly on student-centric activities, targeting only inward-looking measures aimed at students. In the corporate context, employees are considered the “second audience” for external marketing promotions, and the impact of these promotions on employee job satisfaction has been well researched. However, in the university context, little is known about how external policies affect student loyalty. Therefore, this study aimed to clarify the influence of both inward- and outward-looking activities on student loyalty in Japanese universities. An online survey was conducted for 1,000 Japanese university students. The results of applying structural equation modeling to the survey data confirm the positive effect of inward-looking measures on student loyalty. Significant effects were found for lectures (β = 0.670, p-value < 0.000) and job hunting (β = 0.250, p-value < 0.000), while campuses also showed a positive effect (β = 0.148, p-value = 0.039). Among outward-looking measures, only celebrity endorsements contributed positively to loyalty (β = 0.136, p-value = 0.026), while sports and digital channel promotions had negative effects, contrary to expectations. This may be attributed to the reliance of sports on wins and losses and digital channel promotions often inducing feelings of envy when students observe others’ successes. Therefore, when university policymakers implement measures to strengthen their external brands, they must consider their impact on enrolled students.