Effect of Word of Mouth on Students Decision to Choose Studies in
College
Dedy Ansari Harahap
1,2
, Ratih Hurriyati
1
,Vanessa Gaffar
1
, Lili Adi Wibowo
1
and Dita Amanah
1,3
1
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Setiabudhi No. 229, Bandung, Indonesia
2
Universitas Islam Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia
3
Universitas Negeri Medan, Medan, Indonesia
Keywords: Word of Mouth, Student Decision, Choose Studies, College.
Abstract: This study aims to analyze the effect word of mouth on the decision of students to choose studies in College,
the case at the Faculty of Economics, Universitas Islam Sumatera Utara (UISU), Indonesia. This research uses
quantitative approach with explanatory research type. The sample was one hundred seventy seven respondents
and statistically processed by simple linear regression method. The result showed that word of mouth positive
had a significant effect on student decision. The findings show that students considering the word of mouth
to choose a college. It is expected that UISU will continue to improve the quality, qualification of lecturers
and education personnel.
1 INTRODUCTION
Everyone has hope to be able to continue and finish
higher education. Those who wish to pursue higher
education will be faced with various considerations
such as choice of college, education level and choice
of various courses.
For many school graduates the collection of
information about the study becomes a real challenge.
Like from family members, neighborhood,
classmates, and teachers. Some of them help in
making decisions, while others criticize them. Parents
build favorable conditions in consultation with the
teacher. Each prospective student makes her own
choice for selection, comparison, and evaluation of
life career benefits regarding a particular course of
study. By researchers in various countries: in the
United States (Chapman, 1981; Paulsen, 1990),
Australia (James, 2000), Belgium (Germeijs and
Verschueren, 2007) and others (Mazzarol and Soutar,
2002; Hoyt and Brown, 2003).
Word of Mouth (WOM) is a consumer action to
provide information to other consumers
(interpersonal) in the form of brand, product or
service. Personal communication channels in the
form of word of mouth can be an effective method of
promotion. Generally delivered from consumers to
consumers so that satisfied consumers or customers
can be a chain message that will be accepted by many
people (Enterprise, 2010). This is a trend of
marketing techniques in the business world by using
WOM in marketing campaigns by relying on personal
power to spread word of mouth (Enterprise, 2010).
WOM is a way of sharing ideas, beliefs and
experiences with one another (Balter and Butman,
2005).
Universitas Islam Sumatera Utara (UISU) was
established on January 7, 1951 with the strong
struggle and determination of all UISU academicians
and the support of the government, moslem
theologian and society. UISU currently manages 9
faculties, 26 bachelor degree programs, 3 masters
programs and 1 doctoral program that is Economics
and Policy in cooperation with UII Yogyakarta.
Faculty and the courses are: Law, Islamic Religion,
Economics, English Literature, Teacher Training and
Education, Social Sciences and Political Science,
Agriculture, Medicine, Engineering and
Postgraduate. Faculty of Economics UISU was
founded by Yayasan Universitas Islam Sumatera
Utara on February 16, 1957 which is the oldest
Private Economic Faculty in Sumatera
(www.uisu.ac.id, n.d.).
Harahap, D., Hurriyati, R., Gaffar, V., Wibowo, L. and Amanah, D.
Effect of Word of Mouth on Students Decision to Choose Studies in College.
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Islamic Economics, Business, and Philanthropy (ICIEBP 2017) - Transforming Islamic Economy and Societies, pages 793-797
ISBN: 978-989-758-315-5
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
793

2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Student Decision
Kotler (2005) suggests that decision-making is an
individual activity that is directly involved in
obtaining and using the goods offered. Consumer
decision is one of the parts contained in consumer
behavior. According to Harahap (2015), location,
price and product completeness simultaneously
significant effect on consumer purchasing decisions.
Every company or trader should pay attention to
strategic places of business, competitive prices and
the completeness of the various products available to
fulfill consumers needs.
Purchasing decision, which is in this study is
student decision is one important factor that need to
be evaluated by every college to attract student
interest. The decision chosen by students to continue
their studies to college is the key to the continuity of
the college cycle because students are an asset for
every college. The decision taken is an individual
action in choosing a college as a place to study that is
broadly described in consumer behavior.
Choice of study is defined as the process of a
prospective student pursuing secondary education
after high school. Counselors who participate in the
choice of school graduates assist in the arrangement
of information in colleges, providing assistance to
parents to understand their role in motivating children
to continue their studies (Mcdonough, 2005).
Based on the expert opinions above, the authors
concluded that the decision of the choice of place of
study is the introduction, action and attitude of the
prospective student to determine the choice of the
intended university.
2.2 Word of Mouth (WOM)
WOM is a message about a product, service or
company in the form of comments or impressions
about the product, friendliness, honesty, speed of
service and others felt and experienced by someone
then delivered to others. Messages or information
submitted can be either positive or negative
depending on what the communicator feels about the
goods or services consumed. WOM is a process often
generated by formal corporate communication and its
representative behavior (Haywood, 1989). Word of
mouth refers to information communication between
private parties regarding the evaluation of goods and
services (Anderson, 1998). WOM is much more
likely to be initiated by the receiver's information
needs than the satisfaction level of the communicators
(Fred and Gary, 1999). Word of mouth is
interpersonal communication between two or more
people, such as a reference group member or
customer and salesperson (Kim et al., 2001). WOM
definition focuses on the informal aspects of WOM
communication, communicators independence from
commercial sources, and the phenomenon of
diffusion of information (Westbrook, 1987;
Anderson, 1998). Today, many researchers continue
to maintain that word of mouth is one of the most
effective ways to attract and retain customers (Duhan
et al., 1997).
WOM is a special activity unwittingly and
spontaneously can not be controlled directly (Allsop
et al., 2007). According to Arndt (1967) WOM
specifically as an oral communication from person to
person where the recipient of information is not
commercial to the brand, product or service delivered.
WOM is called free advertising that can be
interpreted as a form of information or ideas about
goods or services that are identified without pay
(Buttle, 1998). Customers earned by word of mouth,
have more value for the long term compared to
customers from other marketing channels
(Villanueva et al., 2008).
Bhayani (2015) stated the power of WOM with
face to face or online can not be underestimated.
Many companies start investing money to create
marketing campaigns on word-of-mouth positive,
especially on received media related to the adoption
of new products or selection between alternative
brands or just watching television shows. WOM plays
an important role in the consumer decision-making
process to select or buy an object. Each college
requires prospective students to increase revenue by
making changes to more effective ways of marketing
to attract prospective students to study in a university.
At first, WOM was used to raise awareness but it is
now increasingly used to establish consumer attitudes
especially students in this study.
The company budgeted promotions through
advertising and expects consumers to do WOM as a
result. One of the reasons for the allocation of
advertising funds is that customers earned through
WOM have greater long-term value than those earned
by paid advertising (Villanueva et al., 2008). In
addition, WOM has a greater impact on brand choice
than traditional advertising or personal search on the
internet (East et al., 2005). Therefore, it is important
for universities to use social influences to establish
individual attitudes (Leenders, 2002) and let every
consumer influence others (Phelps et al., 2004).
From some expert opinions above, the authors
concluded that WOM is a conversation activity that
ICIEBP 2017 - 1st International Conference on Islamic Economics, Business and Philanthropy
794

can affect and be influenced by consumers to buy
goods or services. WOM can be used as a reference
or recommendation for consumers because
consumers are usually difficult to judge goods or
services if not buying and feeling. WOM has an
important role in shaping loyal attitudes and
consumer behavior.
2.3 Relevant Research
 Yulista (2012). Model Word of Mouth Dalam
Komunikasi Pemasaran Perguruan Tinggi.
Results ; The communicator (the recommended
party) still takes into account the personal and
situational factors of the speaker (the
recommending party) before making a decision
to study at Mercu Buana University.
Implication ; Interpersonal communication
activity is important in forming a Word-of-
Mouth model in the Member Get Student
program of Universitas Mercu Buana, while
Riley and Riley's communication model was
used as a basis. Journal Communication
Spectrum, Vol. 2 No. 1. Februari-Juli. ISSN :
2087-8850 : 63-83;
 Rosita (2009). Faktor-Faktor yang
Mempengaruhi Mahasiswa dalam Mengambil
Keputusan Memilih Universitas Ciputra di
Surabaya. Results ; 63.3% consumers decision
making simultaneously affected by price,
promotion, people and physical evidence,
while 36.7% influenced by other variables that
are not included in this study. Implication ;
Promotion is a very influential variable on
consumer decision making followed by people,
physical proof and price. Jurnal Eksekutif, Vol.
VI, No.2. : 343-351;
 Bhayani (2015). Social and Peer Influences in
College Choice. Results ; The process of
transmitting information from students who are
still studying and who have passed have an
impact on the selection of a university.
Implication ; This study is only focused on the
city of Dubai and is expected further research
can be held in other cities and countries.
International Conference on Economics and
Business Market Management, World
Academy of Science, Engineering and
Technology, United States, pp. 1-20;
 Lehmann (2015). The Influence of Electronic
Word of Mouth (eWOM) on College Search
and Choice. Results ; Traditional WOM has a
greater influence on college selection than e-
WOM. E-WOM also has a greater influence
during the search phase than on the choice
phase and greater influence when consumed in
online forums than when consumed on social
networking sites at the University of Miami
USA. Implication ; More influential sources of
information are word of mouth, college
website, college planning and ranking sites,
online reviews, campus tours and college e-
mail.http://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/oa_
dissertations/1378 Open Access Dissertations.
1378;
 Herold (2015). Word-of-mouth affects the
choice of university. Results ; WOM has a
significant influence on consumer behavior and
has a special influence on the choice of study at
the university. Implication ; More influential
sources of information are word of mouth,
college website, college planning and ranking
sites, online reviews, campus tours and college
e-mail. Acta Universitatis Lappeenrantaensis
nomor 665. ISBN 978-952-265-860-9 dan
ISSN 1456-4491. Universitas Lappeenranta di
http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-265-861-6.
3 METHODOLOGY
This study was carried out at Universitas Islam
Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia. The population
were all students of the second semester of 2015/2016
academic year that is 317 respondents. The sample
technique used is non probability sampling that is 177
respondents. The analytical technique used a
quantitative approach with explanatory research type
using simple linear regression analysis.
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Results
The result shows that the simple regression model is
Y = 1.,284 + 0.656X + e, explains that if there is
change of one unit of WOM (X), student decision (Y)
is 0.656 with other factor assumption fixed. The α is
1.284, means that if WOM (X) is not changed or equal
to zero then the student decision (Y) is 1.284
assuming another factor remains.
The WOM t test result is 11.407. This means that
WOM has a positive and significant effect on student
decisions. The result of R square is 0.426 or 42.60%
word of mouth influence the student decision and the
rest is 57,40% influenced by other variable.
Effect of Word of Mouth on Students Decision to Choose Studies in College
795

4.2 Discussions
The results showed that word of mouth positively
effected student decision choose Faculty of
Economics, UISU. This study support Lehmann
(2015) that traditional WOM has a greater impact on
student college choices than e-WOM. E-WOM has a
greater impact during the search phase than the
preferred phase. The greater influnece is felt when
consumed in online communication groups than in
the website. Herold (2015) also confirmed that WOM
has a significant influence on consumer behavior
choosing a university.
Other studies that are in line are Bhayani (2015)
who found three assumptions about the student's
decision-making process: 1) Students get good
influence from face-to-face and online information
before making decisions to choose on a university 2)
Some students called opinion leaders more influential
in others with regard to college and departmental
options and 3) The impact of a group's information
dissemination on the sustainability of information
retrieval and high involvement in college choice. The
first two assumptions are based on several studies on
the role of a group of people in general in society and
WOM in shaping consumer attitudes to buy products
(Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; Godes and Mayzlin,
2004; Huang et al., 2011; Liu, 2006; Trusov et al.,
2009). The third assumption is the result of the first
two assumptions.
5 CONCLUSIONS
It is expected that UISU will continue to improve the
quality, qualification of lecturers and education
personnel. This study focuses only on word of mouth
so 42.60% of decisions choosing the Faculty of
Economics were only explained by word of mouth.
The further study is expected to be able to test other
variables such as reputation, image, promotion,
service, security, comfort and so on, that give a better
contribution on student decision to choose a college.
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