Title: Market orientation: the key to the future of virtual universities

Authors: Carlos Flavián; Luis Longás; Javier Lozano

Addresses: Faculty of Economics and Business Studies University of Zaragoza, Gran Vía 2, 50005 Zaragoza, Spain ' Faculty of Economics and Business Studies University of Zaragoza, Gran Vía 2, 50005 Zaragoza, Spain ' Faculty of Economics and Business Studies University of Zaragoza, Gran Vía 2, 50005 Zaragoza, Spain

Abstract: Nowadays, universities are making a great effort orienting their strategies to the market. In this line, they are adopting new technologies and even offering virtual degrees. This research tries to analyse whether the market orientation of virtual universities leads them to increase student's trust towards the institution, the affective and calculative commitment of the students and, in summary, the future intention to use of the services that University provides. These issues are of great interest because of the increasing competition in educational market brought by the European Space for Higher Education and widely use of new technologies.

Keywords: e-learning; information technology; virtual education; lifelong learning; management in education; higher education; market orientation; trust; commitment; loyalty; electronic learning; online learning; virtual universities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIE.2013.054727

International Journal of Management in Education, 2013 Vol.7 No.3, pp.313 - 327

Published online: 13 Sep 2014 *

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