Structural equations modeling of expectations and educational service quality with students' satisfaction and loyalty emphasizing on mediating role of perceived value

Objective: The present study aimed to model the structural equations of expectations and educational services quality with students' satisfaction and loyalty emphasizing on mediating role of perceived value at Imam Khomeini International University in Qazvin. Based on the purpose this study is practical and in terms of data collection is descriptive survey. Materials and methods: The statistical population consisted of 2996 undergraduate, postgraduate and Ph.D. students of International University. Stratified random sampling Commensurate with the size of the statistical society was done. For data gathering, expectations, educational service quality, perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty questionnaires were used. For reliability verification, the alpha coefficients were gained 0.78, 0.91, 0.85, 0.87 and 0.81 respectively which indicate the desirable reliability of tools. To assess the validity of the questionnaires, a confirmatory factor analysis was used and the validity of all questionnaires was confirmed. Finally 342 questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS and Lisrel software. Result and Discussion: According to descriptive tables and averages, the findings of this study showed that the university's status in the area of factors affecting student loyalty, which includes satisfaction, perceived value, level of meeting expectations, quality of educational services, is below average and not desirable. The findings of this study showed that the effect of expectations on educational service quality, students' perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty was positive and significant. The effect of educational service quality on perceived value wasn't significant. The effect of educational service quality on satisfaction and loyalty was positive and significant. The effect of perceived value on students' satisfaction and loyalty is positive and significant. These results emphasize the role of mediating role of perceived value in students' satisfaction and loyalty. In other words, improving the quality of educational services and satisfying the students' expectations, and consequently increasing the level of perceived value in students, is expected to increase their satisfaction and loyalty. Based on these results and considering the importance of perceived value, the conceptual model was presented.