Abstract

This paper investigates the critical factors that promote the customer acceptance of online business management degree programs in online education markets. The model examines the impact of reputation, price, teaching quality, student service quality, and ethical practices on the customer acceptance of online degree programs and customer loyalty to online degree programs. Five hundred and seventy-five samples, which were collected from participants in a web-based survey in Korea, were analyzed using multiple regression analysis techniques. The findings of the study suggested that the reputation of online programs, the price of online degree programs, the teaching quality of online instruction, and the student service quality of online institutions are significantly related to the customer acceptance of online degree programs, while the ethical practices of online institutions are not significantly related to the customer acceptance of online degree programs. In addition, the empirical findings show that the reputation of online degree programs plays the most important role in establishing and promoting customer acceptance in the markets. Based on the findings of the study, we discuss possible strategies for marketing success in online education markets.

Key words: Online education, customer acceptance, customer loyalty, teaching quality, service quality, corporate image, marketing strategy.