The pilot study can supplement the findings of my own views and experience from
the last chapter and assist to construct the questionnaire for use of the long interview
method after the pilot stage of the research. The main themes to emanate from the
pilot study will now be discussed.
A-priori Familiarity of COO image
It has been found the COO effects on evaluation of British higher education became
weak after they came to the U.K. As the respondents in the pilot study had already
been studying and living in the U.K for a few years, they were found to be fairly
familiar with the context of the U.K along with its service sector and higher education.
They have the experience-based knowledge of living in the U.K, consuming British
services, and higher education services. The respondents claimed that they would like
to rationally and objectively evaluate British higher education according to their
experience and knowledge. Nonetheless, the respondents all admitted that they were
likely to use their British COO image to infer the quality of British higher education
services before they came to the U.K.
Before the respondents went to the U.K, the COO image of China perceived by all the
respondents was very positive. Nonetheless, their Chinese COO image had been
changing with the time spent in the U.K. Respondents were found to hold different
Chinese COO image in the pilot study. P1 and P3 had negative Chinese COO image
while P2 had positive COO image. They would like to make comparisons between
China and the U.K after they came to the U.K. In the interviews, they were likely to
point out the weakness of China, Chinese services and Chinese higher education
They found that there were some attributes such as GCA, GSA, and SSA of China
were weaker than the U.K. Consequently, they would discredit Chinese COO image.
However, the interviews indicated that the COO effects on services evaluation in the
context of China and Chinese higher education always existed before and after
coming to the U.K.
P1 and P3 grew up in China and had been living and studying in China for quite a few
years. The pilot study found that the COO effects on their evaluation of Chinese
higher education services were weak relative to the COO effects on their evaluation of
British higher education services. This is possibly due to respondents having very
high familiarity of Chinese GCA, GSA, and SSA. Therefore, they could use their
knowledge to evaluate Chinese higher education rather than use COO information to
infer how good or how bad Chinese higher education services are. Comparatively, P2
had been in the U.K for about 10 years and had hardly stayed in China in recent years.
He admitted that his knowledge of China and Chinese services became low, and
therefore, may to some extent rely on his general Chinese COO image to evaluate
Chinese higher education services.
Vertical Individualism
All the respondents in the pilot study were perceived to have to varying degrees of
high levels of vertical individualism. Therefore, the data obtained can support the
assertion that people who are attributed with high individualism would prefer to
choose foreign higher education services. In addition, it has found that respondents’
vertical individualism had been reinforced by their time being in the U.K. For
example, the respondent P2 who had been in the U.K for ten years has demonstrated
the highest vertical individualistic value in the pilot study. This may be due to the
profound Western individualism influence on P2 given that he had resided in the U.K
for a considerable amount of time. It can also be inferred that the longer the
became with respect to their decision making of buying foreign services because P2
said that he would prefer to buy foreign services most of the time.
Ethnocentrism
It needs to be clear that I am viewing ethnocentrism as Chinese students who view
China as their home country even though one has been in the U.K for ten years. All
the respondents showed low levels of ethnocentrism, but their low ethnocentrism
seemed unchanged with the time being in the U.K. The respondents generally did not
have preference for buying Chinese made or foreign made products or services.
Therefore, the data collected from the pilot study does not support the relationship between consumers’ ethnocentrism and COO effects on service evaluation.
Other Informational Cues
The data collected from the pilot study supports the external influence of COO effects
on service evaluation. When other information cues were considered in service
evaluation, COO effects have been diminished. In a similar fashion to the theoretical
underpinnings of Chapter Two and Three, the external influences identified included
the following categories: reputation, entry requirement, influence of normative
referents, English, cost of study, employment, and environment.