Influence of Image And Trust Of Intention To Choosing A University By Word Of Mouth As Moderating Variables

Public demand on formal education has increased, especially on universities. This has caused universities as strategic sectors that are expected to create a quality human resource. The completion amongst universities tends to increase year to year. This condition demands universities to improve the quality of its education and institution to be excellent in the tight competition. Therefore, this study aims to find out the effect of the trust and the image of universities on student intention using word-of-mouth (wom) as moderating variables. The population of this study is prospective students in Bandung. This study uses deductive quantitative and survey methods. The analytical tool that is used is structural equation modeling (SEM) based on component or a variance that is known as partial least square (PLS) with 135 prospective students in Bandung as respondents. The result of the study shows the positive and significant effect of trust and the image of institutions on students intention. WOM is proved to give a positive and significant effect as a variable that strengthens the relations between the image of universities and student intention and also strengthens the relations between Trust and student intention. This empirical evidence explains that trust and the image of universities are other important factors that can build student intention because students rely on word-of-mouth (WOM) which has a persuasive role in influencing students' decision.