In the highly competitive landscape of international schools, attracting new students is crucial for sustained growth and success. Positive word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendations from current parents are particularly effective recruitment tools. This study focuses on understanding the factors influencing Generation X parents' likelihood to recommend The International School of Macao (TIS), a rapidly growing school in Macau. The choice of Generation X parents is deliberate, recognizing their unique characteristics, such as expecting value for their investment in private education and viewing schools through a business lens. The study's primary objective is to determine the impact of service quality, parental satisfaction, and brand trust on WOM referrals, with a specific emphasis on the mediating role of satisfaction. By exploring these relationships, the study aims to provide valuable insights for international schools seeking to improve their marketing and recruitment strategies. The competitive nature of the international school market makes understanding parental decision-making processes essential, particularly the powerful influence of WOM recommendations. This study addresses this need by empirically examining the relationships among service quality, brand trust, satisfaction, and WOM in the context of a K-12 international school, a context relatively unexplored in previous research.

The study draws upon the expectancy disconfirmation theory to understand satisfaction, suggesting that satisfaction arises from the difference between expected and perceived service performance. Existing literature highlights the significant impact of satisfaction on WOM, often considered a hallmark of customer loyalty. However, this relationship is not always straightforward, and satisfaction alone may not guarantee positive WOM. The literature also examines the role of service quality, often measured using the SERVQUAL model, which encompasses five dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Research shows a strong positive relationship between service quality and satisfaction. Brand trust, defined as the willingness to rely on a brand's ability to deliver, is also identified as a key factor influencing both satisfaction and WOM. The literature review examines previous studies investigating the mediating role of satisfaction, noting instances where satisfaction partially or fully mediates the relationships between service quality or brand trust and WOM. This study builds upon this existing research by specifically investigating the mediating role of satisfaction in the context of a K-12 international school setting, a relatively under-researched area.

A quantitative research design was employed, using a survey instrument developed to measure the constructs of interest: service quality, parental satisfaction, brand trust, and word-of-mouth. The survey instrument consisted of 32 items, adapted and contextualized from existing scales in the literature and specifically tailored for the K-12 international school setting. The instrument included four items for brand trust, three for word of mouth, four for satisfaction, and 27 for service quality. An Item Objective Congruence (IOC) test was used to ensure the relevance and appropriateness of the adapted scale items for the study context. Three experts in the field reviewed the items, with a minimum IOC score of 0.6 required for item retention. After the IOC process, four new items were added to the service quality scale, yielding a final total of 27 service quality items. A pilot test of the survey was conducted with 99 parents, receiving 36 complete responses, with 33 deemed acceptable. Reliability analysis was performed, showing acceptable Cronbach alpha values for all constructs (brand trust: 0.800, service quality: 0.956, satisfaction: 0.952, and word of mouth: 0.919). The main survey was then administered to a sample of 458 Generation X parents at TIS, utilizing both email distribution and teacher-facilitated distribution. Data analysis involved confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to assess convergent and discriminant validity of the constructs. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was then used to test the hypothesized relationships among the variables and to assess the mediating role of satisfaction. AMOS software was used for the SEM analysis. Several criteria were used to assess acceptable model fit, including CMIN/DF, GFI, AGFI, NFI, CFI, TLI, and RMSEA. Bootstrapping was performed to assess the significance of the indirect effects in the SEM model.

The CFA confirmed the convergent and discriminant validity of the constructs. The SEM results revealed that parental satisfaction had the strongest direct impact on WOM (β = 0.767, p < 0.001). Service quality did not have a significant direct effect on WOM, while brand trust also lacked a significant direct effect on WOM. However, both service quality and brand trust had significant indirect effects on WOM, mediated through satisfaction. Specifically, service quality significantly and positively impacted satisfaction (β = 0.428, p < 0.001), which in turn significantly and positively affected WOM. Similarly, brand trust significantly and positively influenced satisfaction (β = 0.446, p < 0.001), which also subsequently impacted WOM. The mediation analysis indicated that satisfaction fully mediated the relationships between both service quality and brand trust, and WOM. In other words, the effect of service quality and brand trust on WOM was entirely indirect, occurring solely through the mediating effect of satisfaction. The R-squared values for satisfaction and WOM were 0.724 and 0.767, respectively, indicating strong explanatory power of the model.

The findings strongly support the central role of parental satisfaction in driving positive WOM for international schools. While service quality and brand trust are important antecedents to satisfaction, their impact on WOM is entirely indirect, channeled through the mediating effect of satisfaction. This suggests that international schools should prioritize strategies that enhance parental satisfaction, as this will, in turn, positively influence WOM and recruitment efforts. The lack of direct effect of service quality and brand trust on WOM highlights the importance of a holistic approach that focuses not merely on providing high-quality services or building a strong brand but, more importantly, on ensuring that parents feel satisfied with their overall school experience. These findings are consistent with research on customer loyalty in other service industries, emphasizing the importance of positive emotional connections with customers for driving positive WOM and advocacy. The study's findings provide valuable insights for school leaders interested in enhancing the efficacy of their marketing and recruitment efforts, focusing on what drives parent satisfaction to cultivate positive WOM.

This study makes a significant contribution by empirically demonstrating the critical role of parental satisfaction as a mediator between service quality, brand trust, and word-of-mouth referrals in the K-12 international school context. The findings underscore the need for schools to prioritize strategies focused on enhancing parent satisfaction, rather than solely focusing on service quality improvements or brand-building. Future research could explore additional antecedents of parent satisfaction and examine the generalizability of these findings to different school contexts and parental demographics. Investigating the interplay between different types of trust (brand trust, relational trust) in schools is another promising avenue for future research.

The study's limitations include its focus on a single international school and a specific generation of parents (Generation X). The findings may not be generalizable to other school settings or different parental demographics. The reliance on self-reported data through surveys might also introduce biases. Further research with larger, more diverse samples across various international schools is recommended to enhance the generalizability of the findings. Exploring the influence of cultural factors on the relationships between the studied variables could also add valuable insights.