Online Information Search Behavior of Business School Aspirants: An Empirical Study

In last two decades there are several forces that have impacted business education system. It prompts the business schools across the globe to have market oriented approach either to survive or to excel. In this changing scenario the students' roles in the system bear similarity to that of consumers in traditional business context. Accordingly, the researchers and practitioners have adapted the various marketing constructs – consumer behavior, service quality etc- to study the problems and prospects of this industry. The present study is an all round attempt to arrest the prospective business school students' information search behavior which precedes actual decision making stage. Factor analysis reveals that seven factors- intellectual resource, state of Infrastructure, scope of placement, accreditation and collaboration, ranking status, cost of the program, and admission procedure- are usually searched online by the aspirants at pre-admission stage.