Exploring Strategic Information Use in Enrollment Management at Four-Year Institutions of Higher Education

Abstract

Institutions of higher education (IHEs) engage in practices that mirror the operations of businesses, including execution of ongoing strategic management initiatives, particularly in marketing and admissions. IHEs benefit from building profiles of target customers (i.e., prospective students) and using these data to enhance recruitment campaigns. In addition to prospect-specific information, IHEs can utilize data in the external environment related to competitor institutions, market insights and knowledge, benchmarks, and other external data. Further, ongoing organizational learning activities enable processes and routines to be improved over time, with changes to contemporary practices building on, and incorporating learning from, knowledge gained from past practices. This study investigated IHEs’ acquisition of external information, communication of information within the institution, and use of knowledge gained from enhanced organizational communication for the purposes of gaining or sustaining a competitive advantage. This study contributes to literature tying key strategic management frameworks to recruitment efforts in higher education, focusing on absorptive capacity and strategic learning capability in marketing and admissions. Absorptive Capacity (ACAP) allows institutions to take advantage of market information when it is assimilated across the organization. Strategic Learning Capability (SLC) describes an organization’s ability to adjust organizational strategy based on acquired strategic information. Explored together in this study, these two capabilities encompass how external information is identified, shared, and utilized. In addition, the study explores the capacity of marketing and admissions units within IHEs to adapt practices in response to information acquired through Strategic Learning Capability. The overarching research question for this survey-based exploratory study is: To what extent are ACAP and SLC behaviors associated with improved outcomes in recruitment and enrollment at four-year institutions? The findings indicate that there are statistically significant but generally modest associations between ACAP/SLC and selected outcome measures in marketing and admissions.