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A trend towards a more competitive educational system which is obvious in several countries is expected to increase the rates at which schools, colleges, and universities respond to their environments and to enhance their creativity and innovativeness. To achieve these objectives, various strategies, such as open‐boundary admission policies, have been adopted. Consequently, educational institutions are beginning to adopt marketing strategies to attract students, staff, and funds. This adoption of marketing has several implications. These include harmonising a marketing philosophy with the institutional mission, creating appropriate organisational structures, and implementing marketing strategies.

While marketing research in the context of educational institutions continues to grow, little is known about the strategic choices associated with international student recruitment (ISR), an important activity that, increasingly, has significant influence on the longevity and prosperity of education institutions in many countries. This study addresses a deficit in the marketing/education literature by using the Value Discipline Strategy (VDS) typology as an appropriate framework upon which to investigate and expand our knowledge of international student recruitment (ISR) strategies operating in educational institutions.

The research design comprised two stages involving both qualitative and quantitative methods. Participants were ISR practitioners in the secondary school and university sectors across two countries, i.e. Australia and New Zealand. Phase 1 involved in‐depth interviews with ISR marketing practitioners across educational sectors, while Phase 2 involved the use of an online survey to a larger sample of ISR marketing practitioners.

While the use of the VDS typology was found to be appropriate in the education sector, it was incomplete. This led to the proposal of a fourth strategy the authors label as entrenched isolation (Phase 1). Phase 2 results identified strategy commonalities and some important differences across sectors and countries.

From a theoretical perspective, the implications of this study are important as the findings lead to an expansion of the VDS typology.

From a practical perspective, ISR practitioners are provided with a valuable tool to identify the ISR marketing strategy in their institution and, furthermore, implement strategic change that can be effectively measured.

The contribution of the research is threefold. Firstly, the authors extend marketing strategy theory through the expanded VDS model. Secondly, the authors identify and validate strategies adopted by ISR departments across two countries and, finally, the authors validate the use of the self‐typing paragraph method as an appropriate mechanism for strategy identification.

This review provides a synthesis of the scholarship that has sought to expand the understanding of educational marketing practice in schools. The following research questions guided this review. What are the common themes and characteristics that emerge from research about marketing in schools? What remains underdeveloped in the characterization of the school marketing and what are the topics for future research? Based on 25 studies identified as pertinent to the current review the topics of: marketing perceptions, marketing planning, marketing strategies and promotion are discussed. The paper concludes by providing an analysis of the limitations of the current research and discussing future directions for research on school marketing.

This study aims to propose and test a model of educational quality in marketing-management by incorporating resource-capability variables that are linked to learning outcomes for students and the competitive positioning of universities.

Drawing on the resource-dependence theory, this study develops a comprehensive model for measuring educational quality. A sample comprising Spanish university teachers has been used to test the hypothesised relationships by using a two-stage least squares regression analysis while controlling for the possible effect of the public/private nature of the university.

The results validate the model and show that educational capabilities are reliable variables for predicting the educational quality of marketing-management programmes at Spanish universities.

Similar to all educational research studies, certain problems have been acknowledged with respect to the data and the theoretical constructs that are used in the study. Future studies can replicate this study’s model by using more direct objective measures of the theoretical constructs and extend the study to other countries with different educational contexts.

The results provide guidance to marketing teachers at a university in designing high-quality marketing-management educational programmes and in developing self-diagnostic tools that can determine a university’s likelihood of competitive success.

This study is one of the few studies to apply the resource-dependence theory to the analysis of the variables associated with the quality of marketing-management education. In doing so, the study presents original multiitem scales to improve the measurement of model constructs.

Given the increasing competition in higher education, including that on MBA degrees, it is surprising that more attention has not been paid to marketing issues, such as are educational institutions really “customer‐oriented”?; do they choose the most appropriate market segments?; the complexities of the decision processes of the “buyers”. Looks first at general issues facing educational marketers, and then examines the marketing of MBA degrees in the light of theory, of previous survey data and of evidence arising from their collective experience. Concludes that, whether the “customer” is an individual student or a company, a greater understanding of buyer behaviour is needed; business schools should improve their marketing or stand accused of not practising what they preach.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of demographic, social, economic and international aspects on the market of university services in Russia. It also reminds readers briefly of the evolution of the Russian higher education system during the last 20 years and considers some consequences of the current public policy and reforms in this sector.

The paper provides a qualitative analysis of the marketing environment of Russian universities.

The results show that it is urgent for Russian universities to think and innovate about their marketing strategies to better position themselves in the educational market that has greatly changed throughout the transition period. International competition, demographic decrease, change in age structure and consumer behavior and preferences are those trends that create new challenges.

Public policy in higher education needs to be improved also to enable better equity across territory and different universities.

After a drastic drop in the public funding during the 1990s (from 9.6 percent of GDP in 1986 to 3.5 percent in 1990), the higher education sector in Russia is still “struggling for survival.” In spite of the increase in funding in the year 2000, public support is distributed unequally across universities, 40 universities being distinguished among more than 1,100 other existing institutions. For those institutions that are not supported by the State, an efficient marketing strategy helps to keep the pace and continue to exist and offer educational programs. In order to ensure a wide access to higher education throughout the whole territory and to let some institutions to continue to work, it is urgent to rethink and reinforce marketing research in education.

The paper is an original study of the market for higher education services in Russia.

The purpose of this exploratory research is to analyse the marketing activities of software companies in the UK educational software sector. The paper aims to explore the marketing environment and to investigate whether there are differences in experiences, attitudes and approaches between different sizes of firms.

Semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews were undertaken with key respondents who had responsibility for marketing, marketing managers or owner/managers. Themes were identified alongside contextual social and organizational effects.

The marketplace is dominated by several large firms and heavily influenced by government. Overall, five factors were identified that were experienced by all businesses in the sector: challenges in identifying the “customer”; school's budgetary constraints; the IT competence of teachers; the importance of word‐of mouth recommendations; and, the use of partnerships. Differences between small and large firms centred on: understanding of competitive structure; perception of their business's marketing strengths; and, approaches to communication and interaction with customers.

Proposals for further research are offered.

The paper offers a profile of the educational software marketplace and indicates that a number of marketing issues similarly have an effect on all businesses. Differences in behaviour and attitudes are associated with company size and respondent professional/work expertise. In particular, smaller businesses tend to be customer oriented, but often not market oriented.

Describes a free market economy as a competitive, self‐regulating market. In this environment, marketing becomes a powerful instrument for matching products and services to people′s needs. The competitive nature of the market necessitates a continuous exploration of changes in people′s needs and a constant adaptation of the organization and its output to these changes. The success of this adaptation enhances product or service quality and ensures institutional survival. Explains that adult and continuing education can become more effective by adopting marketing strategies, and provides important marketing strategies that may be found relevant in the administration of adult and continuing education programmes under a free market economy.

The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the marketing orientation and market-oriented cultural elements of integrated Islamic schools. These integrated schools teach modern science curriculum alongside comprehensive religious instruction in an Islamic environment.

This is an inductive, exploratory research from an interpretivist study. Narrative inquiry was undertaken to understand the perceptions, attitudes and actions of school senior management and teachers. Content analysis of the school websites and social media pages was carried out. In total, 7 schools and 16 respondents became part of the purposive sample.

The presence of several integrated Islamic schools, experienced Islamic education leadership and Islamic education consultants are evidence of a growing sector. The schools are technologically enabled, strongly customer-oriented and adept at inter-functional coordination. The need-gap found in this sector is in competitor orientation, curriculum development and recruitment of specific criteria-based staff.

With the mushrooming of integrated Islamic schools in Pakistan, the level of competition has also risen. The schools have made a considerable investment and strives to maintain and increase the enrollment rate of the institute. This research can enlighten integrated Islamic educators about effective education marketing practices and the prevalence of marketing orientation in such schools.

In Pakistan, private primary schools strive to differentiate themselves and competitively position their value proposition. The marketization of education has begun to affect perceptions of school staff, teachers, students and academic work itself. Yet, there is scarce exploratory research on marketing done by integrated Islamic primary schools. This study will contribute foundational work for the development of a holistic marketing model tailored to the requirements of integrated Islamic schools.

Partnership arrangements involving institutions of further and higher education provide educational provision to a broad audience. It is essential that within the framework of a partnership arrangement there is a structure in place which allows senior academics and administrators to ensure that the partnership is maintained, developed and realizes the objectives set by senior management. This paper makes reference to a centre of entrepreneurship, which academics and administrators can establish, to facilitate the development of partnership arrangements and can be viewed also as a catalyst for developing new products and services which can be turned into marketable products and services, leading to increased opportunities for income generation. The framework outlined in this paper can provide a basis for establishing a professional and relational marketing approach that should ensure that customer expectations are met, and can be used to audit, evaluate and manage a partnership arrangement.