| Summary: | The purpose of this paper is to explore the construct of student satisfaction and analyze its relationship with student loyalty in the context of state and private universities.
A 45-item Turkish questionnaire adapted from literature, to which the authors added several items, was administered to MBA students of state- and private, foundation-owned universities located in Istanbul, as the largest city of Turkey. In this study, a two-step confirmative modeling strategy was chosen to test the hypotheses of the theoretical model by using LISREL 8. As the first step of the mentioned approach, a congruent and congeneric measurement model was established for each type of universities; then, in the second stage, hypotheses were tested by analyzing structural models.
Research findings show a positive correlation between satisfaction and loyalty. The most important factors of satisfaction for the students attending state-owned universities are academic quality, teaching quality, and appropriateness of career opportunities; however, at private universities teaching quality and supportive services and appropriateness of career opportunities are the most significant factors. Administrative and the quality of library services turned out to be unimportant factors for MBA students both at state and private universities in this study. The distinguishing point of this study, which enhances its originality, was examining the difference between state and private universities separately.
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