Business Management Postgraduate Major Choice: Why the Campus Matters?

Abstract

A study related to college major choice has been drawn from many perspectives, including the economic and sociological models, mixed models, and marketing models. However, a study employing the marketing model is still limited. This study aimed to understand the factors influencing student choice in a master's degree in management and business at a private university, specifically at executive class. This study proposed a model and empirically examined the social environment, college-major attributes, and student self-efficacy as an antecedent of college major choices. This study used an explanatory method, undertaken in Indonesia, covering private universities in five provinces in Kalimantan Island, with a sample size of 368 postgraduate students in business. The data analysis employed in this study was SEM-PLS, following an evaluation of the measurement model and structural model to test the hypotheses. The study results indicated that the social environment factor is the most influential factor in encouraging students to enroll in a postgraduate business program. However, the results of the indirect effect showed that college-major attributes are the determining factors in increasing the students' self-efficacy and are considered to have a more significant effect on major choice.