Abstract

This paper endeavours to identify the critical implications of digital marketing (DM) for the higher education sector (HES). Inbound marketing is a growing concern for the strategic decision-makers these days. Unlike the traditional ‘push’-oriented outbound marketing, DM enables the organisation to understand customers better, build a long-term relationship, to design order-winning value propositions and customised products and services, and effective positioning of the brands through the creation of ‘pull’ factors. Hence, it stands as a source of a competitive advantage for the HES. In this paper, an expert opinion-based intuitionistic fuzzy multi-criteria group decision-making framework is used for examining the key implications of DM for the HES. It is revealed that identification of the needs, building of long-term relationships and engagement, and transparent communication have critical implications for DM in the context of higher education.

Digital marketing; higher educational sector; intuitionistic fuzzy multi-criteria group decision making;
triangular intuitionistic fuzzy numbers; Kendall’s concordance coefficient