According to the previous information, it can be extracted the following:
● Internal factors:
○ Strengths: Diverse and multicultural nation, located in the heart of Asia.
Boosting economy and very proud of their democratic values.
○ Weaknesses: Sovereignty issues and international recognition. Undermined by China when trying to promote their country’s image, labelled as China, Taipei in international events and economic and cultural offices worldwide.
● External factors:
○ Opportunities: Taiwan holds a global image attached to certain stereotypes thanks to pop culture and food staples, such as bubble milk tea, the rest is unknown, so there are great chances to give meaning and enhance positive feedback and perceptions thanks to a well crafted nation branding strategy.
○ Threats: Ongoing threat of international blocking by China.
2.4 Internationalization of higher education
Education is the key component in the creation of an imperishable image of the country for the future generations to hold on with pride. It also affects the perceptions of future investors, residents, visitors, and supporters. For instance, if a foreign student decides to pursue studies in Taiwan, all the experiences related to his/her exposure in Taiwan will result in a perception that will be passed to others back home, establishing the existence of such place/society in the minds of a different community (Anholt, 2006).
Choosing to continue education in an entirely different country can be explained
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through the globalization phenomena. Globalization of higher education has revolutionized the way students perform shopping processes when looking for an exchange program destination or pursuing a degree abroad. That is to say, one's home country is not necessarily the most relevant nor obvious choice to access higher education anymore, especially when it comes to an entire generation of millennials and their ever-changing consumer trends.
The concept of globalization applied to higher education can be seen through the internationalization of higher education, which is an area of great importance in most universities in the world. Thanks to the internationalization of higher education institutions can integrate international or intercultural aspects into their teaching, research and services, that way they offer more skills to their prospective students and at the same time gain recognition to forge new alliances with institutions abroad, to promote foreign language programs and cross-cultural exchange (Jibeen & Asad Khan, 2015).
The past three decades has witnessed the rapid increase of students enrolled outside their home countries. In 1975, international students represented 0.8 million worldwide growing exponentially in the data extracted in 2011 that stated the presence of 4.3 million students abroad. Only in the 2000-11 time span, the number of students enrolled in tertiary education almost tripled, with numbers showing a constant annual growth rate of almost 7%
(OECD, 2013).
Regions, like Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, are experiencing a significant growth in numbers related to international students enrolled in local universities, which certainly reflects the internationalization of their academic offer (OECD, 2013).
Asian students mobility is ever changing. Traditionally, Asia is the global talent pool, since is the country of origin of most foreign students in the world. However, the region has recently become a destination for fellow international students (Campus France, 2014).
Taiwan is no stranger to this global trend and has a nurtured offer of different scholarships and it is a country that holds a reputation of a very steady economy with strong democratic values. But what lies beyond the economic growth charts and manufactured technology?
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Taiwan's interest in attracting international students holds deeper roots. Eventhough educational exchange is a very well-known practice known since the early decades of the past century, only after 1950s became a key component for international education and world diplomacy, as a mean to bring together different cultures and cater mutual understanding in between different nations (Grünzweig and Rinehart, 2002).
This trend has signified a chance, for countries that are not traditionally known as a reference in the education field, to expand and look for students outside their nation's boundaries.
This is particularly relevant for Taiwan, which is a country with a complex political situation. China’s ongoing attempts to isolate Taiwan diplomatically, often hinder the nation’s efforts to broadly advertise its products or services worldwide. As stated by the Financial Times (2019), “the Chinese government claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force against the island to achieve unification. Over the past three years, in addition to pressure on companies, Beijing has ramped up military activities near Taiwan-controlled territories and blocked Taiwan’s diplomatic and trade initiatives” (para. 6).
This is certainly a tough scenario, but at the same time offers a great opportunity to push unconventional and original strategies to promote Taiwan internationally based on the perceptions of non-Asian international students currently pursuing degrees in the island country.
DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900307 that influence the consumer in the evaluation process (Khachaturian & Morganosky, 1990).
That is to say, being able to understand the existing preconceptions and knowledge in the consumer about the product, in this case, the nation's image will certainly help develop successful marketing campaigns.
After learning all about Taiwan’s overall features, it was the time to learn about actual universities and courses offered around the island. That’s when “Study in Taiwan” came into the picture. “Study in Taiwan” owns a website platform in which all universities and programs all over Taiwan are featured, along with precise information about programs taught in English, as well as different scholarships and helpful information about lifestyle and everyday life in the city of your preference.
The rapid development of international competitiveness in the higher education field has resulted in marketers and policymakers wanting to acquire a deeper understanding of the shopping processes of potential students worldwide. In this case, "Study in Taiwan", serves as a platform that gathers information about Taiwan’s top universities, programs, scholarships, and Chinese learning centers.
“Study in Taiwan” is a side project of the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET). Founded in 2005, it is a non-profit organization that
“has been given the responsibility by the government to function as a platform for international cooperation between Taiwanese and foreign universities”. Moreover, FICHET aims “to advance the globalization of Taiwanese higher education and to proudly exhibit its merits on an international stage” (FICHET, 2018).
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Taiwan is a developed country, very attractive in terms of innovation and technology and its inhabitants are often portrayed as very friendly people. When it comes to higher education, Taiwan boasts a total of 157 colleges, junior colleges and universities scattered throughout the island (Ministry of Education, 2018).
As for the reasons behind the selection of Taiwan as a destination to continue education, according to a survey ran by FICHET (2017) the following were listed, “Taiwan provides a high-quality academic environment, rich cultural heritage, excellent living circumstances, reasonable tuition, scholarships, and opportunities to learn Mandarin Chinese”
(p. 28).
This research aims to understand these perceptions and go even further in trying to convey the most relevant concepts behind non-Asian international students perceptions on the nation brand Taiwan.
2.5.2 International students in Taiwan
Taiwan has foreseen the implications of tertiary education in a globalized world and has been heavily investing in higher education since the beginning of the millennium.
Attracting international students is not only a way to cultural exchange, but a mean to develop a global knowledge economy, managing demographic decline and combating brain drain (Yung, 2016).
As a way to level up with their regional and global counterparts, the government of Taiwan has passed policies to reform its higher education system, with stress on academic programs, regulation, financing, and internationalization.
Since 2000, The Ministry of Education (MOE) has launched three major internationalization programs, including "Enhancing Global Competitiveness Plan",
"Development Plan for World-Class Universities and Research Centers of Excellence", and
"Recognition of International Accreditation". In order to boost Taiwan's global competitiveness and achieve credentials as an international cultural reference and a higher education hub (Ministry of Education, 2015).
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To be able to move forward in the higher education race and to be able to attract international talents, MOE re-organized its former international departments and established a unified Department of International and Cross-strait Education in 2013. Ever since, this new department has been responsible for “promoting Taiwan’s international education exchange programs and integrating cross-strait educational affairs” (Ministry of Education, 2018).
This strategy has most certainly paid off and as for 2017, Taiwan is ranked 17th in the
“Higher Education and Training” record emanated in the Global Competitiveness Report 2017 published by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Politically wise, Taiwan faces a very complex scenario, however it still holds commercial relations with many countries around the world, allowing Taiwan to create a large set of networks and therefore nurturing them by allowing international students to apply to exchange programs and even scholarships to take part in Taiwan’s boosting academic environment, even in countries that openly supports the “One China policy”.
Scholarships in Taiwan are funded by the Ministry of Foreign Relations (MOFA) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) and allow international talents to pursue academic degrees, academic exchange, conducting research and learning mandarin while experiencing the local culture.
Since attracting students to apply to mandarin taught programs seems nearly impossible, the official organisms have promoted the creation of programs aimed for international students.
According to Graddol (1996), "English is the main language of books, newspapers, airports and air traffic control, international business and academic conferences, science, technology, diplomacy, sport, international competitions, pop music, and advertising"
(p.181). That is why, in 2018 there were 190 English-taught programs in several fields of study offered in 51 universities all over Taiwan in order to engage international students (Roc-Taiwan, 2018).
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During the academic year of 2017-2018, more than 110000 international students were enrolled in different diploma and non-diploma programs in Taiwan (FICHET, 2018) and more than 600 students from 70 countries were recipients of Taiwan Scholarship (Taiwan Today, 2017).
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CHAPTER THREE. Research gap
Nation branding strategies in higher education are still a developing concept, therefore it has rarely been explored in the context of Taiwan. This particular research will be focused on non-Asian international students, which represented 3785 enrolled students in diploma programs in the academic year of 2017-2018 (FICHET, 2018).
There have been vast academic efforts to study the perceptions of fellow Asian international students. However, perceptions of non-Asian international students have scarcely been put into perspective yet.
That is why the research question will have stress on how Taiwan is shaping its nation's image through nation branding strategies that foster higher education and how that affects the nation image of Taiwan over non-Asian students in the context of a globalized world.
Personally, seems like interesting research, considering non-Asian international students suffer from a higher cultural shock experience due to the contrasting cosmovision that still sets orient and occident apart. Which makes even more interesting to analyze their before and after perceptions on the nation brand Taiwan.
Moreover, this research can shed some light on how to craft a suitable nation branding strategies to attract international students, by exploring the key concepts that will be extracted in this thesis research by analyzing the perceptions of non-Asian international students regarding the nation brand Taiwan.
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3.1 Research question
Given above, this research proposed the following research questions:
RQ1: How has studying in Taiwan transformed perception towards nation brand Taiwan among non-Asian international students?
RQ2: How are said perceptions reflected over the social media platform Instagram?
3.2 Theoretical framework
Social networking allows users to exchange information with their peers. A tool that certainly comes in handy when trying to differentiate and promote a nation brand such as Taiwan.
That is why the role of social media as a moderator of information is a very interesting one to analyze through the perspectives of non-Asian international students.
Taking into account choosing a destination and program when studying abroad is not a simple decision task. It considered pondering a sum of variants before actually making the ultimate decision of enrolling in a certain university in a certain country.
In this scenario is proper to state that social influence plays a key role in today's generation. As pointed out by Bakshy et. al (2012), "social networks may influence an individual's behavior, but they also reflect the individual's own activities, interests, and opinions" (p. 7).
As a consequence, there will be put into use two theories in order to be able to describe and give perspective to the phenomena: (a) brand concept-image management, (2) actor-network theory.
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3.2.1 Brand concept-image management
Communicating a brand image, in this case, nation brand image, to a certain segment holds a challenging task. In order to be successful, said communication strategy needs to set up one's brand from the competition.
Positioning strategies are implemented when trying to differentiate a brand from its competitors by being able to communicate the brand’s image in the most accurate way.
Through a well-crafted communication plan, brands can work coherently, by developing and enhancing the image and ultimately building up a core personality for the brand (Park, et. al, 1986).
In order to achieve brand differentiation and as it has been stated throughout this proposal, it is important to understand the needs and mindset of the target audience wanted to be reached. Therefore the brand image needs to be attached to a functional need, to be able to solve consumption-related issues. On the other hand, functional needs are always tied to symbolic needs, linked to the internally generated needs fulfilled through the acquiring of the said functional brand. Finally experiential needs, are related to sensory pleasure, variety and/or cognitive stimulation (Park, et. al, 1986).
That is to say, as stated by Bath & Reddy (1998), “functional brands satisfy practical and immediate needs, whereas symbolic brands satisfy needs as self-expression, prestige.
Symbolic brands practical usage is incidental” (p. 136).
In Taiwan's case, pursuing a degree stands for the functional need to be satisfied during the experience. When referring to the symbolic needs fulfilled, are a set of characteristics attached to Taiwan, that this research plans to uncover when it comes to non-Asian international students' perceptions on the matter. There is a practical and conceptual significance when examining the background information related to the symbolism of a given brand since it produces valuable brand outcomes.
When talking about doting products or services with symbolic value, the term
"cultural intermediaries" comes in very handy. In terms of Smith & Matthews (2012), there is
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one popular direction followed by cultural intermediaries, which sets them "as market actors involved in the qualification of goods, mediating between economy and culture" (p. 1).
International talents get a unique chance to experience local culture first hand.
Interacting with Taiwanese people and enjoying every aspect of the culture, ignites the desire to document the process on social media. That is to say, their close circle and also public in general in case their social media profiles are public, get the chance to have a glimpse of Taiwanese lifestyle, setting it apart from China y ultimately transforming these international students into cultural intermediaries (Bourdeau, 1984) in a hyper-connected society.
According to Street (1997), “the education system of a country is intimately tied to the making and consuming of popular culture” (p. 306). Therefore, international students in Taiwan become a referent for their close circle in terms of learning how is life in Taiwan, what are the best characteristics of living in the country as well as some aspects about popular culture.
Social network information diffusion (Bakshy et al., 2012) plays an essential role, since there is a constant reinforcement of the nation brand Taiwan and its particular culture and in consequence, there is a chain reaction taking place in a community or group of people through the spreading of a constant information flow about Taiwan, ultimately becoming familiarized with the nation brand.
What are the symbolic needs attached to Taiwan, that is to say perceptions, and how these perceptions can be used to craft a solid strategy to attract even more international students?
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3.2.2 Actor-network theory (ANT)
As explained by Callon (1987), ANT is “reducible neither to an actor alone nor to a network…An actor-network is simultaneously an actor whose activity is networking heterogeneous elements and a network that is able to redefine and transform what it is made of” (p.93).
Furthermore, according to Mol (2010), “actors associate with other actors, thus forming a network in which they are all made into “actors” as the associations allow each of them to act. Actors are enacted, enabled, and adapted by their associates while in their turn enacting, enabling and adapting these” (p. 260).
When researching about the Taiwanese lifestyle, social media offers a large variety of platforms to look for this kind of information. But one social media with incredible growth and that has different ways to show information and everyday life events is Instagram.
Further explained by the concept of homophily, which refers to the tendency of individuals with shared characteristics to associate with one another in this intertwined online society (Bakshy et. al, 2012).
From 2017 on, Facebook has been consistently seeing its users flee. Millennials and Generation Z seem to no longer engage in the platform. Solely in 2017, their 12-17 demographic (Generation Z) dropped by 1.4 million users. When referring to Millennials, the numbers are not very different. During the same time frame, Facebook lost 2.2 million Millennial users (Koprowski, 2018).
That is why, it is correct to state the most representative interface for both generations is Instagram nowadays. According to the information extracted by the Pew Research Center in 2018, 60% of Instagram users are between the ages of 18 to 29 in the USA, which are exactly the demographics wanted to be attracted.
Moreover, in the top 10 countries with the higher use of Instagram, 70% correspond to non-Asian countries, demonstrating that is also a highly popular app for the population of interest (Statista, 2019) and can be observed on figure 1 on page 20.
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It is relevant to state, that international students might find attractive following accounts of people currently studying abroad in the destination country on Instagram, that way they would be able to access all kinds of content in the form of: pictures in the timeline, videos and snaps on Instagram Stories, even live events streaming or extended videos on the IGTV platform, with the extra perk of IG direct messaging.
When it comes to the researcher’s experience whose student life in Taiwan has been highly documented over Instagram, allowing friends and family to become part of the journey and learn about a country that seems very exotic for her counterparts.
As an example of the way one actor can affect and modify the perceptions of others, it can be mentioned that during the researcher’s stay, the posts about Taiwan on her personal Instagram account have gathered more than twenty three thousand (23k) likes. Thirty (30) of her closest friends have enquired about top places to visit in Taiwan and eight (8) of them have successfully traveled to Taiwan. Four (4) of her closest friends have inquired specifically about the scholarship and two (2) of them are participating in this year’s process.
As an example of the way one actor can affect and modify the perceptions of others, it can be mentioned that during the researcher’s stay, the posts about Taiwan on her personal Instagram account have gathered more than twenty three thousand (23k) likes. Thirty (30) of her closest friends have enquired about top places to visit in Taiwan and eight (8) of them have successfully traveled to Taiwan. Four (4) of her closest friends have inquired specifically about the scholarship and two (2) of them are participating in this year’s process.