Contributions & Limitations

Contributions & Future Research

This study has provided insight to the persuasive power of stories in regard to university recruitment. The results of the study provide explanation of how stories can help the idea of higher education and college life become more tangible to prospective students. Stories provide a vehicle for sense making and allow students to visualize themselves fitting in at a particular university. Using stories in recruitment makes the abstract more concrete, which prepares students for the transition into college life and reduces some of the fear an anxiety related to going away to college. This study also provides undergraduate admissions offices with insights on the types of stories students are most interested in hearing or reading about and how these stories should be communicated. Though there are several practical contributions yielded from these results there are theoretical implications as well.

This study used the narrative paradigm as its theoretical foundation and the results have provided evidence of the impact this theory can have empirically. The results of this study provide reason for using stories as a persuasive tool and how this communication phenomenon described by Fisher influences sense making. This study has began to link the narrative paradigm to empirical theories of persuasion by adding more depth and breadth to these pre-existing constructs and creating a more encompassing understanding of the persuasive power of stories.

These theoretical and practical implications have opened the door to several possible future research opportunities. This study only focused on four universities, but research could be done on more universities to examine other effective story topics, channels to communicate with prospective students, and to determine what the national norm is to using stories in recruitment material. These results also provide a foundation for conducting experimental studies that would measure the persuasiveness and effectiveness of stories in recruitment materials and how narratives influence students’ decisions for choosing a university. The results from this study provide evidence of how the communication phenomenon of storytelling can play a persuasive and sense making role in the decision-making process and why it should continue to be studied.