E-learning and market orientation in higher education

Technology is modifying the way companies do business all over the world. The education sector is no exception; virtual education has emerged as a basic tool to satisfy the changing needs of traditional and newly incorporated students, as well as meet the new requirements of educational institutions. This article therefore tries to achieve a double objective: to analyze what drives the development of online education within the Universities of the European Union and to design a theoretical framework that permits to obtain responses to que question of why students continue their estudies at the same educational institution. Thus, first, the analysis of external factors identifies social, political and technological capacity as issues that explain the rise of e-learning within the field of European higher education. Second, the empirical work shows the design of a cause-effect model with relationships between different variables in which market orientation of Universities and usability play an important role in the future intentions of use for students.