University digital internationalization: integrating digital marketing and bilingualism as a competitive advantage in higher education

Resumo

This research analyzes how higher education institutions integrated digital marketing and bilingualism as strategic elements of digital internationalization and explores how this integration helped cultivate a competitive advantage. Qualitative Research: A unique interpretive paradigm was applied to conduct qualitative research using a multiple case study design. Data were obtained from semi-structured interviews with internationalization directors, marketing managers, and academic coordinators, as well as from document analysis and observation of institutional digital platforms. Data were interpreted using open coding, axial coding, and thematic analysis, assisted by specialized software. The results demonstrated that digital internationalization was carried out through a strategic narrative framework rather than as an operational process. Furthermore, digital marketing itself acted as a technique for legitimizing and enhancing global visibility, while bilingualism, as English Language Instruction (EMI), acted as symbolic capital that supported an institutional stance. Implementation, however, was constrained by limited resources, faculty resistance, and technological gaps. A competitive advantage was achieved when digital strategy, institutional narrative, and bilingual policy were well integrated. The current study offered an interpretive model of integrated digital internationalization that conceptualized marketing, language policy, and strategic positioning within a coherent qualitative framework. It is critical that universities, particularly in developing markets, do so by integrating digital transformation, bilingual curriculum, and institutional discourse through a cross-cutting internationalization strategy to gain a stronger position.