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Investigates the effect of alumni ownership of university insignia goods and related alumni contribution behavior. Two distinct measures of alumni contribution behavior‐willingness to give and actual contribution behavior‐were used in this study. Willingness to give is a measure of the desire or sentiment to contribute. Contributions are behavioral manifestations of that sentiment. The results of the study indicate the importance of alumni identification with the university both to alumni willingness to give and donor behavior and suggests that identification with the university results in ownership of university insignia goods. Discusses programmatic strategies to increase alumni contributions stemming from the findings of this study.

The level of deterioration of educational facilities, such as leaking classroom roofs, inadequate good seats, obsolete offices, broken shutters and doors, outdated school buildings, power plants and office equipment like ICT media, laboratories, offices and workshops, despite the involvement of Alumni association in the maintenance of educational facilities for the effective actualization of school objectives was a worrisome nightmare in Kogi state. This, therefore, prompted the researchers to explore the Alumni’s participation in plant maintenance for effective implementation of the universal basic education (UBE) programme in public junior secondary schools in Kogi state. The purpose of this study was guided by the research question which stated that to what extent does the Alumni Association participate in plant maintenance for effective implementation of the UBE programme in public junior secondary schools in Kogi state?

A quantitative research approach using a descriptive survey was adopted for the study. The sample was drawn using a proportionate stratified sampling technique comprising 387 participants which consisted of 191 (49%) urban junior secondary school principals and 196 (51%) rural principals in selected UBE junior secondary schools. Alumni’s Participation in Plant Maintenance Questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. The data were analysed with the aid of mean and standard deviation for the research question and z-test statistics at 0.05 level of significance and the value of z-crit. of 1.96 was used to determine the rejection or otherwise of the hypotheses.

The descriptive analysis revealed that the average mean set of 2.64 pointed to the fact that the respondents averagely agreed that there was a high extent to which Alumni participate in plant maintenance in urban than rural areas for effective implementation of the UBE programme in public junior secondary schools in Kogi state. This indicates that Alumni contribute to the management of UBE schools in Kogi state, especially in the areas of funding, infrastructural facilities, discipline, politics and quality control. This finding also shows that the contributions of the alumni to educational institutions are still unclear if they have made contributions to education in some areas and none in other areas making their relevance to plant maintenance unclear.

In terms of practical implications, the study has contributed to knowledge in that it is the first of this form of a study carried out in Kogi state, and as such the findings of the research will make contributions to the physique of information on plant maintenance for the profitable implementation of the UBE programme in Kogi state. Besides, the degree of plant preservation for the implementation of the UBE programme among applicable stakeholders in Kogi state is nevertheless at a low extent.

Researchers have conducted studies that show how non-state Alumni members contribute to the administration of education across different states. Some of these studies revealed that Alumni members have assisted schools in the provision of teaching and learning materials at the senior secondary or tertiary education level. There are no sufficient studies to show how these Alumni members have contributed to the implementation of the free education programme, especially in public junior secondary schools in Kogi state and this is the gap this study intends to fill.

This chapter provides insights into the activities carried out by alumni in the domain of academic entrepreneurship. Given the increasing role of alumni in the support to entrepreneurial learning in universities and the scant evidence about their actual engagement into these initiatives, it explores the alumni organisations affiliated to the population of 58 alumni organisations in 55 higher education institutions (HEI) in Italy, particularly for the activities designed to support entrepreneurship. The authors explore and define services related to entrepreneurship for and from the alumni. Among others, alumni organisations or clubs help members in accessing networks with their peers for career opportunities and role modelling. The authors contribute to the increasing literature about the entrepreneurial university by documenting the activities carried out by alumni organisations to foster entrepreneurship at their parent HEI and promoting an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Universities must take into consideration that peer support can be as important for spreading entrepreneurial initiatives within universities as other more formal supporting measures.

Social media provides institutions an opportunity for a new level of engagement with prospective students, alumni, donors and community members. This chapter begins with an overview of social media in higher education, who is using it and for what, then provides a few talking points to consider with others before beginning a push into social media. The remainder of the chapter includes a few examples of ways in which social media are used to engage alumni and prospective students, including utilizing Twitter as a free SMS service to provide updates to prospective students during their recruitment, creating an iPhone application for alumni weekend as both an information and engagement tool, and using live tweets from alumni during homecoming to provide an authentic look at the day's events.

This paper analyzes the communal fund of a school alumni association in South Korea and attempts to expand the understanding of money's social role in maintaining its network. The analysis concentrates on the account book of the 1974 alumni association of Hani High School in Seoul and follows the expenditure traces of its communal fund since 1987. Over the last 30 years, money for the communal fund has been regularly collected at the alumni reunions and distributed on various ceremonial occasions, such as member weddings and funerals. By defining the alumni association as a type of kye, this study explores the correlation between the communal fund's operation and the members' belongingness in the association. Most of them have actively engaged in operating their communal fund. They have applied flexible management regulations, reflecting members' respective financial conditions and life events. In the distribution of their fund, not only economic principles but also moral and normative standards are manifested. The 1974 alumni association and their communal fund demonstrate the symbolic meaning of money and its active role in a community. It also challenges the widespread belief that money is an alienating object in the market society. Indeed, money has morality and the potential to help maintain social ties in the long run.

The alumni event everyone needs to be at. “Am I Invited?” will focus on the initial implementation of social media as it pertains to alumni relations, along with the relevance it plays within the advancement world. Social media strategies are a creative and powerful way to connect, educate, and energize those interested in the university. This technology and change in interpersonal behavior allows us the capabilities to create a complex, tightly woven, and diverse university community – a hotbed for innovative ideas, energetic conversation and practical networking.

As the world connects in new ways, so does our student body, so do our graduates and therefore, so do our alumni. We must be able to be part of the conversations because they are happening whether we know about them or not. We need to want to be where our constituencies are getting their information if we want to be productive when trying to reach out to them. The internet has taken over newspapers as a source for world news, especially with the younger generations, and it is quickly approaching the impact of the television. “Nearly six-in-ten Americans younger than 30 (59%) say they get most of their national and international news online; an identical percentage cites television” states the Pew Research Center. The study was done with 1,489 adults over the age of 18 in December 2008.

Why a university engages with SNS is an important question. The justification of investment must be met, and a comprehensive plan for implementation of social media initiatives must be created. Delving deeper into the societal norms and beliefs that need to be institutionalized before one can be truly successful in implementing a strategic investment of time, money, and brainpower. Then looking at key examples on how others were able to be successful at using SNS for alumni relations will prove to be helpful in weaving a practical web of social media initiatives that are effective at creating a virtual community ready to share thoughts, questions and resources. The impact of the experimental uses of SNS within the context of a diverse alumni community – which connects seamlessly to emerging campus-wide initiatives, is a complex and exciting realm to participate in. Challenging one to think out-of-the-box when it comes to finding an answer that suits their specific institutional goals will hopefully inspire a creative, fun, innovative, and interactive flow of ideas, along with the courage to try new things. Be bold. Be brave. Be here. Yes, you are definitely invited!

This paper aims to investigate the influence of social interactions on mutual fund portfolios from the perspective of alumni network in China.

Based on a data set that consists of 162 actively managed equity funds in China during the time period of 2003–2014, this study employs multiple linear regression model to control for organization- and location-based interpersonal connections as well as other confounding factors and clarify the causality relationship between alumni networks of mutual fund managers and their portfolios.

After controlling for organization- and location-based interpersonal connections, we find that mutual fund managers who graduated from the same college/university have more similar stock holdings and are more likely to buy or sell the same stocks contemporaneously. As a result, alumni managers exhibit a higher correlation of fund returns. Moreover, the effect of alumni relationship on mutual fund investments becomes weaker when more managers are connected within the network. We also find that valuable information is shared among alumni managers: (1) the average returns for the alumni common holdings portfolios is significantly higher than those for non-alumni holdings portfolios and (2) a long-short strategy composed of stocks purchased minus sold by alumni managers yields positive and significant risk-adjusted returns.

The findings suggest that information dissemination among connected fund managers could be one of the driving forces for mutual fund herding behavior, and that a portfolio of funds whose managers are educationally connected could be highly exposed to certain stocks and risks.

This paper contributes to the growing finance literature addressing the influence of personal connections on information dissemination that specifically contributes to price formation. It corresponds more closely to Cohen et al. (2008), who investigate college alumni connections between fund managers and corporate board members. Since the authors simultaneously examine three potentially overlapped social networks, which are based on education, locality and fund family, the authors are able to disentangle their effects on fund managers' investment decisions. Moreover, the findings suggest that institutional investors make investment decisions based on share private information, and therefore, it also contributes to the literature on fund herding behaviors (Grinblatt et al., 1995; Wermers, 1999).

The core purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which web portal technology and online communities could be successfully applied by the alumni offices of higher education institutions in South Africa (using the University of Johannesburg as a case study) to create information‐sharing with and amongst its alumni affinity groups, in order to build and maintain valuable relationships, networks and partnerships.

This research project falls under Pasteur's quadrant of use‐inspired research. Using quantitative empirical research, a total number of 10,380 questionnaires was distributed to graduates of the University of Johannesburg at the Autumn graduation ceremonies in April 2006, thereby making it a self‐selecting, purposeful (purposive) and convenient sample.

Based on the literature study, the results of the empirical research and the case study, the final conclusion made from this research project is that an online community portal can enhance to a large extent the networking of alumni in the South African higher education sector. In addition, the research data collection instrument is transferable to a number of other higher education settings. In particular, the user‐centric information resource questions provide useful insights into alumni information‐seeking behaviour and needs.

Due to the University of Johannesburg Alumni being used as a case study for this research project, the research findings are tailored for implementation by this entity. However, the processes that were followed for this research project in terms of conducting a needs analysis with regard to the information needs of the alumni target audience and the types of questions that were posed could be guiding principles for other South African higher education sector (SAHES) institutions that want to develop such a tool for managing their alumni's information needs. In addition, the framework for the study predicts continuing alliances among academic services, placement services, library services, and fund development on higher education campuses.

The paper should prove useful to other academic institutions since it develops a helpful tool to assist in managing alumni networking behaviour, needs and resources.

Alumni provide a valuable marketing conduit for educational institutions to not only share program highlights but to illustrate the competencies learned that are positively impacting organizations. Alumni who are interested in giving back need a vehicle through which they can remain connected to their alma maters. Institutions can benefit greatly from building such bridges. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Capella University has created a virtual chapter affiliated with the International Society for Performance Improvement where alumni, learners, and faculty can network in meaningful ways to address the interests and needs of all parties. Five key considerations and 12 purposeful activities that have proven to be critical to the success of the collaborative, virtual chapter site are presented.

Providing a virtual site where collaborative partners can work on meaningful projects that address mutual needs has proven to be beneficial to all parties involved. The university has clearly benefited from the authentic advertising that alumni provide. Alumni have benefitted from opportunities to work with the university in meaningful ways that enhance their vitaes. Learners are motivated to persist in their academic programs. And faculty are inspired to witness the impact of their work via the alumni. The virtual chapter site has been a valuable resource that facilitates a positive return for all involved.

Virtual chapters that connect alumni, learners, and faculty fill a critical need in an economy where budgets tighten as competition increases in higher education.