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1 – 10 of over 41000Angel Po Cheung Lai, Paul Gibson and Siva Muthaly
Managers in higher education require cost effective ways to attract the optimal number of students. The purpose of this paper is to address that general problem at the college…
Abstract
Purpose
Managers in higher education require cost effective ways to attract the optimal number of students. The purpose of this paper is to address that general problem at the college level, and in doing so, it points toward strategies that could also be relevant at university and at national level. Two crucial issues are whether potential students are more influenced by parents or by peers when it comes to choosing a college; and whether spending money on advertising is more efficacious than spending money on making direct contact with potential students. The findings provide essential market intelligence for strategically managing the scarce resources available for attracting students.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered through a survey instrument and the partial least squares (PLS) technique was subsequently applied to 314 responses.
Findings
Secondary school guidance counselors, followed by current and previous college students were the highlights in order of magnitude for non-marketing information sources for college choice. Social life received the highest loadings among college attributes and phone calls from the admissions office received the highest loading among marketer controlled variables. The results reflect the nature of Chinese culture, which is regarded as being highly collectivist.
Research limitations/implications
The model proposed in this study is applicable to students of sub-degree courses, but may need to be adapted to degree and postgraduate courses students.
Practical implications
This study helps educational managers to identify which factors most strongly influence choice of higher education provider, and as a consequence enable managers to make more strategic use of scarce resources.
Originality/value
This is one of very few studies which employ PLS analysis to discover the key factors that influence student selection of a higher education provider, and one of few studies that focusses on Hong Kong.
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Andrew Robson, David Yarrow and Jane Owen
The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence to assess the nature and extent of the link between employee satisfaction and organisational performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence to assess the nature and extent of the link between employee satisfaction and organisational performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper examines the link between staff satisfaction and organisational performance, presenting findings from 21 colleges of Further Education that have participated in both a survey of staff satisfaction (covering over 2,600 staff from these colleges) and in a diagnostic benchmarking exercise using the “Learning PROBE” methodology.
Findings
The results suggest that whilst each of the measured aspects of work are regarded as being important by a majority of survey respondents, the level of “satisfaction” displayed in each of these attributes is indicated by only a minority of those surveyed. The findings support the existence of a link between staff satisfaction and organisational excellence. Staff satisfaction levels are most strongly associated with the leadership and service processes indices, and even more so with the overall organisational diagnosis. This suggests that colleges that are implementing “good practices” covering a range of managerial aspects, and who are achieving corresponding organisational results, are likely to be closer to satisfying their staff. Practices relating to people, performance management and organizational results also show association with staff's satisfaction gap, although not as significantly as above. The results suggest an holistic approach to implementing business practices appears to be more effective than concentrating only on deploying good practices in only a single area of the managerial process.
Originality/value
The value of the paper is to the UK Further Education Sector in that it identifies those organisational practices, which improved, can in combination address to some extent the work satisfaction levels of their employees.
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Amir Ghiasi, Grigorios Fountas, Panagiotis Anastasopoulos and Fred Mannering
Unlike many other quantitative characteristics used to determine higher education rankings, opinion-based peer assessment scores and the factors that may influence them are not…
Abstract
Purpose
Unlike many other quantitative characteristics used to determine higher education rankings, opinion-based peer assessment scores and the factors that may influence them are not well understood. Using peer scores of US colleges of engineering as reported annually in US News and World Report (USNews) rankings, the purpose of this paper is to provide some insights into peer assessments by statistically identifying factors that influence them.
Design/methodology/approach
With highly detailed data, a random parameters linear regression is estimated to statistically identify the factors determining a college of engineering’s average USNews peer assessment score.
Findings
The findings show that a wide variety of college- and university-specific attributes influence average peer impressions of a university’s college of engineering including the size of the faculty, the quality of admitted students and the quality of the faculty measured by their citation data and other factors.
Originality/value
The paper demonstrates that average peer assessment scores can be readily and accurately predicted with observable data on the college of engineering and the university as a whole. In addition, the individual parameter estimates from the statistical modeling in this paper provide insights as to how specific college and university attributes can help guide policies to improve an individual college’s average peer assessment scores and its overall ranking.
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Katherine Taken Smith and Austin Pinkerton
The purpose of this paper is to examine the apartment preferences of American and Asian college students, the sources of information they use when searching for an apartment and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the apartment preferences of American and Asian college students, the sources of information they use when searching for an apartment and the media that influence their buying decision. This study examines determinant criteria in conjunction with the theory of consumption values and utilitarian versus hedonic attributes.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was collected from multiple apartment complexes in a metropolitan area of approximately 250,000 people with over 70,000 college students. All residents of the apartment complexes were asked to answer an online questionnaire. From those questionnaires, a total of 865 qualified to be in the sample for this research study. Qualification depended on the respondent being a college student and of either American or Asian nationality.
Findings
The apartment attributes that are found to be determinant criteria for college students are categorized according to whether they provide utilitarian or hedonic value. These two values relate to the functional and emotional values within the theory of consumption values. The majority of the apartment attributes identified as determinant criteria provide utilitarian value. Specific apartment attributes are described in the paper. The main apartment attributes for which Asian students differ from Americans center on the Asians’ desire for security and accessibility to where they want to go.
Practical implications
With a rising number of people renting instead of buying a home, apartment complexes continue to multiply. The majority of renters are single persons, thus, the majority of apartments should be designed to appeal to the preferences of singles. College students, both native and international, are part of this coveted consumer market. Hence, developers and marketers would be wise to consider the housing preferences of college students.
Originality/value
This paper contributes original information in two areas pertaining to the development and marketing of apartments: the preferences of American college students and the preferences of Asian college students.
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The objective of the research is to evaluate the experiential branding practices of a higher education institution (HEI) in India against student perceptions.
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of the research is to evaluate the experiential branding practices of a higher education institution (HEI) in India against student perceptions.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a mixed-method approach for data collection, a range of relevant attributes of the experiential brand identity of the HEI was constructed. A quantitative technique called conjoint analysis was then used to understand the student-evaluated brand experience from the average relative importance of attributes and average part-worth utilities.
Findings
The study concluded that among the brand attributes of the HEI, course delivery had the highest relative importance among students, whereas price had the maximum elasticity.
Practical implications
This study demonstrates how a differentiated brand identity of an HEI can be built using student perceptions. HEIs can use this model to strategize brand expansion by forming meaningful external partnerships to fulfill this objective.
Originality/value
The study is novel and innovative in the Indian context where relatively little attention has been paid to the assessment of experiential brand identity in higher education. The research takes the first step in deconstructing the experiential brand architecture into relevant attributes and assessing their impact on student preferences.
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Yoo‐Kyoung Seock and Marjorie J.T. Norton
This study seeks to identify the dimensions of web site attributes that represent online shoppers' perceptions of their favorite clothing web site and to examine the relationship…
Abstract
Purpose
This study seeks to identify the dimensions of web site attributes that represent online shoppers' perceptions of their favorite clothing web site and to examine the relationship with the evaluation of the relative importance of various clothing web site attributes.
Design/methodology/approach
US college students, who had online shopping experience and favorite clothing web sites that they especially like to visit, were surveyed. Hypothesized relationships between the relative importance of general clothing web site attributes and the perceptions of favorite clothing web sites were tested using canonical correlation analysis.
Findings
The results revealed three variables, the product information, customer service and navigation factors, were closely related to each other and create a well‐defined dimension in representing the respondents' perceptions of their favorite clothing web sites. These dimensions were fairly well predicted by the following set of independent variables: the product information, navigation, and customer service factors of general clothing web site attributes.
Research limitations/implications
Results cannot be generalized to all young adult consumers and to other consumers. Future research should include other population groups.
Practical implications
This research offers new insights to apparel e‐tailers in building effective web sites that can attract young adult online shoppers to the company and retain them through the web sites.
Originality/value
This study is the first to investigate young adult online consumers' perceptions of their favorite internet web sites in relation to their evaluations of the relative importance of general clothing web sites attributes.
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Aspects of intellectual competence would not be sufficient for quality teaching that requires a mix of intellectual and personal qualities. The purpose of this paper was to elicit…
Abstract
Purpose
Aspects of intellectual competence would not be sufficient for quality teaching that requires a mix of intellectual and personal qualities. The purpose of this paper was to elicit personal attributes of teachers’ college applicants.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative case study consisted of 99 participants aged 20-24 years of average socio-economic and achievement backgrounds. The authors constructed five qualitative tools, in addition to the two existing standardized exams. Using techniques of the grounded theory, the authors sorted and synthesized the data through three-phase coding.
Findings
The authors elicited a general concept map of attributes, from which a personal attribute profile for each participant emerged. This model makes fine differentiations between individuals, providing a personal attribute profile pool of applicants useful for any admission committee and for empowering students’ strengths during studies.
Research limitations/implications
A solid database of non-cognitive attributes opens the door to further research, which will take into consideration multiple variables, such as student knowledge, beliefs and aptitudes.
Practical implications
Training teachers to apply research methodology into practice and limiting the length of tools make the mission possible, interesting and useful. Figuring out how to collect valid measures of such data about large numbers of college students would be a major challenge.
Social implications
As teachers occupy a central position in the educational enterprise, they become guardians of the country’s collective socio-cultural legacy. In the current context of teacher shortages, the authors offer a model that has the potential of improving recruitment of applicants for teaching and raising teacher quality.
Originality/value
No previous attempt that uses qualitative methodology for this purpose was found.
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As colleges implement alternative forms of education delivery, prospective students must consider the method of instruction when choosing a post‐secondary institution. The purpose…
Abstract
Purpose
As colleges implement alternative forms of education delivery, prospective students must consider the method of instruction when choosing a post‐secondary institution. The purpose of this research paper is to assess the search criteria considered most important to prospective undergraduate students and to evaluate their preference for online versus on‐campus instruction.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reviews a selection of literature on college choice behavior, with special reference to on‐campus (high‐tech) versus online (high‐touch) delivery. A pilot study together with a conjoint methodology is used to measure the importance students place on method of instruction, relative to several traditional criteria.
Findings
The conjoint results identify two unique student segments (risk‐sensitive and cost‐sensitive) based on attitudes toward high‐tech versus high‐touch delivery. While the risk sensitive segment expresses strong preference for high‐touch delivery, the cost sensitive segment is open to high‐tech delivery, if the price is right.
Practical implications
Many studies have concluded that online education may be more suited for mature, graduate students. This study, however, identifies an undergraduate student segment with a propensity toward high‐tech education. As online technology continues to diffuse through society, prospective undergraduates are expected to become less averse to alternate means of instruction.
Originality/value
Although many studies have compared online versus on‐campus learning, few, if any, have examined the attitudes of prospective students applying to a post‐secondary program, having no experience with distance education. This study focuses on the needs of prospective undergraduate students, highlighting differences in attitude toward cost and risk.
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Unsustainable actions have resulted in the deterioration of the environment. Higher education institutions are social entities responsible for developing future leaders who have…
Abstract
Purpose
Unsustainable actions have resulted in the deterioration of the environment. Higher education institutions are social entities responsible for developing future leaders who have the skills and abilities to solve societal challenges. This study aims to develop a conceptual assessment model of environmental sustainability in higher education and apply the model to test the environmental sustainability level of a higher education institution.
Design/methodology/approach
The fuzzy logic method is used to develop the conceptual model, and a higher education institution in India was selected for evaluating the environmental sustainability level.
Findings
The fuzzy environmental sustainability index for the higher education institution selected for the study was computed as (3.58, 4.95, 6.33). The computed value identifies the institution as “environmentally sustainable”. The calculation of the fuzzy performance importance index further helped in identifying weak attributes that need improvement.
Research limitations/implications
The result of this study would help the management understand their current environmental sustainability level and take corrective measures to improve the weak attributes. It would also assist the institution in reworking its processes and practices.
Originality/value
This study has contributed to the literature of environmental sustainability assessment by creating a conceptual model for evaluating environmental sustainability in higher education. This model can be applied to any higher education institution.
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In order to know how to enhance the satisfaction of online courses in preparing for the college entrance examination in Korea, the purpose of this paper is to combine both the…
Abstract
Purpose
In order to know how to enhance the satisfaction of online courses in preparing for the college entrance examination in Korea, the purpose of this paper is to combine both the importance-performance analysis (IPA) and the response surface methodology (RSM).
Design/methodology/approach
IPA is a simple but powerful tool for understanding the current status of factors or attributes in management problems. However, it lacks to provide the proper indication of what to do next on those factors or attributes to optimize a goal. RSM is a statistical tool helping us to set up a direction of factors or attributes in optimizing an output. The author attempts to combine both IPA and RSM in order to discover the next step after IPA for optimizing the goal. As an example, the author considers how to enhance the satisfaction of online courses in preparing for the college entrance examination in Korea.
Findings
The combination of IPA and RSM enables us to find a way to attain a goal, for example, satisfying customers in a concrete and creative way.
Research limitations/implications
Sample size is enough for research purpose but is a bit small for general purpose.
Practical implications
This research tries to answer what to do next after IPA.
Social implications
This research provides a predictive guide to satisfy customers.
Originality/value
As far as the author knows, combining both IPA and RSM has not been made so far. It is a fusion of managerial and engineering techniques.
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