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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the understanding of stakeholders of the Polish higher education sector to the internal quality assurance (QA) system and its role as a driver of information management strategy.

The paper employs a qualitative approach. It started with an exploratory research in the form of 12 in-depth interviews with the Bologna process experts, followed by empirical research via 30 face-to-face interviews with key educational informants in five selected universities in Poland.

The findings show that a key element for a successful implementation of the QA system is the stakeholders’ own understanding of the rationale behind it as an information management strategy. In addition, the study places emphasis on the priorities in front of the top-level management to create the quality and information culture within the academic community.

The study assists in finding global practical and creating a benchmark for policymakers concerning the information management strategies based on the Polish experience.

Country of origin (COO) is well established as an extrinsic product cue that influences buyer behavior in the business-to-business (B2B) context. However, non-product-specific attitudes to a COO, including the notion of animosity, have received rather less attention. This paper aims to investigate COO as a multi-dimensional construct and animosity as a normative dimension of buyers’ attitudes and intentions.

The work is based on data collected from industrial buyers in Egypt and Canada to enable a comparative perspective between developing and developed countries. Structural equation modeling was used to test the study’s hypotheses.

Country of manufacture was an antecedent of perceived quality and a determinant of brand evaluation in both countries. Price was an antecedent of perceived risk and value in Egypt, while its impact on perceived risk was less pronounced in Canada. Perceived value was the strongest determinant of willingness to buy, while animosity played a significant role in this respect in Canada but not in Egypt.

Country of brand was not included as a dimension to be investigated; industry type was not controlled and may confound the results; and generalization of the results is limited given the cross-sectional approach.

The study’s contribution lies in four main elements, viewed individually and in combination: investigating a large number of COO constructs that have not been studied within a single research context in B2B before; including the animosity construct in a B2B setting; contrasting “benefit received” and “sacrifice given” constructs that help to shape industrial buyers’ purchase decisions; and carrying out the research in two very different countries to help improve the generalizability of results.

This paper aims to examine the factors that affect the adoption of technological innovations in a service industry, like the higher education industry. Specifically, the use of Web-based technology (WEBCT/blackboard) by faculty and administrators in universities in Egypt in the delivery of educational material and communication with students and peers is the focus of this study.

A distinctive business-to-business (B2B) model is developed drawing on Rogers’ innovation adoption model, the resource-based view of the firm, as well as theoretical and empirical foundations in previous innovation adoption literature. The model is testified drawing on the results of empirical work in the form of a large survey conducted on 200 faculty and administrators in two different universities in Egypt. Structural equation modeling is used to test the research model.

In addition to the attributes of the innovation, all university-based factors as well as one service provider factor, namely, need for interaction, were identified to have a significant influence on the adoption of technological innovations in the higher education industry.

This paper attempts to enhance current understanding of the adoption of innovations in an important industry like the higher education industry. Empirical results shed light on influential factors when adopting technological innovations by faculty and administrators in the higher education industry. This is the first empirical study of this type to be conducted in the Middle East.

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the academic understanding of the perception of brand dimensions in the Islamic Higher Education Institutions (IHEIs) and explore the implications for managerial practice. The main objective of this research is to identify the branding aspects that apply to higher education branding in general and Islamic higher education in particular. The empirical setting is the Middle East, which has a mixture of public and private Islamic institutions working on spreading the moderate Islamic thoughts internationally.

The methodology used to guide the research is based on exploratory qualitative research approach composed of 45 in‐depth interviews with academicians and executives from five Gulf countries. The adopted qualitative approach is based on inductive logic to help reveal the main criteria influencing the perception of IHEIs' brands.

The results provide partial support for the proposed conceptual framework of the dimension of branding in the Islamic higher education market, with the functional dimension being far more significant than the social, mental and spiritual dimensions. Findings indicate that internationalisation will be the key element that influences the perception of the brand in the new competitive environment. The research also reveals the respondents' ideal definition of a good brand, the perception of brand's determinants and the general characteristics of the ideal higher education institution.

Recommendations are provided to decision makers in IHEIs, in order to develop their educational services and enhance their institutions' brand image.

This research helps in structuring what defines a good IHEI brand, from the perspective of academicians and experts in the labour market.

This paper seeks to investigate students' adoption of an open access online education service in higher education and their perceptions of its attributes as an innovation in an emerging market.

Given the exploratory nature of the research a two‐phase qualitative approach was adopted. The first phase comprised 11 in‐depth interviews to examine the universities' internal and external attributes that directly enhance the rate of adoption of the open access online education service. The second phase involved three focus groups examining students' perceptions of the innovation attributes as well as the likelihood that they would adopt the innovation.

The results indicate that, besides the perceived attributes of the innovation being the main determinant of the students' adoption of it, a number of internal factors within the university and external factors within the educational market in Egypt directly influence the adoption process.

The originality of the paper is in its empirical work as it adapted a well‐known theory, the perceived attributes of innovation model, and empirically tested it in a specific context: the higher education market in a developing country.

The potential to provide customers with information about experience and credence qualities in advance of purchase has resulted in widespread recognition of the significance of brands in relation to consumer choice in the service sector. Arguably, what is of particular significance in this process is brand equity – the value that the consumer ascribes to the brand. The main objective of this research is to enhance academic understanding of brand equity in the higher education (HE) sector and explore the implications for management practice.

Quantitative data collected via a self‐completion survey are used to test a model of brand equity in the context of HE. The empirical setting is Egypt which, following liberalization, has a mixture of public and private provision and an increasingly competitive environment. It provides an example of an emerging market where building brand equity is likely to be an important component of organizational strategy.

The results provide partial support for the proposed conceptual model, with image‐related determinants of brand equity being far more significant than awareness‐related determinants.

For those involved in marketing service brands, the asymmetric impact of various determinants of brand equity provides guidance on how and where to focus marketing efforts.

The distinctive contribution of this research arises from the examination of brand equity in the context of an emerging service sector market with a mix of public and private provision.

Higher education is one of the key sectors in any economy that plays a major role in the sustainability and enhancement of the society. Hence, the new reform program in the European higher education aims to create a quality culture within the universities. This paper presents a conceptual contribution as a way to improve the social sustainability performance within the higher education institutions (HEIs) in Europe.

The paper starts with an overview of the Polish higher education system as an example of a European country implementing the European Standards and Guidelines in higher education. This is followed by a comprehensive literature review of the quality assurance (QA) policies in order to identify the main players who are working to build trust and sustainability in higher education. The literature review ends with a link between the perceived benefits of QA and the behavior of the students, namely students' involvement in QA activities. The research is composed of two exploratory studies. The first exploratory research was conducted with the objective of identifying the Polish higher education market. The second exploratory study was conducted to meet the main players in the European QA organizations, to be able to understand the overall European experience.

The literature reviews, as well as the results of the two exploratory studies, lead to the development of a proposed conceptual framework. The paper ends with the implications for management action and suggestions for future empirical work.

This paper presents a conceptual contribution to the perception of the students to the QA activities as a way to improve the social sustainability performance within the HEIs in Europe.

The purpose of this empirical research is to study the main factors affecting the green brand preference in the telecom industry in Egypt as an example of an emerging innovative market.

The researchers develop a conceptual framework highlighting the dimensions of the green brand preference focusing on four constructs; green brand image, green satisfaction, green trust, and green awareness. The researchers started with a qualitative exploratory research in order to support the conceptual framework followed with a quantitative research in the form of a survey distributed among 302 respondents.

The consumers tended to disagree that they are aware of environmental promotions or that they recognize the meaning of environmental slogans and labels for their preferred brand. It was also found that the correlation between green awareness and green brand preference is the weakest. On the other hand; there is a strong correlation and a positive effect of the other factors (green brand image, green awareness and green trust) and green brand preference. The effect of the factors on green brand preference wasn’t significantly different for different genders, while it was significantly different for different ages, income levels and education levels.

The results of this research confirmed what the experts agreed upon during the exploratory phase and gave the researchers more confidence that the first step to start using green marketing principles in Egypt is to enhance the green image, satisfaction and trust as well as educating them on the importance of the green activities.

The research includes conceptual contribution in a trial to develop a conceptual framework to green brand preference in an innovative industry. In addition, there is empirical contribution since according to the researchers knowledge there is not any single paper on green branding strategies in the Egyptian market as an example of an emerging market.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a special issue on entrepreneurship and service innovation, and to conceptualize the link between entrepreneurial orientation, innovation and entrepreneurship or new entry.

Analysis of secondary data.

Entrepreneurial orientation (EO), innovation (IN) and entrepreneurship are in a vital “triadic connect”, where EO supports innovation in organizations and innovation promotes new entry or new venture creation – a vehicle for commercialization of innovations.

There is a need for empirical validation of the linkages proposed in this conceptual paper.

This “triadic connect” between EO, IN and entrepreneurship or new entry is a source of or key driver of organizational performance (OP) and competitive advantage (CA).

The theorization and schematization of the “triadic connect” (i.e. EO–IN–NE link) and outcomes (namely, OP and CA) is presented.