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Is the aim of the university to prepare citizens to contribute to civic and social life as well as to travel flexibly and successfully through a rapidly changing work world? Or is the purpose of higher education more narrowly to advance students’ individual economic interests as they understand them? Should we think of students as citizens or consumers? Many analysts argue that, in recent years, the notion that higher education should serve to advance students’ individual economic position has increasingly taken prominence over broader notions of the purpose of American higher education. In this paper, we examine whether and to what extent a shift from considering students-as-citizens to students-as-consumers has occurred in US higher education. We provide a longitudinal analysis of two separate and theoretically distinct discourse communities (Berg, 2003): higher education trustees and leaders of and advocates for liberal arts education. Our data suggest a highly unsettled field in which commercial discourse as measured by the student-as-consumer code has surely entered the US higher education lexicon, but this code is not uncontested and the more traditional citizenship code remains significant and viable.

This research paper is devoted to the academic procrastination, and the purpose of this paper is to reveal the role of academic procrastination in the consumer behavior of students.

The study was conducted within the framework of a mixed methodology: series of semi-structured interviews and an online survey. In the first stage, 20 interviews were conducted with students from different countries to obtain the broader picture for the academic procrastination process and its association with consumer behavior. In the second stage, an online survey was conducted, in which 336 students from different countries participated. This paper describes existing approaches to understanding and measuring academic procrastination, as well as its role in the economic behavior of individuals.

As a result of the qualitative stage, the role of procrastination in such aspects of consumer behavior as budget planning and inclination to making unplanned purchases was emphasized. The role of the student’s inner circle in his procrastination and consumer behavior was also highlighted. As a result of the quantitative stage, a significant connection between the level of academic procrastination and the above aspects of consumer behavior of students, as well as a significant contribution of social expectations in the change of procrastination level and impulsivity of consumption was revealed.

This study is the first attempt to describe procrastination within the macro-approach of sociology and to confirm at the empirical level the correlation between procrastination and consumer behavior.

Drawing on infrequent purchase and university selection literature, the purpose of this study is to make theoretical contributions to the identification and comprehension of the ‘once-in-a-lifetime purchase’ (OILP) phenomenon.

Data derived from in-depth interviews with 34 Taiwanese and 11 Chinese students over two phases suggest that an OILP qualitatively differs from other purchases.

The principal traits of OILP are quadripartite in character: zero-repurchase intention; permanency of purchase; high social pressure and extensive information search. The results contribute to the theoretical understanding of the higher education (HE) sector as one type of OILP provider, and managerial implications are discussed specifically for the HE institutions.

Marketing managers of HE institutions should be cognisant of the range of information collected by prospective OILP customers from a variety of different sources. Prospective students who are OILP customers perceive non-marketing information as more reliable than marketing promotional materials and will better assist them during their decision making.

The paper makes explicit theoretical and instrumental contributions to our identification and comprehension of the OILP phenomenon, thus shedding new light on studies of consumer purchase decision literature. It also extends previous understanding of HE marketing by showing that choosing an HE degree is, in fact, an OILP and, as such, requires a new way of approaching prospective students as consumers.

The marketisation of higher education fosters the notion of students as consumers, highlighting the shifting dynamics of student–teacher relationships. This paper aims to contribute to ongoing discussions about students as consumers and their involvement in pedagogical practices. We explore students’ experiences in short-term study abroad (SA) programmes that involve collaborative learning, examining how a consumerism-oriented approach affects students’ perceptions of their pedagogical identities and student–teacher pedagogical relationships.

A qualitative exploratory study was conducted to capture students’ rich and subjective perceptions and experiences. The data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 15 Chinese undergraduate students who participated in a short-term SA programme at a UK university. Following data translation and transcription, a thematic analysis approach facilitated our exploration.

Chinese students engage in SA programmes as a strategic investment in personal growth and transformation, with their consumer-oriented identity fostering a mutually beneficial relationship with educators and group members. This consumer mindset appears to enhance active student engagement and, to some extent, create reciprocal student–teacher interactions through power sharing and collaborative involvement.

This study presents empirical data exploring the impact of consumer identity on the dynamics of student–teacher relationships in the SA context. It provides recommendations for implementing pedagogical approaches designed to mediate the influence of consumerism on student engagement, particularly in shaping collaborative student–teacher relationships. This study offers insights for future research on the effects of consumerism in higher education within cross-cultural contexts.

Discusses aspects of current service quality theory in the context of British higher education (HE). Focuses on the role of the student as primary consumer of HE services (a relatively recent conceptualization in this country), and the implications of this for the management of service quality in higher education organizations (HEOs). Briefly discusses an exploratory study which has monitored a group of students′ expectations and perceptions of service quality over time. Because of its limited scope, the findings of this study may not be generalized to the student population as a whole. However, it does serve to highlight the need for HEOs to gather information on students′ expectations, not only during their time at university, but at the point of arrival and before, to manage students′ expectations from enrolment through to graduation, in order to align them as closely as possible with what can be delivered by way of service quality, for the student evaluation process, or upward appraisal to be dealt with in a much more detailed, comprehensive and multi‐focused way than tends to be the case currently at many British universities. Acknowledges the need for further research to investigate all of these matters.

This paper investigates the determinants of credit card use and misuse by student and young professionals. Critical to the research is the impact of materialism and knowledge on selection of the appropriate credit card.

This study uses survey research and partial least squares to investigate credit card behaviors of students versus young professionals.

In a comparative study of young professionals and students, it was found that consumer knowledge, as expected, leads to better consumer selection of credit cards. Materialism was also found to increase the motivation for more optimal consumer outcomes. For more experienced consumers, such as young professionals, it was found that despite them being more knowledgeable, they were more likely to select a credit card based on impulse.

This paper examines how materialism may in fact encourage some consumers to make better decisions because they are more motivated to develop better knowledge. It also shows how better credit card selection may inhibit impulse purchasing.

The share of student youth, as consumers, is quite significant in the world. Considering that retailers view young consumers (including student audience) an important segment of the market, a substantial question is to study the effect of values on motivation consumer behavior. The purpose of this paper is to fill the lack of studies on motivational influence of “high-level values” (HLV) on young consumers. This research paper examines the motivational influence of HLV on brands in certain product categories-markers, to develop a methodology for segmenting consumers based on their clustering by values and evaluating brand preferences in different segments.

The sample was formed by the “snowball” method from first-year undergraduate students. The sample size involves 239 respondents. The research was carried out by the online survey method on the basis of a structured questionnaire. To obtain segments, the authors used hierarchical cluster analysis by the Ward method and the Euclidean distance method. The statistical significance of the differences in brand preferences between segments was checked in the conjugacy tables using the χ² test at different significance levels.

Findings show clearly the possibility on the basis of HLV to identify segments of consumers, which allows obtaining the distribution of the perception of the brand. For a student audience received segments were: “Become a successful leader,” “become successful in a harmonious world,” “ascetic,” “the Hedonist,” Frequency analysis revealed an uneven distribution of preferences between the examined brands. At the same time, revealed the differences in the motivational significance HLV for brands in different product categories.

Retailers should use segmentation based on motivation influence of HLV for improving the effectiveness of communication of young consumers with brands. The solution of this problem will allow forming particular strategic behaviors of retailers occurring in the sphere of shaping relationships with young consumers.

It is one of the rare studies that investigate motivational influence of a complex of ten HLV on the young consumers. In this paper, the authors propose to use a methodology for young consumers segmentation based on clustering for HLV, and assessing brands preferences in different segments.

Drawing from the literature on internationalization, higher education marketing and place branding, this paper aims to link the internationalization of higher education to country branding. It explores the impact of internationalization within the higher education system on Egypt’s destination brand equity. This investigation offers insights for decision-makers in both the higher education and country branding sectors.

This empirical paper adopts an exploratory approach and serves as an initial step for researchers. It utilizes a quantitative methodology, employing a survey with 366 responses, to examine the effects of internationalization efforts in higher education on country brand equity.

The results reveal a direct correlation between student engagement and the brand equity of international branch campuses (IBCs), as well as a link between IBCs and Egypt’s brand equity. Notably, the study highlights the mediating role of IBC brand equity in the relationship between student engagement and the overall brand equity of Egypt.

This paper is innovative in its method of assessing the impact of internationalization efforts in higher education, specifically at IBCs in Egypt, on Egypt’s destination brand equity. Additionally, the study identifies student engagement as an antecedent to IBC brand equity.

This paper seeks to propose Albert Hirschman's theory of “exit, voice and loyalty” as a complementary conceptual framework to Hofstede's cultural dimensions and use them in conjunction to compare consumer satisfaction with services across cultures.

A model of satisfaction with complex services (higher education) is developed and then tested in two different cultures, Colombia and Spain, with a sample of 879 students. Structural equation modeling based on the partial least squares algorithm is used to test the proposed model.

Colombian students are more satisfied with the educational system than Spanish ones. This is explained by cultural and contextual differences that pose greater restrictions on accessibility to higher education, provide fewer choice alternatives and present more switching costs for the Colombian student.

This study applies the conditions of Hirschman's theory in an international setting, offering a rich basis for understanding differences in consumer satisfaction that accounts for intra‐national diversity.

To examine the political and institutional processes surrounding the construction of consumer‐orientated performance measurement (PM) practices in the Swedish university sector.

A longitudinal case study in the Swedish university sector drawing on neo‐institutional sociology (NIS) and adopting an organisational field‐level perspective.

Particular attention is paid to the political interplay between different actors competing to dominate the representation of student interests in this organisational field, the strategic discourses invoked to legitimise their actions and the unfolding (re‐)construction of PM practices, but also how this interplay is conditioned by institutionalised structures and existing power relationships. The findings suggest that the relative inertia in developing more consumer‐orientated PM is due in large part to the difficulties for an emerging challenger in constructing a legitimate power base enabling it to fully exploit institutional inconsistencies and the ability of a dominant incumbent organisation to accommodate seemingly incompatible institutional pressures.

The study provides deeper and more process‐orientated insights into the problems of translating consumerist notions into public sector PM practices than much prior research on the topic and explains this with reference to macro‐ rather than micro‐level (intra‐organisational) processes.