Vangelis Tsiligiris, Anita Kéri and Jeremy Eng-Tuck Cheah
This study aims to explore the influence of the individual student profile of Hofstede’s Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Collectiveness and Long-Term Orientation on student…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the influence of the individual student profile of Hofstede’s Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Collectiveness and Long-Term Orientation on student service quality expectations in higher education.
Design/methodology/approach
Data is collected via a survey consisting of items from a standard Hofstede and a higher education adapted SERVQUAL questionnaire. The survey sample includes 128 students who represent the entire population of a taught postgraduate course in Finance at a UK Higher Education Institution (HEI). Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlation analysis are used to describe and identify the relationship between student individual cultural values and student service quality expectations. Multiple regression analysis is applied to estimate the relationship between SERVQUAL constructs and items with respect to Hofstede’s cultural determinants.
Findings
The findings of this study suggest that individual culture can influence student service quality expectations in higher education.
Practical implications
In a context of a prospective quality management approach, there is value for HEIs to explore the individual cultural profile of their students as a way of understanding and actively managing student service quality expectations.
Originality/value
To the authors’ best knowledge, no previous study combines the SERVQUAL and Hofstede models in exploring the impact of cultural values on student service quality expectations in higher education.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to present contrasting approaches to the descriptive case study of tourism to the buried city of Plymouth, Montserrat, an example of the marketing and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present contrasting approaches to the descriptive case study of tourism to the buried city of Plymouth, Montserrat, an example of the marketing and burying – the supply and demand – of apocalyptic dark tourism on the island.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study mixed-methods methodology is adopted, and findings are derived from tour guiding fieldwork, guide and tourist interviews, and an analysis of travel writing and tourism marketing campaigns.
Findings
Dark tourism is viewed as a contentious and problematic concept: it attracts and repels tourism to the former capital Plymouth, Montserrat. After 20 years of the volcano crisis, the islanders, government and Tourist Board are commemorating resilience living with the volcano and regeneration in a disaster scenario. Marketing and consumption approaches to dark tourism elucidate different facets to the case study of “the buried city” of Plymouth, Montserrat, and the Montserrat Springs Hotel overlooking Plymouth. The disjunct between these two types of approach to dark tourism, as well as the different criteria attached to working definitions of dark tourism – and the range of interests in apocalyptic dark tourism into the city and its surrounds – show some of the problems and limitations with theoretical and scalar discussions on dark tourism.
Research limitations/implications
The paper’s implications are that both supply and demand approaches to dark tourism are needed to fully understand a dark tourism destination and to reconcile the disjunct between these two approaches and the perspectives of tourist industry and tourism users.
Originality/value
This is a descriptive dark tourism case study of a former capital city examined from both supply and demand perspectives. It introduces the apocalyptic to dark tourism destination analysis.