Search results

Like many other organizations, universities are using social media to engage with their stakeholders as they have varying interests and commitments. This chapter focuses on strategic communication and stakeholder engagement by UK universities on Twitter. It presents a descriptive study about their engagement on Twitter in terms of their followers, number of tweets, etc. In addition, it analyzes the tweets’ content to identify British universities’ communication strategies. Hence, the results revealed a thematic model in the form of an interrelated conceptual theory that comprises three strands of communication: (i) recruiting prospective students, (ii) retaining present students and staff, and (iii) reporting activities and media coverage. This contribution presents implications for university marketing communication managers who are involved in student recruitment and/or in managing relationships with stakeholders.

This paper aims to adopt a consumer behaviour perspective and investigate the extent to which BMW has repositioned the new “Mini”. It builds on a previous paper that explored perceptions of the “Mini” brand.

The study adopted a two‐stage approach to data collection, consisting of 66 in‐depth interviews with a cross section of important stakeholders with high brand awareness and knowledge. The paper develops a conceptual framework and offers a novel way for firms to consider the effects of their repositioning strategies on consumers perceptions of a brand.

The findings reveal a substantial repositioning of the brand's functional appeal, moving away from the car's price as an appeal towards product build quality. Furthermore, the Mini's symbolic appeal, which is based on its fun and sporty image, has largely remained in place.

Firms need to recognise the importance of repositioning at both the symbolic and functional level.

The paper presents a novel conceptual framework for viewing repositioning strategies and presents evidence of repositioning at both the functional and symbolic level.

This chapter discusses the implications of New Public Management (NPM) and of alternative theories on the higher education sector. Three clusters of alternative concepts and theories are identified, positioned in relation to NPM, and discussed. The chapter concludes that the different theoretical approaches: (1) cannot always be distinguished easily, (2) entail a risk of normativity due to the position of higher education in society, and (3) demonstrate that higher education policy and research are in need of a multi-theoretical approach that is able to put higher education back into its social, political, and economic context. By formulating research questions on the role of higher education and on the impact of former reforms, it is suggested that policy and research look further than the current concepts and theoretical approaches to build a new agenda for future.

This article explains how business internships can be used to develop innovation skills in undergraduates.

Using work-integrated learning and current literature on innovation, this article proposes a theoretical framework to design, implement, and measure outcomes of Innovation-Focused Internships (IFIs). The article also uses an illustrative case study from an Australian university to discuss practical use of this framework.

The theoretical framework illustrates that stakeholders (i.e., students, industry, and university) need a common goal. Factors associated with managing innovation and student placements are key features of the framework. The illustrative case study demonstrates ways in which students gather both professional work experience and innovative skills.

The illustrative case study outlines practical strategies and challenges in IFI programs. Managing innovation-related challenges requires adjustments from all the stakeholders.

This article modifies the existing stakeholder interdependency model of work-integrated learning by combining it with innovation-related literature. The novel insights from the IFI program demonstrate how factors associated with students, industry, and university, and associations between these key stakeholders shape and determine IFI success.

This paper aims to empirically verify whether the development of improved relationships between higher education institutions (HEIs) and their stakeholders based on the principles of stakeholder theory creates more value.

The methods involve a quantitative approach, with the data collection being carried out through a survey of 88 heads of HEIs in Brazil. The paper uses the Spearman’s correlation coefficient to analyze the data and test the hypotheses.

The findings reinforce the arguments found in the stakeholder theory literature, in which relationships are based on the following principles: knowledge and information sharing, mutual trust, involvement in the decision-makin g process and alignment of stakeholders’ interests in the strategic planning process, all of which create more value for organizations.

This study seeks to improve the knowledge of stakeholder theory in relation to HEIs. It identifies the stakeholder relationships that create the most value and have the potential to generate a sustainable competitive advantage. The results can help managers to improve their relationships with stakeholders and may encourage the implementation of practices and policies that consider stakeholders’ influence on the strategic direction of HEIs.

The studies present a social contribution by evidencing the importance of the development of best practices, processes and strategies in the management of educational institutions, which are important actors in the development of society.

The originality of this paper is that it empirically tests the principles of stakeholder theory and their relationships with value creation for organizations in the higher education context. Whilst stakeholder theory has been explored in multiples contexts, there is a lack of studies addressing stakeholder management in HEIs.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to develop a conceptual framework that provides insight and aids understanding of the complex array of relationships schools have with individuals, organizations, and other entities.

Design/methodology/approach – The conceptual framework is drawn from the relationship marketing (RM) literature and applied to a school context in the United Kingdom. In doing so, it provides a simplified representation of the environment in which schools operate and a valuable classification structure for the many different relationships a school has. This framework will be of benefit to both academics and practitioners.

Findings – The authors find that the relationships schools have can be classified within the conceptual framework. The framework aids understanding of the different relationships and provides insights into how these relationships can be developed and where value can be added. Application of the framework also highlights the complex nature of the relationships schools can have with others and the need to manage those relationships well.

Research implications – The framework developed in this chapter is conceptual and needs to be tested empirically.

Originality/value – This chapter responds to the call from Oplatka and Hemsley-Brown (2004) to provide further research into the area of RM in the context of schools. It adds value by drawing together various aspects of RM, providing an analysis of their relevance to educational services marketing and identifying and applying a conceptual framework which classifies the relationships schools have with others. This chapter provides important insights for those within schools who are responsible for the management of relationships with their organization and for others seeking to foster greater engagement with schools.

This paper aims to measure and rigorously compare the perceptions of South Korean university social engagement between faculty and students, two definitive stakeholders identified by stakeholder theory – but considerably heterogeneous, to understand how South Korean campus embraces social engagement in practice. To that end, this study delves into the conceptual framework of university social engagement and selects a highly internationalized, research-oriented, four-year comprehensive South Korean university campus that has long sought to become engaged in communities as the research site.

Methodologically, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to identify the factor model that successfully fit the data of the study. Factorial invariance tests and latent mean analysis were then conducted to measure and strictly compare the between-group mean differences.

According to the findings, neither faculty nor students had positive perceptions of their institution’s social engagement in terms of leadership, participatory decision-making, curriculum and instruction, institutional supports and systemic mechanism. That is, two definitive stakeholders on campus similarly perceived that social engagement has not yet been institutionalized as a core value and therefore embraced in practice. Based on these findings, this study discussed several implications for university decision makers. Specifically, the institutionalization of and the need for authentic leadership in university social engagement were emphasized as a means to encourage and facilitate the delivery of practical, beneficial services to the public.

As with all studies, there are certain limitations that must be noted. The sample for this study represents the experiences and expectations of faculty and students at only one institution. Therefore, the experiences of individuals at this single university are not necessarily representative of all South Korean universities. In addition, given that the public service missions of South Korean universities emanated from Western thoughts (Duke, 2008; Ward, 2003), social engagement in the present study has been discussed and conceptualized according to the dominant Western scholarship.

As both faculty and students similarly perceived, participatory decision-making and systemic mechanism do not work properly, and therefore, social engagement as an institutional value cannot strongly take root on campus. Based on the scale used, this study identified communication and organizational supports as the likely issues that obstruct the institutionalization of social engagement. In relation to communication, Boyte and Hollander (1999) emphasize that it is important that stakeholders are well aware of the engaged effort of the institution. Then, the voices of stakeholders need to be acknowledged as valuable feedback so that university decision makers and stakeholders can discuss mutually important issues and concerns (Minnesota Higher Education Services Office, 2003). Furthermore, the relevant literature consistently contends that engaged effort can only be productive with continuous and systemic organizational supports (Boyte and Hollander, 1999; Holland, 1997; Minnesota Higher Education Services Office, 2003; Weerts and Sandmann, 2008). That is, the engaged work of teaching, research and service should be thoroughly assessed and reported to stakeholders on a regular basis. The implication in this study is that university decision makers should make greater effort to design and implement policies and regulations that enable organizational supports to continue.

For social engagement to be valued in practice, the relevant literature (Kellogg Commission, 1999; Garlick and Langworthy, 2008; Minnesota Higher Education Services Office, 2003; Peterson, 2009) advises that top institutional leaders need to encourage interdisciplinary scholarship that includes research, teaching and learning; develop incentives to encourage faculty involvement in engaged work; support engagement so that it is incorporated into the curriculum and instruction; and secure funding for engagement. The fundamental insight that these suggestions provide to university decision makers is crystal-clear: social engagement must be authentically prioritized in the decision-making process.

The quantitative and descriptive findings of the study seek to provide one further step toward the objective of establishing the groundwork for future research on university social engagement in Asian context. Further, replication studies with various Asian cases and research designs may results in tangible improvements to the theorization of Asian university social engagement.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how firms manage the front end of new product development projects where packaging forms a core part of the product itself. Within the fast-moving consumer goods industry, innovation provides opportunities to create packaging that forms an integrated part of the product offering. The authors refer to these as packaging-integrated-products. This study conceptualises three levels of integration and investigates how they impact upon the management of the front end.

The study consisted of a two-phase design. This involved a preliminary study with key informants, followed by a multiple case study design, which examines product development projects with differing extents of packaging integration.

The results identify nine different new product opportunities. The authors also present 11 propositions that reveal the key characteristics of the front end of packaging-integrated development projects, as well as the project management requirements to capture the opportunities they present.

Initial insights into a number of unique front-end project management characteristics required to deliver different project types form an area for further research to better understand product packaging integration. The propositions presented guide the way forward for future studies.

The findings provide marketers with new understanding of three types of new product opportunities presented by packaging integration and demonstrate what is required to capture the opportunities they present in the front end of product development.

The paper contributes to extant studies of packaging development in the marketing literature, which have previously failed to capture the high levels of integration between packaging and the product. The authors present a new conceptual approach to understanding integration and subsequently uncover how the opportunities it presents can be captured.

In recent years, public sector innovation practices have continuously penetrated central and regional governments. Observations show that many new innovation ideas are abandoned after initial implementation. Therefore, this study aims to examine the dark side of local public sector innovation through the case of the Mobile Application System of Local Tax (SAMPADE) innovation.

This study used the concept of the dark side of public sector innovation with a focus on SAMPADE innovation. Qualitative study cases were used, and empirical data were collected from semistructured interviews and observations. Secondary data were collected from published primary study sources, including peer-reviewed journals, case studies, government newsletters, online newspapers and books.

Referring to local findings, this study noted the weaknesses of public sector innovation caused by the failure of policymakers to consider any negative effects.

This study only focuses on the dark side of one example of public service innovation. The results or other conclusions may vary depending on the unfavorable phenomena of public sector innovation.

The dark side of public sector innovation is a theme that many scholars have not analyzed. This study will contribute to the discourse, particularly in the context of local governance and developing countries.

This research used a Phenomenography approach of Eye Tracking to study the Biometric changes when participants were subjected to eight static subliminal images hidden in seven differently designed packages. Embeds or static subliminal stimulus in the form of pictures and words were hidden in seven different perfume packages and were used to study the changes experienced between the two groups, one of which was subjected to subliminal stimulus. This study was conducted in the Neuro Lab located in the SP Jain Sydney campus. A total of 46 healthy participants were separated into two groups, with one group shown image packages with static subliminal stimulus while the other group was shown image packages without any subliminal stimulus. Eye Tracking data was collected using iMotions. A detailed analysis of the Area of Interest (AOI), Fixation and Heat Map revealed that only a percentage of the participants visited the AOI with the hidden subliminal stimulus, but the participants who noticed the AOIs with the subliminal stimulus especially the male participants spent more time in the AOI indicating that they could be consciously processing the subliminal static stimulus. A statistical analysis of the time to first fixations (TIFF) revealed that the subliminal stimulus was not the first point of attraction.