The advent of social media has changed the way the public perceives and reacts to higher education. Although higher education institutions have progressively adopted and integrated social media technologies into their marketing efforts, the efficacy of these initiatives has not been substantially measured. While in the past, higher education…

As the Chinese higher education market competition intensifies, attracting enough prospective students becomes a demanding task for many higher education institutions. Universities must develop more competitive marketing strategies to win the competition in the student recruitment market. The 7Ps marketing mix is one of the marketing concepts that…

This dissertation study investigates the current state of institutional inequality in the field of higher education, and how those dynamics relate to the construction of status and mission orientations in various universities and colleges. Through the qualitative examination of community engagement programming at 12 universities in the Midwest and…

In many parts of the world, university rankings are now more prevalent and popular than in the entire history of higher education. With growing attention paid to university rankings, the influence of such numbers is ubiquitous on higher education institutions as well as their stakeholders. Universities around the world implement various…

A business school's reputation is a valuable intangible asset. Reputations have been found to influence human behavior related to applications, enrollments, faculty hiring, donor giving, and graduate employment. Despite these findings, there remains room for more research into the defining characteristics of business school reputations. Likewise,…

This dissertation comprises three cross-disciplinary essays on information systems, marketing, and financial outcomes research for nonprofit service organizations. In our first essay, we explore service quality impacts on the constructs of positive and negative word of mouth, developing and validating a new measurement scale, testing it…

Driven by a shifting landscape and increased competition for students, institutions of higher education (IHE) are working to differentiate themselves to consumers in order to attract new students. These differentiation efforts have increasingly focused on the adult, non-traditional student demographic. As IHEs strive to include claims of quality…

The literature of brand management in higher education lacks significant research in two key areas: 1) theoretical models of the evaluation of brand equity and its impacts on supportive behaviors, and 2) a focus on alumni as a critical stakeholder group to higher education institutions. The new model of alumni-perceived higher education brand…

Research has suggested that Asian international students experience various stressors, such as adjustment issues relating to cultural differences, language barriers, lack of knowledge of the host culture (Zhai, 2002), loss of social support (Olivas & Li, 2006), being exposed to prejudice or discrimination in the United States (Constantine,…

All organizations are constrained by budget and resources. Within these constraints, they also strive to maintain or enhance timeliness, quality and productivity. Ivy Plus universities are no exception. Through their applied creativity, administrative staff within these universities are key to navigating these challenges in ways that advance their…

The purpose of this study was to conduct a critical discourse analysis of media produced by higher education institutions. The study aimed to uncover how universities manifest diversity, social justice, and neoliberal discourses in their marketing efforts. Diversity discourses differentiate from social justice discourses in that they do not…

The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to understand and describe the motivations of faculty involvement in internationalization. The findings suggest that key influences that underlie faculty engagement in internationalization include the desire to facilitate and enhance student learning and development; to prepare global citizens;…

With the number of alumni of distance programs increasing, and the decline of public funding for higher education continuing, overlooking engaging these constituents both as active members within the alumni community and as donors will likely be progressively detrimental to institutions as time progresses. The purpose of this study was to…

Disruptive innovations are used to lower costs and augment access to high-quality, affordable higher education, but little systematic research is available on the topic. Higher education institutions use disruptive innovations to save students time and money. To understand the process of disruptive innovation, I investigated the rapid diffusion of…

This dissertation recognizes that the emergence of post-apartheid South Africa as the most popular study destination in Africa follows racial segregation, regional destabilization, and international isolation during apartheid. Today, the country's public higher education institutions face intensifying pressures to respond simultaneously to…