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…

This dissertation contains three empirical papers that quantify how institutional status hierarchies in postgraduate education relate to professionals' employment and earnings outcomes. Chapter 1 examines the effects of postgraduate educational program status hierarchies on earnings among recipients of postgraduate professional degrees in…

Enrollment Management has been adopted by institutions of higher education as a strategy for managing enrollment to meet institutional goals, and it increasingly manifests as an administrative division that supports students. Many models of Enrollment Management exists, with the Divisional model being the most centralized; however, even within a…

People attend postsecondary institutions for a variety of reasons and with a variety of expectations. Among the supposed benefits of a college education are greater earning potential and satisfaction with life (SWL). It is also widely assumed that a degree from a highly selective (or prestigious or elite) college is more valuable than one from a…

This study examines the relationship between prestige and institutional funding profiles. Specifically, it analyses the relationship between increases in institutional prestige and an institution's dependency on traditional revenue sources, defined as tuition, fees, and state appropriations. Research and theory suggest that increases in prestige…

This dissertation aims to provide a better understanding of the technology licensing practices of academic research institutions. The study identifies time durations in licensing and incorporates these into a model to evaluate licensing performance. Performance is measured by the efficiency of an institution's technology licensing process and…

This study contributes to the discussion around the value of a college degree and associated career advantages by considering how postsecondary education contributes to the attainment of the most powerful and prestigious positions in the American corporate world. Guided by a conceptual framework informed by status attainment, power elite, and…

This study sought to explain how high school seniors across the United States think about community colleges in the context of the college choice process. The study described what attributes are associated with the community college experience and what influences those attributes. Since a weak college choice process can contribute to later…