Not just the best years of my life: personal growth in higher education

Our conception of product affirmation depicts a product as “sculptor” of the consumer’s ideal self, similar to how a relationship partner can help us achieve our aspirations and goals. We performed two studies to look at the role of higher education as a product in affirming a consumer’s ideal self. We found that product affirmation for undergraduate students and alumni (with the university as the product that affirms the ideal self of the student/alumnus) leads to increases in the experience of various positive emotions, the acquisition of various positive traits, and positive evaluations of the university. Additionally, we found that product affirmation effects were more pronounced and robust in one’s personal ideal-self domain than in one’s professional ideal-self domain. Practical implications, study limitations, and future directions are discussed, as well as preliminary findings from a follow-up experiment using a sample of graduate students

The role of economic and psychological costs in service elimination

Service elimination (SE) requires systematic planning and execution to retain customers. However, service providers struggle with finding the best way to minimize customer churn following SE. This paper investigates the impact of economic and psychological costs on consumer reactions following SE with a scenario-based experimental design. The findings suggest that economic cost is positively related to churn and negatively related to satisfaction and commitment. Psychological cost decreases satisfaction and commitment, but does not affect churn. Interactions between costs show that psychological cost refines the impact of economic cost on customer reaction. This research contributes to the understanding of how SE impacts consumer behavior

Brand Community, Loyalty and Promise in myfootballclub.co.uk

Purpose The primary purpose of this paper is to link the notions of brand community, loyalty and promise as a reminder to marketers of the importance to brands of keeping their commercial promises to brand community members. Design/methodology/approach The paper reports on a questionnaire survey (n=500) of members of a sport brand community as part of an investigation into the relationship between brand community and brand loyalty. Findings Brand loyalty was predicted by age, frequency of attendance, motivations for joining the brand community and the degree to which expectations built by the brand promise are met. Research limitations/implications In common with many inquiries in the area of brand community, this is a single case study. It is primarily a cross-sectional study, with a minor longitudinal element. Practical implications Branding practitioners and consultants with responsibility for brand community management issues need to balance the consumer-to-consumer dimensions of community with a careful understanding and operationalisation of the brand promise. Originality/value (mandatory): This is the first paper to integrate the constructs of brand community and brand loyalty with that of brand promise

Toward a model of customer experience

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Retaining high-value and profitable customers is a major strategic objective for many companies. In mature mobile phone markets where growth has slowed, the defection of customers from one network to another has intensified and is strongly fuelled by poor Customer Experience. Trends in the service economy suggest that experience can be exploited as a means of supplying the basis of a new economic offering, ignited in part by the shift that is taking place in the analysis of people’s interaction with digital products. In this light, the research describes a strategic approach to the use of Information Systems as a means of improving Customer Experience. Using Action Research in a mobile telecommunications operator, a Customer Experience Monitoring and Action Response model (CEMAR) is developed that evaluates disparate customer data, residing across many systems, builds experience profiles and suggests appropriate contextual actions where experience is poor. The model provides value in identifying issues, understanding them in the context of the overall Customer Experience (over time) and dealing with them appropriately. The novelty of the approach is the synthesis of data analysis with an enhanced understanding of Customer Experience which is developed implicitly, in real-time and in advance of any instigation by the customer.Royal Academy of Engineerin

Teacher Perceptions of Shifts Within the School Culture After Implementation of a Trauma-Informed Program

The purpose of this study was to examine the educators’ perceptions of shifts within the culture of Jefferson Elementary School after the implementation of a trauma-informed approach. This study focuses on examining changes to the school culture after implementing trauma-informed practices. As educators continue to feel the pressure of increased academic expectations alongside the social and emotional demands that arise from childhood trauma, increased support through trauma-informed practices becomes necessary for the wellbeing of everyone. However, there are challenges in the implementation of these practices which can impact the culture of the school. The researcher used the qualitative method of case study to complete this research. The researcher conducted and recorded individual teacher interviews, focus group interviews, and analyzed documents to provide an in-depth understanding of the case being studied. This case study provides a detailed picture of how teachers in the school perceived the changes within the culture after the implementation of a trauma-informed approach. The researcher found that implementation of a trauma-informed approach positively impacted the school culture. Through analysis of the individual interview transcripts, focus group transcripts, and document analysis, the participants described their experiences. When collectively analyzed, these experiences provided a thorough understanding of the positive shifts to the school culture brought by the implementation of a trauma-informed approach

Revisiting Extraversion and Leadership Emergence: A Social Network Churn Perspective

One of the classic relationships in personality psychology is that extraversion is associated with emerging as an informal leader. However, recent findings raise questions about the longevity of extraverted individuals as emergent leaders. Here, we adopt a social network churn perspective to study the number of people entering, remaining in, and leaving the leadership networks of individuals over time. We propose that extraverted individuals endure as emergent leaders in networks over time, but experience significant changes in the people being led, including the loss of people who once considered them a leader but now no longer do. In Study 1 (N = 545), extraverted individuals had a larger number of new and remaining people in their leadership networks, but also lost more people, above and beyond differences in initial leadership network size. In Study 2 (N = 764), we replicated and extended these results in an organizational sample while controlling for alternative explanations such as formal rank, network size, self-monitoring, and narcissism. Extraversion predicted the number of people entering, remaining in, and leaving leadership networks over time. Our findings suggest that while extraverted individuals tend to emerge as leaders, they are also more likely to experience greater network churn—they tend to lead different people over time and leave people in their wake who once perceived them a leader but now no longer do. We discuss the challenges posed by this network churn perspective for extraverted emergent leaders and highlight its importance for our understanding of extraversion and emergent leadership

A conceptual framework for the direct marketing process using business intelligence

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Direct marketing is becoming a key strategy for organisations to develop and maintain strong customer relationships. This method targets specific customers with personalised advertising and promotional campaigns in order to help organisations increase campaign responses and to get a higher return on their investments. There are, however, many issues related to direct marketing, ranging from the highly technical to the more organisational and managerial aspects. This research focuses on the organisational and managerial issues of the direct marketing process and investigates the stages, activities and technologies required to effectively execute direct marketing. The direct marketing process integrates a complex collection of marketing concepts and business analytics principles, which form an entirely ‘self-contained’ choice for organisations. This makes direct marketing a significantly difficult process to perform. As a result, many scholars have attempted to tackle the complexity of executing the direct marketing process. However, most of their research efforts did not consider an integrated information system platform capable of effectively supporting the direct marketing process. This research attempts to address the above issues by developing a conceptual framework for the Direct Marketing Process with Business Intelligence (DMP-BI). The conceptual framework is developed using the identified marketing concepts and business analytics principles for the direct marketing process. It also proposes Business Intelligence (BI) as an integrated information system platform to effectively execute the direct marketing process. In order to evaluate and illustrate the practicality and impact of the DMP-BI framework, this thesis adopts a case study approach. Three case studies have been carried out in different industries including retailing, telecommunication and higher education. The aim of the case studies is also to demonstrate the usage of the DMP-BI framework within an organisational context. Based on the case studies’ findings, this thesis compares the DMP-BI framework with existing rival methodologies. The comparisons provide clear indications of the DMP-BI framework’s benefits over existing rival methodologies

Value-adding Activities of Operational Risk Management Methodologies: A South African Perspective

Operational risk management forms a crucial part of management and since the early 1990s this practice has escalated rapidly due to various reasons, such as an increase in the regulatory requirements and risk-related incidents. For example, the requirements of the Public Finance Management Act 1 of 1999 and the Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003, which require institutions to implement and maintain effective, efficient and transparent systems of risk management and control. Incidents, such as the fall of the VBS Mutual Bank, also indicated problems with adequate operational risk management. The development and implementation of operational risk management methodologies could add value to the management of operational risk exposures and adhere to specific regulatory requirements. However, it seems that operational risk methodologies are currently only used for compliance and not used appropriately. This article investigates the value-adding activities of risk methodologies which can contribute to ensure an effective operational risk management. These activities are empirically confirmed by means of a survey which also identified a gap between the envisaged value and its current implementation by organisations. It is foreseen that this research could support the enhancement of the operational risk management methodologies to improve the operational risk management of private and public organisations.Finance, Risk Management and Bankin