Revealing the Unspoken: Malaysian Students' Intrinsic Influences in Selecting the UK for Higher Education Migration

The UK has been amongst the leaders in providing higher education for both home and international students, especially from developing countries such as Malaysia. The recent budget cuts on the UK higher education sector implemented in the academic year 2012/13 have increased the competition for UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to secure home [UK and EU] students as the opportunity cost is greater compared to starting a career. Therefore, it is almost imperative for UK HEIs to attract more international students to fill the gap left by home students to remain financially sustainable. Previous researches on the decision making process for higher education destinations looked extensively at rational factors such as financial viability, size of institutions and availability of programmes as well as reputation related factors, such as university ranking and league tables. The question is: Are these the factors - rational factors - that influence the decision making of prospective international students’ evaluation and selection of the UK as a possible host country for higher education migration? This research aims to elicit and understand the non-rational factors that may intrinsically influence the decision making behaviour of Malaysian students when selecting the UK as the destination for HE migration. Interpretive phenomenology was utilized as the research approach and the Ethnographic principle of cultural interpretation was enhanced by the researcher’s reflexive stances. Data was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Six emergent constructs were revealed which then led to the emergence of three core themes reflecting the intrinsic influences hidden within Malaysian students’ HE migration decision behaviour. Twelve ZMET interviews and two focus group conversations with participants whom were recruited using the stratified random sampling method - covering three geographical regions of the UK, eleven UK universities within four main university groups. ZMET, short for Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique, is an eleven-step in-depth interview technique that elicits both conscious and unconscious thoughts by exploring metaphoric expressions. Findings from previous researches employing ZMET as data collection method showed that data saturation is achievable with just four to five interviews, providing 90% validity. Focus group conversations functioned as methodology triangulation to validate findings. Both of these data collection methods were guided by two overarching questions: (1) why do you choose a UK university? and (2) what and how does being a UK university student make you feel? The six emergent constructs: (1) Egotism; (2) Self-concept; (3) Current security; (4) Future security; (5) Freedom and independence; and (6) Future opportunities, were then interpreted through the researcher’s reflexive stances - personal and epistemic - to signify the insights of the three emergent themes: (1) Fulfilling their emotional needs for acceptance; (2) Satisfying their spiritual pleas for freedom and independence; and (3) Providing a promise for a greater self-worth. These six emergent constructs were embedded into the conceptual framework of this research - Consumer Decision Making model underpinned by Push/Pull Theory of Migration - resulting in a revised conceptual framework depicting Malaysian students’ HE migration behaviour. This research contributes to academic knowledge, research methodology, practitioners and policy makers of HEIs - both in Malaysia and the UK. Suggestions for further research are longitudinal study, geographical extension study, comparison study and a study using this research’s revised conceptual framework as the research model

Green Meetings - a factor of success for a conference and event management company?: The case of JPdL

In the 21st century, climate change and environmental catastrophes are a worldwide acknowl-edged problem, which requires international cooperation and effort from every individual. Therefore more and more businesses realized the urge of taking action and implemented a sus-tainability strategy into their business operations, so also the meeting and event industry. This thesis deals with the subject of environmental sustainability implemented into the meet-ing and event sector. So called “Green Meetings” are meetings, which are planned and executed in a way that causes the least negative impact on the environment. The goal of this thesis is to examine, the impact of a “Green Meeting Strategy” on the competitiveness and profitability of JPdL, a Canadian Conference and Event management company. The analysis provides the base-line for a concept developed for JPdL if they decide to implement a green meeting strategy

Branding Thailand and its implication

Thesis(Master) --KDI School:Master of Public Policy,2011Nation branding is becoming an important issue and interest for the academics, practitioners, business people, government officials, politicians and the public in various countries, particularly in the past decade. More and more countries are jumping on the bandwagon in order to change the world’s view of their nations in the attempt to increase their comparative advantage in the international arena. Thailand is no different. It is in the process of improving its image to attract the attention, respect and trust from the potential investors, visitors, governments, media and consumers of other nations. With this in mind, the government is projecting Thailand’s positive strengths to give it a comparative advantage in the global market place. This thesis investigates Thailand’s effort in trying to improve and broadening its recognition in the international arena by adopting the concepts of nation branding. It examines Thailand in relations to Simon Anholt’s competitive identity, which represents the six ‘natural’ channels of communication though which countries communicate with the world in order to create its successful brand and recognition: exports, governance, investment and immigration, culture and heritage, people and tourism. A qualitative approach of interviews, case studies and survey are used to research on how branding theory can be applied to Thailand. In spite of the complexity of the subject and the suggestion that most scholars and practitioners made that tourism is the one of the softer element of the comparative identities for a nation to use as a tool to brand the country, this study attempts to develop an appropriate framework to support that Thailand can brand itself using its strengths through tourism. Moreover, other relevant implications are discussed to address the need for a successful nation branding strategy for Thailand.masterpublishedby Thidarat Saenjai

Culture Is Our Common Wealth: An Action Agenda to Enhance Revenues and Resources for Massachusetts Cultural Organizations

Looks at current support provided by the state of Massachusetts to arts and cultural organizations, and recommends ongoing advocacy to encourage additional support -- specifically, increased investment in existing and new cultural facilities

Retail brand management: towards modelling the grocery retailer brand from an ethnographic perspective

As producers of national and international brands, manufacturers and service providers were the focus of brand management literature. However, as retailers have become major players nationally and internationally, managing retailers as brands have become a major challenge. The retailer unique business nature, and managerial needs as well as its ever-changing business environment render managing the retail brand a unique and complex task. For the retail brand to embrace and adapt to its managerial challenges, a multitude of brand management approaches should be employed. However, when addressing retailers as brands, the retail management literature has failed to account for this multiplicity exposing a gap in the literature. To fill this gap, a communal retail brand management model is proposed to help retailers embrace and adapt to their various branding requirements inflicted by their business challenges. To build the model, a common core among the various approaches involved in managing retail brands should be identified so as to simplify, by forming a unified approach, yet maintain the essence of each approach. The holistic, humanitarian and managerial orientations of the concept of organizational culture identify it as the common core and thus act as the backbone on which the model will be built. Since the model will be built through cultural interpretation, the ethnographic tradition of qualitative inquiry is utilized because it provides an emic perspective, which is the best strategy (that consequently provides best tools) for interpreting cultures. Besides, the flexibility of the ethnographic tradition allows the adoption of other qualitative traditions of enquiry to aid in building the model. Thus, the case study tradition is employed to confine the study within the precincts of a single retail brand in order to conduct deep analysis for several stakeholders simultaneously. Additionally, the analytical technique of the grounded theory tradition is employed to capitalize on its systematic ability to form conceptual themes out of raw data that, ultimately, become the model's building blocks. In light of conducting a five-months participant observation study in two grocery stores of a leading supermarket brand in two countries (Sainsbury's stores in the UK and Egypt), the findings revealed that modelling the retail brand culture resembles, metaphorically, a tree. The culture symbols resemble the tree attractive leaves, the rituals & local heroes resemble the supportive trunk, and values resemble the roots that anchor in the soil, which, in turn, resembles the cultures in which the retailer operates. The thesis concludes that the Tree- Model is a road map that guides retailers to build and manage their brand identity and consequently enable them to embrace and adapt to the various branding requirements dictated by their business challenges

Tourism Stakeholders Envision a Sustainable Path: Strengthening Maine\u27s No. 1 Industry through the Blaine House Conference Recommendations

Tourism, as Maine’s No. 1 industry, draws approximately 44 million visitors annually who spend $6 billion and contribute$340 million in sales tax. Despite these figures, annual statistics show zero growth or, often, loss, with the exception of the outdoor recreation sector. The tourism industry, made of government bodies, recreation associations and individual businesses, depends on the health of the natural resources and the compliance of related players, such as landowners. Discontent exists with the state and the industry’s leadership. The quandary comes in determining which actions to take to improve the state’s existing nature-based tourism into a sustainable industry that nurtures the natural and cultural resources as it develops economic opportunities. On Nov. 17, 2003, Gov. John Baldacci hosted the Blaine House Conference on Natural Resource-based Industries to gather stakeholders together. For the first time, tourism was included at the same table as the other natural resource industries to enhance how they operate individually and together. The tourism sector produced four proposals: increased educational efforts, strengthened state government roles and responsibilities, enhanced economic development planning and improved branding strategies. This study, independent of the conference and funded by the Office of Tourism, gathered voices of tourism stakeholders to understand opinions on interrelated topics covering the entire state. Methods included semi-structured interviews of 43 private, public and non-profit stakeholders placed in three tourism categories – direct, indirect and related. Direct stakeholders sell a tourism product or experience; indirect stakeholders come from non-tourism businesses, such as landowners; and related stakeholders work for government, non-profits or academia. The purpose of this study is to pinpoint what is threatening the industry and to gain an understanding of the potential for a unified sustainable tourism vision. Participants were asked to describe the present state of the industry, what is being done well, what is being done poorly, recommendations for action and an ideal for the industry. Qualitative inquiry, used increasingly in tourism research, details richness and complexity. Responses were analyzed in the context of the Blaine House recommendations. Findings reflect the disorder of the industry, capturing a frustrated tone pervasive at all levels. Recommendations can develop opportunities incorporating sustainability principles. Suggestions include: • Create an interagency state tourism board, including paid private entrepreneurs, to have all relevant parties at the same table • Broaden the mandate of the Office of Tourism to do more than marketing, such as infrastructure and community development • Design a master plan, through industry and government efforts, to distribute to towns to make them aware of tourism’s potential and to allow them to implement their own strategies • Analyze land access to allow or limit recreational experiences to decrease user conflicts, ensure high-quality opportunities and maintain good landowner relations In conclusion, tourism’s future depends on more analysis of stakeholder input so industry leaders can have buy-in from varied players and can guide policy. In the process, the industry needs to measure success by the quality of the experience, which will ensure return visitation with economic, ecological and cultural benefits

An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities