Predicting students' attitudes towards advertising on a university Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)

Most if not all UK universities and many in other parts of the world support their student learning via a virtual learning environment (VLE). Online resources are going to be increasingly important to students as the internet is very much part of their lives. However, the VLE will require ongoing investment to keep pace with technological developments and student expectations, and at a time when public funding of UK universities is being cut. One funding method could be from advertising on the VLE. This study investigates students’ attitudes towards advertising being included within a university’s VLE learning system. A 10 item questionnaire was randomly administered to students enrolled on undergraduate business and management courses at two universities. The study reveals that students show positive attitudes towards advertising included on a VLE. The findings also indicate that students do not view internet advertising on a VLE as intrusive, and may well be receptive towards the advertisements. These findings have implications for understanding students’ attitude towards a VLE and also to the future (if any) of advertising on VLEs within the higher education sector

The influence of price comparison websites on online switching behavior: A consumer empowerment perspective

While online price comparison websites have burgeoned, there is scant understanding of how they influence online consumer behavior. This study addresses this gap in the literature by investigating the influence of price comparison websites on online switching behavior, and also suggests some additional factors that may be considered when looking at this relationship. We argue that shopper innovativeness, their perceived usefulness of the ad, and their customer service experience consciousness are important factors to consider when evaluating the impact of price comparison websites on eSwitching behavior. We also argue that the most appropriate theoretical lens through which to investigate this relationship is that of the consumer empowerment paradigm. A conceptual model is proposed and tested. Our analysis of 345 sample respondents finds that perceived usefulness of ads and customer service experience expectations are important enablers to price comparison websites use. Similarly, we find that shopper innovativeness and customer service expectations, in addition to price comparison websites use, are significant enablers to eSwitching behaviour. However, contrary to prediction, we find that shopper innovativeness has little to no influence on shoppers’ use of price comparison websites; we also observed similar patterns concerning the link between the perceived usefulness of online ads and eSwitching behaviour. In conclusion, our research contributes to better understanding the influence of price comparison websites on online switching behavior, and the factors that might influence this relationship. © 2020, IFIP International Federation for Information Processing