Using Discrete Choice Modelling in the Marketing of Higher Education in the North East of England

Since 1952 students at English universities have received grants towards covering the cost of their university education. Nevertheless, in September 1998, students for the first time were expected to contribute towards the cost of their undergraduate education in the form of tuition fees. More recently, the student contribution has increased to the point where in 2012 students will be paying a major contribution to their undergraduate tuition fees and by many people may be considered as ‘customers’ of education. The aim of this marketing thesis is to investigate how ‘Discrete Choice Experiments’ provide an alternative approach within consumer behaviour theory to estimating course level decision making in English Higher Education. To do this, it introduces the marketisation of the English Higher Education sector, and explores the consumer behaviour literature in the areas of student choice and consumer reservation price. Whilst the attributes that influence student choice of university have been explored, explicit research has failed to use discrete choice theory to examine the attributes that influence choice of course. Furthermore, despite the practical importance of knowing how much prospective students would pay for their undergraduate course, there remains limited research into estimating consumer reservation price in the marketing field. This thesis establishes a preliminary model which provides a greater insight into the attributes and levels that have a significant influence on student choice of course. This model is then used to underpin the primary research conducted within this thesis using a discrete choice experiment. The sample population was Years 12 and 13 students based at two North-east secondary schools. Although the study was restricted to only focusing on the North east of England, findings reveal students are willing to pay more for degree course that have better access to good quality student accommodation and have a higher number of teaching hours. This suggests that universities that offer newly refurbished accommodation and offer greater levels of contact time could justify charging higher fees. Based on the findings of the discrete choice experiment the contributions to theory and methodology of this thesis are the development of a checklist containing the factors to consider when constructing a discrete choice experiment along with the application of a discrete choice experiment contextualised for the English Higher Education sector. Moreover this provides a basis for future discrete choice experiment research in the marketing field

Improving Student Transition and Retention; a Netnographic Insight into Information Exchange and Conversation Topics for Pre-arrival Students.

The relationship between successful transition to university and student retention is well established. Fundamental to this success is the university’s ability to develop evidence-based interventions to support the initial phases of transition. Yet, gaining insight into the initial transitional processes is problematic. This is due to the university transition beginning when the student commences their information search for institutions and courses, rather than after they arrive for induction. Meaningful pre-arrival insights can, however, be acquired when the student begins to communicate their choices through their social media network. The aim of this study was to provide insight to inform proactive transition and retention interventions, by exploring pre-arrival social media communication exchanges. A twenty-one-month netnography of prospective student social media conversations, identified through a hashtag on Twitter and Instagram was undertaken. Thematic analysis of the netnographic data identified four consistent topics of conversation, revealing the expectations and tensions of a cohort from the initial transition stage until induction. This research makes the following contribution; employing proactive induction interventions that are informed by pre-arrival communication insights has the potential to positively impact retention and academic grades

The Trick Doesn’t Work if You’ve Already Seen the Gorilla: How Anticipatory Effects Contaminate Pre-treatment Measures in Field Experiments

Objectives: When participants in experiments can anticipate the intervention, the study outcomes are said to be confounded. Ample evidence on intentional and unintentional interferences with the stimuli exists which suggests that participants tend to alter their response to the intervention prior to exposure to it; consequently, the measurement of post-treatment effects has been shown to be contaminated because there is a systematic interaction between measurement and treatment. However, an often-ignored consequence of such anticipatory effects is the impact on the baseline measure. If participants can anticipate the intervention early enough, the pretreatment scores will be conditional, therefore producing a biased estimate of the measure. We explore recent evidence on this bias and present a practical option for the mitigation of anticipatory effects. Methods: A review of the literature across multiple disciplines which addresses concerns regarding anticipatory effects. Results: Pretreatment measures, especially of the dependent variables at their baseline values, can be contaminated by anticipatory effects. We show that the major concerns experimenters should consider in this context are: (1) When can we say that the treatment effect ‘commenced’? (2) What forms the pretesting measure? (3) Are anticipatory effects case-specific or are there industry-wide, global anticipatory effects? (4) What can we conclude from studies whose pretest measures are affected by the anticipated treatment effect? and (5) What solutions are there for anticipatory effects? Conclusions: We outline arguments against the fundamental hypothesis that pre-treatment measurements of baseline measures are unaffected by the study conditions. The implications of anticipatory effects for both research and policy are often ignored, which may lead to erroneous conclusions regarding the treatment’s effectiveness, its benefits being underestimated, or both. The bias can be resolved by collecting ‘clean’ baseline measures prior to the commencement of the anticipatory effects, but the first step is to be aware of their potential

'Lowering the threshold of effective deterrence'-Testing the effect of private security agents in public spaces on crime: A randomized controlled trial in a mass transit system.

Supplementing local police forces is a burgeoning multibillion-dollar private security industry. Millions of formal surveillance agents in public settings are tasked to act as preventative guardians, as their high visibility presence is hypothesized to create a deterrent threat to potential offenders. Yet, rigorous evidence is lacking. We randomly assigned all train stations in the South West of England that experienced crime into treatment and controls conditions over a six-month period. Treatment consisted of directed patrol by uniformed, unarmed security agents. Hand-held trackers on every agent yielded precise measurements of all patrol time in the stations. Count-based regression models, estimated marginal means and odds-ratios are used to assess the effect of these patrols on crimes reported to the police by victims, as well as new crimes detected by police officers. Outcomes are measured at both specified target locations to which security guards were instructed to attend, as well as at the entire station complexes. Analyses show that 41% more patrol visits and 29% more minutes spent by security agents at treatment compared to control stations led to a significant 16% reduction in victim-generated crimes at the entirety of the stations' complexes, with a 49% increase in police-generated detections at the target locations. The findings illustrate the efficacy of private policing for crime prevention theory

Neural signatures of cognitive flexibility and reward sensitivity following nicotinic receptor stimulation in dependent smokers : a randomized trial

IMPORTANCE Withdrawal from nicotine is an important contributor to smoking relapse. Understanding how reward-based decision making is affected by abstinence and by pharmacotherapies such as nicotine replacement therapy and varenicline tartrate may aid cessation treatment. OBJECTIVE To independently assess the effects of nicotine dependence and stimulation of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor on the ability to interpret valence information (reward sensitivity) and subsequently alter behavior as reward contingencies change (cognitive flexibility) in a probabilistic reversal learning task. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Nicotine-dependent smokers and nonsmokers completed a probabilistic reversal learning task during acquisition of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a 2-drug, double-blind placebo-controlled crossover design conducted from January 21, 2009, to September 29, 2011. Smokers were abstinent from cigarette smoking for 12 hours for all sessions. In a fully Latin square fashion, participants in both groups underwent MRI twice while receiving varenicline and twice while receiving a placebo pill, wearing either a nicotine or a placebo patch. Imaging analysis was performed from June 15, 2015, to August 10, 2016. MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURES A well-established computational model captured effects of smoking status and administration of nicotine and varenicline on probabilistic reversal learning choice behavior. Neural effects of smoking status, nicotine, and varenicline were tested for on MRI contrasts that captured reward sensitivity and cognitive flexibility. RESULTS The study included 24 nicotine-dependent smokers (12 women and 12 men; mean [SD] age, 35.8 [9.9] years) and 20 nonsmokers (10 women and 10 men; mean [SD] age, 30.4 [7.2] years). Computational modeling indicated that abstinent smokers were biased toward response shifting and that their decisions were less sensitive to the available evidence, suggesting increased impulsivity during withdrawal. These behavioral impairments were mitigated with nicotine and varenicline. Similarly, decreased mesocorticolimbic activity associated with cognitive flexibility in abstinent smokers was restored to the level of nonsmokers following stimulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (familywise error-corrected P<.05). Conversely, neural signatures of decreased reward sensitivity in smokers (vs nonsmokers; familywise error-corrected P<.05) in the dorsal striatum and anterior cingulate cortex were not mitigated by nicotine or varenicline. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE There was a double dissociation between the effects of chronic nicotine dependence on neural representations of reward sensitivity and acute effects of stimulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors on behavioral and neural signatures of cognitive flexibility in smokers. These chronic and acute pharmacologic effects were observed in overlapping mesocorticolimbic regions, suggesting that available pharmacotherapies may alleviate deficits in the same circuitry for certain mental computations but not for others

Forensic analysis of a Sony PlayStation 4: A first look

The primary function of a games console is that of an entertainment system. However the latest iteration of these consoles has added a number of new interactive features that may prove of value to the digital investigator. This paper highlights the value of these consoles, in particular Sony\u27s latest version of their PlayStation. This console provides a number of features including web browsing, downloading of material and chat functionality; all communication features that will be of interest to forensic investigators. In this paper we undertake an initial investigation of the PlayStation 4 games console. This paper identifies potential information sources of forensic value with the PlayStation 4 and provides a method for acquiring information in a forensically sound manner. In particular issues with the online and offline investigative process are also identified

Social Media in the SME Business to Business Environment and Toolkit

This report responds to the growing appetite for businesses to gain a better understanding of social media marketing and the associated benefits. Over the last twelve months, we have spent time exploring the concept of social media marketing and the impact it can have on B2B campaigns. Academics from Newcastle Business School have spent time talking to SMEs and their marketing teams to help identify and successfully navigate some of the most common challenges surrounding B2B social media marketing. As a consequence of this study, we present a framework of integrated marketing communications (IMC), incorporating social media. This framework underpins the B2B Social Media Toolkit, which is the main outcome of this report. The research findings have been presented using the Social Media Honeycomb developed by Kietzmann et al. (2011). This has allowed us to distil our findings into seven distinct themes, which are presented on the right. The B2B social media toolkit is a practical and easy to follow guide for anyone wanting to improve the effectiveness of their social media activity or a good starting point for any business that has yet to incorporate social media into their wider marketing plan

Polymerisable octahedral rhenium cluster complexes as precursors for photo/electroluminescent polymers

New polymerisable photoluminescent octahedral rhenium cluster complexes trans-[{Re₆Q₈}(TBP)₄VB)₂] (Q = S or Se; TBP – p-tert-butylpyridine; VB – vinyl benzoate) have been synthesised, characterised and used to construct rhe-nium cluster-organic polymer hybrid materials. These novel polymer systems are solution-processable and the rhenium clusters retain their photoluminescent properties within the polymer environment. Notably, when the rhenium cluster complexes are incorporated into the matrix of the electroluminescent polymer poly(N-vinylcarbazole), the resultant cluster polymer hybrid combined properties of both components and was used successfully in the construc-tion of a polymer light emitting diode (PLED). These prototype devices are the first PLEDs to incorporate octahedral rhenium clusters and provide the first direct evidence of the electroluminescent properties of rhenium clusters and indeed, to the best of our knowledge, of any member of the family of 24-electron hexanuclear cluster complexes of molybdenum, tungsten or rhenium

Large-scale variation in density of an aquatic ecosystem indicator species

Funding: This work was supported by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Hudson River Natural Resource Trustees.Monitoring indicator species is a pragmatic approach to natural resource assessments, especially when the link between the indicator species and ecosystem state is well justified. However, conducting ecosystem assessments over representative spatial scales that are insensitive to local heterogeneity is challenging. We examine the link between polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination and population density of an aquatic habitat specialist over a large spatial scale using non-invasive genetic spatial capture-recapture. Using American mink (Neovison vison), a predatory mammal and an indicator of aquatic ecosystems, we compared estimates of density in two major river systems, one with extremely high levels of PCB contamination (Hudson River), and a hydrologically independent river with lower PCB levels (Mohawk River). Our work supports the hypothesis that mink densities are substantially (1.64-1.67 times) lower in the contaminated river system. We demonstrate the value of coupling the indicator species concept with well-conceived and spatially representative monitoring protocols. PCBs have demonstrable detrimental effects on aquatic ecosystems, including mink, and these effects are likely to be profound and long-lasting, manifesting as population-level impacts. Through integrating non-invasive data collection, genetic analysis, and spatial capture-recapture methods, we present a monitoring framework for generating robust density estimates across large spatial scales.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe