Students studying at universities in England have been defined as customers by the government since the introduction of student tuition fees. Although this approach has been rejected by educators, there is a lack of empirical evidence about the extent to which students express a consumer orientation and its effects on academic performance. These issues were examined in the current study by surveying 608 undergraduates at higher education institutions in England about their consumer attitudes and behaviours in relation to their higher education, their learner identity, and academic performance. The analysis revealed that consumer orientation mediated traditional relationships between learner identity, grade goal and academic performance, and found that a higher consumer orientation was associated with lower academic performance. Furthermore, responsibility for paying tuition fees and studying a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics subject were associated with a higher consumer orientation and subsequently lower academic performance. Implications for academic performance are discussed.
PurposeStudent loyalty is important if universities are to stay in business by recruiting and retaining satisfied students who provide positive evaluations of their university to others. The current study employed a theoretical framework established by consumer researchers to test the hypothesis that university social responsibility (USR) would predict student loyalty, but that this relation would be mediated by perceived service quality, student satisfaction, and student trust in their university.Design/methodology/approachFee-paying university students in Pakistan (n = 608) completed a questionnaire to assess their perception of USR and service quality, their satisfaction with and trust in their university, and loyalty toward their university.FindingsStructural equation modelling with partial least squares software supported the hypotheses that higher perceived USR would be related to higher student loyalty, and that this relation would be mediated by perceived service quality, student satisfaction, and student trust.Originality/valueThis study provides a novel contribution to the limited literature on USR and its relations with student loyalty. Several models have previously examined the relation between corporate social responsibility and general consumer loyalty, but these have limited applicability to the education sector. The data in this study support a model showing that USR supports student loyalty through its positive impact on perceptions of service quality, student satisfaction, and student trust. The findings suggest that USR could be a marketing tool that supports student loyalty, as long as USR initiatives increase students' perceptions of service quality, satisfaction and trust in their university.
The words real, really and pretend are used in developmental research paradigms to reflect both the notions of ‘authenticity’ (in pretense‐reality and appearance‐reality research) and ‘existence’ (in fantasy‐reality research). The current study explored whether children also expressed these notions in their everyday uses of real, really, and pretend. Mothers were interviewed and kept diary records, resulting in data for a younger group of children (2‐ to 3‐year‐olds, N=80) and an older group (4‐ to 7‐year‐olds, N=101). Utterances were analysed according to different uses of the target words and the topic of conversation in which they occurred. The words real, really, and pretend were used by both the younger and older age groups predominantly to consider the authenticity of things around them. Expression of the notion of existence was less common, particularly among the younger children. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to children's performance in experimental studies, particularly those that intend to question children's understanding of the fantasy‐reality distinction.
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