The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between customer satisfaction, service quality, and the repurchase intention dimension of consumer loyalty within higher education. The influence of switching costs as a mediating variable is also examined. The setting for the study is the online learning facet of the higher education market. While the relationship between satisfaction, service quality, and loyalty are well known, there is a gap in the literature examining this relationship within higher education. A new research framework is proposed to illustrate the relationship between the independent, mediating, and the dependent variables, and five propositions are put forth.
Although it is well established in the academic literature that entrepreneurs share common traits, there has been limited research dedicated to evaluating psychographic profiles of the self-employed. Using the Nominal Group Technique, the authors gleaned insight from a panel of experts in an effort to segment the self-employed based on personality traits and the benefits they receive from an entrepreneurial career. The findings show that self-employed individuals can be classified into four distinct segments: Exemplars, Generals, Moms and Dads, and Altruists. Each group derives different benefits from self-employment. Understanding these benefits can greatly assist entrepreneurship educators and marketers of small business oriented products and services.
Higher education today is becoming more complex than ever and entrepreneurs are capitalizing on this market by making it more competitive and, hopefully, better. The Kenney College of Entrepreneurship, as one example, leverages the strengths of the established online operating systems in higher education, while implementing innovative strategies that will enhance student-professor interaction and student learning in a cyber environment. The key to the Kenney College of Entrepreneurships strategy is appreciating the fact that entrepreneurs tend to learn differently than most other students and are interested in having some control in designing their learning outcomes. Therefore, this case discusses an innovative student-professor pedagogical model that is employed by the Kenney College of Entrepreneurship. The model strives to satisfy each students internal locus of control and the colleges desire to build a premium brand by emphasizing the humanistic, scholarly, and practical aspects of entrepreneurship. The case further discusses some of the challenges and opportunities facing educators and administrators.
Scholars have shown that maintaining an intrapreneurial culture contributes to superior firm performance (Parboteeah, 2000) and attracting better qualified job applicants (Olmsted, 2005). Yet, there remains a need for more research “regarding the successes or failures of large companies that systematically instill corporate entrepreneurship” (Thornberry, 2003 p. 332). While an increasing number of scholars have examined the benefits and challenges of creating and maintaining an intrapreneurial culture, there remains a need to examine intrapreneurship from an intrapreneur’s perspective. This article is an exploratory study which qualitatively, through the use of informational interviews, explores how experienced intrapreneurs within the Information Technology (IT) field view intrapreneurial opportunities and how management practices explicitly and/or implicitly effect intrapreneurial perceptions.
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