Learning Marketing in a Multicultural Context

Author(s):  
Duarte Xara-Brasil ◽  
Manuela Carvalho ◽  
Sandra Nunes

There has been an increasing degree of internationalization of several higher education institutions mainly under the ERASMUS context. Those mobility programs bring important gains in terms of students' competences to the Higher Education Institutions and to the employers, but there are also many constraints associated with the student's mobility process. The Setubal Brand Management is a multicultural pedagogical project that also promotes interpersonal skills and encourages a greater integration in the region and with local students. It includes students with diverse educational and cultural backgrounds. In this chapter, several specific pedagogical approaches were taken into account, such as: development of specific contents; implementation of different team-building actions; the inclusion of facilitating elements of communication; and the constitution of multicultural groups. A critical analysis of student perceptions and the sharing of the project with colleagues and with the academic community allowed implementation of several improvements.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 3761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Leal Filho ◽  
João Henrique Paulino Pires Eustachio ◽  
Adriana Cristina Ferreira Caldana ◽  
Markus Will ◽  
Amanda Lange Salvia ◽  
...  

Sustainability leadership entails the processes, which leaders, policymakers, and academics undertake in order to implement sustainable development policies and other initiatives within their organizations. It encompasses approaches, methods, and systemic solutions to solve problems and drive institutional policy towards a more sustainable organization. Higher Education Institutions (HEI) play a particularly important role, especially with regard to their institutional leadership role in promoting sustainable development. There is a paucity of research focusing on sustainability leadership in universities. In order to address this gap, this paper discussed the concept of sustainability leadership based on literature and empirical insights. The study aimed to understand the main characteristics of sustainability leaders at HEI and the main challenges they are confronted with. Secondary research questions involved gender issues and positive outcomes of sustainability leadership. The empirical component of the study consisted of an online-questionnaire survey performed among leaders (n = 50) from a set of universities in 29 countries. The sampling scheme was purposive, based on the membership in the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Program (IUSDRP). The study was explorative in nature, and the descriptive statistics were used for the analysis. Due to the purposive sampling, the participants from top management positions could be considered as experienced, and their views were assumed to be information-rich. With a self-evaluation, the respondents described their leadership style and their usual traits, with inclusive style and systemic thinking being predominant in the sample. Regarding the skills, the respondents selected the ability to innovate, to think long-term, and to manage complexity from a pre-defined set of options. Connectedness with interdisciplinarity and knowledge about organizational settings, as well as global challenges and dilemmas, were stated as important issues related to the knowledge required for being a leader. Regarding requirements for a change towards more sustainable universities’ curriculum adaptation, investments in education for sustainable development (ESD), sustainable procurement, and reporting were mentioned. The study also revealed that gender issues were taken seriously among the sampled institutions, which is an encouraging trend. Challenges seen in implementing sustainability leadership are, for instance, a lack of interest by the university administration and among some members of the academic community, as well as lack of expertise and materials or resources. Based on the empirical insights, a set of measures were listed and which may be adopted in the future, so as to allow leaders of Higher Education Institutions to enhance their sustainability performance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 653-669
Author(s):  
Andriy Kovalenko

Purpose The slogans adopted by higher-education institutions usually target all college stakeholders without differentiation, even though these stakeholders may have quite different connections to the organization. The purpose of this paper is to understand whether there is a relationship between students’ cultural backgrounds and their preferences for slogans of higher-education institutions. Design/methodology/approach The study utilized a survey for data collection. In total, 295 participants answered questions about preferences for slogans appealing to purchase or product involvement, and individualistic or collectivist values. Findings The results suggest that participants from both collectivist and individualistic societies prefer slogans that appeal to the values pertinent to their respective cultures. Representatives of both groups preferred slogans referring to the benefits of education over slogans describing features of particular institutions. Practical implications Slogans with messages appealing to people from collectivist and individualistic messages cultures should be included in promotional materials and distributed among corresponding audiences. Slogans for prospective students should refer to the advantages of studying in a particular institution, while current students should be targeted with slogans that encourage dedicated studying in general. Originality/value The findings contribute to the understanding of factors increasing effectiveness of higher-education slogans. It is also one of the first studies of how students from India (Punjab and Kerala states) and the Philippines process promotional materials from western educational institutions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-256
Author(s):  
Parisa Badrkhani

There are large number of students from around the world who are planning to continue their education in the U.S. universities. They have different nationalities, cultural backgrounds, social beliefs, and so on. Moreover, the educators who are from different countries have the special cultures. This is their task to manage the culturally diverse classrooms to obtain the best results for the educational purposes. In this study, the focus was on three main issues: (a) teaching in multicultural higher education, (b) students’ attitudes toward the different cultures (especially their classmates), and (c) the strategies the educators apply in the multicultural classroom to establish peace. Five Iranian faculties who were teaching English language literature subject, in California State universities, were selected and interviewed via Skype. The results showed that they had a very positive attitude toward teaching in multicultural classrooms. The educators claimed that they apply the emotional empathy, empathy training, culturally proportional curriculum, and the structured rules for the multicultural classroom. One of them argued that holding conferences regarding the diversity is very useful, and the other one proposed that holding involuntary service, sport, and community programs for both the immigrant and the local students is considerable to make the students closer and establish the sense of peace among them.


Author(s):  
Eglė Virgailaitė-Mečkauskaitė ◽  
Velta Lubkina

<p>Since integration and globalization processes are accelerating in the world, the demand to internationalize education and studies increases as well as parameters of the activities of higher education institutions change. International competitive ability of European higher education area, international mobility and high level of university graduates’ employment as well as successful integration into international labour market are the main aims of Bologna process. Bologna declaration, various documents of conventions (European convention of higher education institutions, Salamanca) and communiqué documents (of Prague; Berlin; Bergen) related to the declaration devoted to the creation of common European Higher Education Area raise the necessity of higher education policy emphasizing internationalization, the conception of lifelong learning. The documents mentioned above emphasize the development of European dimensions and content internationalization in study programmes, training of a flexible, mobile, constantly improving and public active specialist who will integrate into the competitive labour market, mobility of the academic community and international cooperation. The development of intercultural competence becomes a more topical subject of the research taking globalization processes into consideration. That is why it is important to understand the influence of internationalization processes in the institution on the development of Master’s degree (MA) students’ intercultural competence through their experience gained in the study process. The aim of the research presented in this article is to discuss the influence of internationalization processes in the institution on the development of MA students’ intercultural competence. A scientific problem question raised in the research is how MA students telling their life story reveal the experience gained in the process of higher education internationalization which influenced the development of their intercultural competence.</p>


2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardi Lucky Kurniawan ◽  
N. Purnomolastu .

Like in many other countries, higher education institutions in Indonesia are facing intense competition as the higher education market becomes globalized and competitive pressure intensifies. It is essential that higher education institutions continually monitor the quality of their services and commit themselves to continuous quality improvements in order to respond to the needs of their stakeholders. Measuring service quality in higher education is thus essential In order to provide a comprehensive view of the quality of education, it is valuable to assess not only student perceptions of their educational outcomes but also their perceptions of the manner in which polytechnic education is provided.This study aims at measuring the students’ perception of the service quality of education in a department; identifying differences of the student perception on the service quality based on their academic profiles; identifying which service attributes are more influential in providing service in higher education; and offering recommendation to the management which area(s) still need(s) some improvement.Using the 5-scale questionnaires, the researchers collected the data for the study from graduates of the 5 departments- Accounting, Marketing Management, Secretary Foreign Business Language and Taxation. Pearson Chi-Square and Alpha Cronbach techniques were used to test the validity and reliability before analyzing the data from the questionnaire. Descriptive statistics was deployed to find out the mean value of each indicator. This was followed bv Dummy Regression analysis.    JThe findings of the study suggest that faculty plays the most prominent indicator in reflecting the students perception of service quality of department.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inga Jekabsone ◽  

Internationalisation is set as a horizontal priority of higher education in the context of the quality assurance by the government of Latvia. However, higher education institutions (hereinafter – HEI) in Latvia find it challenging to attract talented international students and academic staff, especially in the regions, thereby the internationalisation rates in HEI differ. The internationalisation is a complex concept – it is understood not only by the attraction of international students and academic staff, but also by internationalisation of local students and staff as well as by creation of inclusive environment for both – international and local students and staff. Taking into account before mentioned, the aim of the research is to analyse the dimensions of the internationalisation of regional HEI in Latvia. During the research, six regional HEI in Latvia were analysed in the context of diverse aspects of internationalisation. Recommendations to regional HEI were developed based on the analysis of case studies. The analysis showed that the internationalisation in the regional HEI in Latvia are mainly focused on attraction of international students and on student and academic staff mobility. At the same time, some of the regional HEI set the internalisation as a priority while others focus more on local students and regional needs. However, most of regional HEI in Latvia lag behind the average EU un national internationalisation rates.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aysun Caliskan ◽  
Chang Zhu

With the enormous scientific and technological developments, higher education institutions are facing rapid structural, social, technological changes. Because they are considered as an important center of talent development and knowledge production and sharing for countries. To fulfill their educational, social and economic needs, higher education institutions need to respond to changing education needs, to adopt the more flexible modes of organizational culture.  Organizational culture is a promotive environment which influences values, assumptions and beliefs. In an innovative culture, people can easily develop new ideas and exhibit collaboration. Therefore, this paper examines the relationship between the organizational culture features and the perceptions and student reported implementation with regard to student-centered learning, collaborative learning and use of innovative educational technologies in Turkish higher education. Four universities were involved, and 894 students responded to a questionnaire comprising three groups of questions. The three groups of questions capture (i) demographic characteristics, (ii) student perceptions of organizational culture, (iii) students’ perceptions of and responses to educational innovations comprising the following scales in a survey study. The results show that features of organizational culture affect students’ perceived need for innovation, their views about innovative approaches to instruction, responsiveness to instructional innovations and the perceived implementation level of educational innovations. In addition, differences among the institutions were examined and discussed. The study concludes that hierarchical structure, lack of open communication and autonomy, workload, lack of financial resources and support are main barriers for educational innovations in Turkish universities. It also implies to understand the link between organizational culture and educational innovations in Turkish higher education context.


Author(s):  
Elvira Llantos

The multicultural and diversity management (MDM) encompasses acceptance and respect, recognition and valuing of individual differences of the university stakeholders. This study determined the perceptions of the academic managers/ leaders towards multicultural and diversity management in a higher education institutions. This quantitative descriptive research determined the perceptions of 100 purposively selected academic managers/ leaders of selected higher education institutions in the Philippines. The researcher-designed questionnaire was administered online using Google Form. Data were analysed using frequency, percentage distribution, mean, and rank. The majority of the respondents belonged to the age group of 41- 50 years old. The respondents were dominated by males and were single. In terms of highest educational attainment, the majority of the respondents have a master’s degree with 1- 10 years of work experience. The majority of the respondents were Coordinators/Program Chairs who were Regular/Permanent employees. On the basis of the findings of the study, it can be gleaned that the majority of the respondents believed that multiculturalism and diversity management (MDM) in higher education institutions should be integrated with the human resources programs to improve the lenses of equality in the universities and colleges as a workplace. Most of them believe that the MDM program prepares employees for higher diversity in their team, as such; it helps in welcoming recruits with diverse backgrounds into the academic community and promotes a positive organizational culture. Respondents also believed that multicultural and diversity management in Higher Education Institution is one of the best ways that university employees and students can become accustomed to other cultures, nonjudgmental, respectful, and accepting of differences, receptive to different ways of thinking.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Velibor Srdić ◽  
Milan Nešić ◽  
Sanel Jakupović

In order to validate the research instrument used to identify student perceptions of the quality of service provided by higher education institutions in the Republika Srpska-(Pan-European Apeiron University in Banja Luka, University of Banja Luka, University of East Sarajevo, Prijedor College of Medicine and University of Business Studies Banja Luka) (within a broader empirical study), its metric characteristics were determined. In our study, respondents expressed their estimation by choosing one of the positions on a five-point Likert scale. The numerical values of the ordinal scale arranged in this way corresponded to the intensity of the assessment of thirty service indicators, namely: 1 (much less than my expectations); 2 (less than my expectations); 3 (according to my expectations); 4 (more than my expectations); 5 (significantly more than my expectations). The value evaluation of the response is interpreted in accordance with the rule: (a) the perception of the quality of service “as expected” (if the scalar average is close to the quantitative value of three), (b) the perception of the quality of the service “below expectations” (when the scalar average is well below quantitative values of three), (c) perception of service quality “above expectations” (if it is a scalar average well above quantitative value of three) (Klarić & Kulišan, 2011). Also, in order to rank the importance of indicators, in manifest space, values of scalar averages (Mean) are used in interpretation (Nešić et al., 2017).The questionnaire, based on the HEDUQUAL scale, was tested using two procedures: (1) factor analysis (Principal Components Analysis, Direct Oblimin) and (2) Scale Reliability Analysis - based on Cronbach’s alpha coefficient). The sample of respondents consisted of a population of students attending one of the higher education institutions in the Republika Srpska, a total of 863 students (M = 265; F = 598) with an average age of 21.5 years. The results obtained confirm the good metric of the scale, both in terms of validity (KMO = 0.972; Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity = 14292.613; Sig. = 0.000) and in the context of its reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.966). All statistical inferences were conducted at a significance level of 0.05 (Sig. <, 05). The good metric characteristics of the instrument defined the quality basis for further analytical observations of the study results.Based on good metric characteristics obtained in this part of the study (whose task was to validate the survey questionnaire), it is reasonable to expect that, in continuing the analytical examination of the empirical results of the study, the research conclusions can be reasonably based on accurate and academically correct statistical background. Which is a prerequisite for the correct dissemination of the information obtained and, accordingly, a scientifically correct interpretation of the overall results of the study.


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