Conference paper
Engaging first-year students through relationship marketing
Proceedings of the 9th Pacific Rim First Year in Higher Education Conference, pp.1-10
Pacific Rim First Year in Higher Education Conference: Engaging students, 9th (Gold Coast, Australia, 30-Jun-2006–02-Jul-2006)
Queensland University of Technology
2006
Abstract
Engaging first-year students through relationships is a plausible strategy to minimise attrition with both education and marketing literature noting the important role of relationships in retention. This research examined relationship marketing (RM) focusing upon five themes, being relationship definition, relationship propensity, relationship formation, switching costs and retention intentions. The findings of a qualitative exploratory study and quantitative main study of first-year student perceptions across three regional universities generated meaningful insights that may assist institutions in their relational endeavours. It was found that students could articulate a definition of relationships, most desired a relationship with their lecturer/tutor and that these relationships were best initiated by the instructor. There are five switching costs that prevented students transferring to other institutions and the minority of students who intended to transfer to another university cited course inadequacy, a desire to live elsewhere, 'stepping stone' experience and other circumstantial factors as influencing their decision.
Details
- Title
- Engaging first-year students through relationship marketing
- Authors
- Maria Raciti (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of BusinessMaxine Mitchell (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
- Contributors
- K Dobson (Editor)
- Publication details
- Proceedings of the 9th Pacific Rim First Year in Higher Education Conference, pp.1-10
- Conference details
- Pacific Rim First Year in Higher Education Conference: Engaging students, 9th (Gold Coast, Australia, 30-Jun-2006–02-Jul-2006)
- Publisher
- Queensland University of Technology
- Date published
- 2006
- ISBN
- 0646463136
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2006 The Authors. Reproduced with permission of the author.
- Organisation Unit
- Centre for Support and Advancement of Learning and Teaching; School of Business and Creative Industries; Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; USC Business School - Legacy; Sustainability Research Cluster
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99449425602621
- Output Type
- Conference paper
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