F. Robert Buchanan

A SURVEY COMPARISON OF CAREER MOTIVATIONS OF SOCIAL WORK AND BUSINESS STUDENTS

This survey provides valuable insight for social work educators into the goals and career intentions of working students who pursue masters degrees in social work, as compared to masters degrees in business. Social work graduate students were surveyed and compared to business graduate students in terms of their motivations for seeking advanced degrees and their expected career outcomes. Findings indicate that social work students were more motivated by a desire to gain knowledge or expertise in their service field, whereas business students differed in seeking greater career advancement and self-sufficiency. Social work implications for educational programs and practice are discussed.

Higher education in emerging markets: a comparative commentary

Purpose – The purpose of this project is to examine the development and learning of higher education policy makers in emerging markets as they confront the need for sustainability and global competitiveness of their workforces. Design/methodology/approach – Comparative commentary is based on representative countries in emerging markets of similar demographics and market maturity. Findings – Policy makers can deploy scarce resources more wisely with regionally astute strategies that leverage their unique aspects in light of learning from experiences of other emerging market peers. Originality/value – This review and commentary takes a macro approach to micro policy issues through a boundary spanning comparative approach.

Serving the poor: captive market CSR and repurchase intention

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of the firm affect poor captive consumers’ repurchase intentions, and whether or not CSR activities may moderate established relationships that drive repurchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was administered to 201 poor microfinance borrowers at the bottom of the pyramid in India in a cross-sectional field study format. Multivariate regression is used to examine relationships between CSR and repurchase intention. Findings – All else being the same, CSR activities aimed at the borrowers’ communities affects repurchase intentions positively even among poor captive borrowers. Further, positive perceptions of CSR to some extent mitigate the negative impact of the dissatisfaction on repurchase intentions. Unmarried borrowers, mostly female, were more moved by CSR impressions compared to their married counterparts. Research limitations/implications – Future research could identify othe...

Marketing at the bottom of the pyramid: service quality sensitivity of captive microfinance borrowers

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to survey the working poor who are microfinance borrowers, examining their perceptions of customer satisfaction and corporate social responsibility. Design/methodology/approach – Validated scale measures were presented in a cross-sectional field study survey of 201 respondents. OLS regression was used after determining factor loadings and reliabilities. Findings – Customer dissatisfaction with the microfinance product, lack of commitment from lenders staff, and dissatisfaction with informational support, were all significantly related to future purchase intentions. Only dissatisfaction toward the firms people was significantly related to perceptions of CSR. Practical implications – Dissatisfied poor would prefer to buy elsewhere, even if they find the seller to be socially responsible. However, attitudes and behaviors of the firms agents convey low CSR. Microfinance customers were sensitive to customer service. Service quality was also significantly related to their p...

Examination of Students' Selection Criteria for International Education.

Purpose – Motivations for study abroad in tourism and hospitality were examined as to the influence of a variety of personal criteria in the individual decision process of adult learners to select a host country and host institution of study. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach – Push-pull factors (Mazzarol and Soutar, 2002) formed the basic framework of inquiry. Quantitative analysis was done through primary data collection using hard copy surveys. Qualitative inquiry involved interviews with open-ended questions. Findings – Country attractions of the host location was the highest ranked decision criteria, followed by considerations of the educational institution. Research limitations/implications – Prestige and reputation of the education provider is of high value. However, greater decision influence was seen in respondents’ selection of host country for the attributes of safe and pleasant living conditions, as well as on going career opportunities locally. Sampling was cro...