Elite private institutions, renowned for their exceptional academic offerings and rigorous selection processes, attract top-tier students and faculty; however exclusive private schooling has perpetuated social and economic disparities by granting unequal advantages to select groups, deepening educational gaps in society. This dissertation…

The problem that was addressed through this study is that online undergraduate adult students, 25 years of age or older, do not persist to graduation at Caring University, a pseudonym for an online university. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the perceptions of online adult undergraduate alumni about what motivated them to…

In this dissertation, I examined the how honors programs and colleges serve as a tool for public universities to compete with private universities in the rankings game, as well as examining how that contributes to stratification processes. By building on the existing literatures within the organization of higher education, student experiences in…

Given the steady decline in undergraduate admissions over the past decade, universities in the United States have a unique imperative to use positive, targeted, and niche marketing techniques that focus on building brand equity among members of underrepresented groups, including Black students. Despite significant efforts by university leaders and…

The interaction of proximate research universities is a multifaceted and increasingly relevant phenomenon in today's higher education landscape. The three essays herein add to science policy and innovation literature by exploring the challenges, opportunities, and expectations that arise when multiple universities operate in a region. The first…

"In today's engaging, digitally empowered school setting, stakeholders question whether schools know best about educating their students" (Rose, 2012). Sheninger and Rubin (2017) stated, "We have to do a better job of communicating what we do" (p. 17). Social media has given rise to new tools to help connect with families to…

A business school's reputation is a valuable intangible asset. Reputations have been found to influence human behavior related to applications, enrollments, faculty hiring, donor giving, and graduate employment. Despite these findings, there remains room for more research into the defining characteristics of business school reputations. Likewise,…

Despite college rankings' popular yet controversial nature, there is little known about the relationship between college rankings and students. Prior literature suggests that students who make use of rankings are more privileged, yet there lacks a comprehensive analysis surrounding the types of students who place importance on rankings in more…

Women are over-represented in some sectors of higher education and underrepresented at doctoral institutions, particularly at the highest professor rank and at institutions with high prestige (Carr, 2021, Blackmore, 2015; Brewer et al., 2002; West & Curtis, 2006). This study explored gender disparity in the context of societal and…

In many parts of the world, university rankings are now more prevalent and popular than in the entire history of higher education. With growing attention paid to university rankings, the influence of such numbers is ubiquitous on higher education institutions as well as their stakeholders. Universities around the world implement various…

More than 40 years ago, Hicks and Ridley (1979) asserted the need for Black Studies in psychology across American colleges and universities. Their study is one of few, if not the only, that has examined the frequency and types of course offerings in Black Psychology. Thus, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the current state of Black…

This study examines the critical role that marketing plays within the realms of public four-year higher education institutions (HEIs) in the United States, all through the lens of HEI presidents. The context is a higher education market that is rapidly evolving, stirred by fierce competition, shifting societal norms, the COVID-19 pandemic…

This dissertation comprises three cross-disciplinary essays on information systems, marketing, and financial outcomes research for nonprofit service organizations. In our first essay, we explore service quality impacts on the constructs of positive and negative word of mouth, developing and validating a new measurement scale, testing it…

Driven by a shifting landscape and increased competition for students, institutions of higher education (IHE) are working to differentiate themselves to consumers in order to attract new students. These differentiation efforts have increasingly focused on the adult, non-traditional student demographic. As IHEs strive to include claims of quality…

The historical development of the EER program, from its initiative as WSU's first Ed. D., to its growth with the Ph. D. and master's program, was well documented (Irwin, 1960). The importance of the EER doctoral program was established, in terms of its role in the COE, within WSU, and in the outside business and industry communities (Ozkan, 2008).…