The present study presents a formal model of the dynamics of a university's reputation that points to the existence of a snowball effect where alumni donations raise a university's reputation, which in turn generates additional alumni donations. Given that econometric results presented in this study confirm the model's main findings, supporting a…

The purpose of this study was to conduct a critical discourse analysis of media produced by higher education institutions. The study aimed to uncover how universities manifest diversity, social justice, and neoliberal discourses in their marketing efforts. Diversity discourses differentiate from social justice discourses in that they do not…

We explore how the influx of foreign funding into the higher education sectors of the United States and United Kingdom has raised the challenge of "reputation laundering"--when foreign donors and individuals use donations to prestigious universities to boost their international public image and offset negative images or reported…

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and mStoner conducted a survey of how schools, colleges and universities use various digital tools and techniques in alumni relations, communications, fundraising, and marketing. The study focused on how higher ed is adopting various digital tools and integrating them into advancement…

Indian universities have been facing difficulty getting world-class status as a very few Indian higher educational institutions have made it through the global rankings. We need to understand the unique challenges of the Indian higher education sector and what academic leaders of globally ranked institutions do to respond to those challenges. The…

This dissertation has two components: social media fundraising and e-commerce. The first component of social media fundraising discusses social media users' charitable content generation in essay 1 and charitable giving in essay 2. In essay 1, we examine how reciprocity of followees affects social influence on users' charitable content generation.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to bring attention to "entrepreneurial finance education", an aspect of entrepreneurship education that is widely taught but neglected by the educational literature. It does so by exploring how social capital, a key resource for entrepreneurs, can be incorporated into entrepreneurial finance…

A growing list of community colleges of all sizes is seeking--and raising--previously unheard-of sums through major campaigns, despite having significantly fewer staff members than their four-year counterparts. According to a recent CASE study of community college foundations, more than half of the respondents said they were planning, conducting,…

This dissertation sought to provide a better understanding of early alumnus identity at a public Midwestern university. Unlike a majority of alumni studies, this study used a qualitative case study methodology to examine alumni identity among participants through the use of personal interviews. Participants were 10-11 years post graduation from…

The current financial context constitutes a challenge to European Higher Education Institutions in the sense that they must look to increasing their budgets with new activities. This context has led governments and European universities to promote not only the traditional private funding sources (such as transfer of knowledge or tuition fees), but…

Whether the donations are from once-friendly foreign governments now scorned or from famous entrepreneurs subsequently convicted of fraud, gifts gone bad "are the kinds of things that keep every chief advancement officer awake at night." A tainted gift can put an institution's integrity on the line but doesn't have to with the right…

Multiple contexts interact to position any school on a spectrum from cumulatively advantaged to cumulatively disadvantaged. This article discusses a study of the contextual advantages and disadvantages experienced by primary schools in the south east of England, concentrating especially on schools in the least deprived 5% of schools nationally.…

Peter Wylie is a man of many contradictions: a statistician and a storyteller, an introvert who loves an audience, and a self-described data geek with a passion for his work and the people it helps. Wylie is one of the pioneers of predictive modeling, the statistical analysis that uses data to drive educational institutions and nonprofits toward…

"Commerce" and "finance" are not the broadest or most dynamic words in the lexicon of business. And yet, when this author became dean of the business school at Villanova University in 2005, that was precisely the language the school was using to advertise itself to the world. The Villanova College of Commerce & Finance, as…

In January, when Dr. Teresa Sullivan became the first woman selected to become president of the University of Virginia, expectations were that the noted sociology professor and provost and executive vice president for student affairs of the University of Michigan would ease into her job in bucolic Charlottesville. When she took over in August,…