IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/irpnmk/v17y2020i4d10.1007_s12208-020-00259-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Alumni’s perceptions about commitment towards their university: drivers and consequences

Author

Listed:
  • Ilda Maria Pedro

    (Universidade do Algarve
    Universidade do Algarve)

  • Júlio Costa Mendes

    (Universidade do Algarve
    Universidade do Algarve)

  • Luis Nobre Pereira

    (Universidade do Algarve
    Universidade do Algarve)

  • Bernardete Dias Sequeira

    (Universidade do Algarve
    Centro Interdisciplinar de Ciências Sociais (CICS.NOVA))

Abstract

This paper intends to capture alumni’s assessments and perceptions about decisive dimensions of their commitment towards their alma mater. Their academic experience and current situation are highlighted. Moreover, their perception about the role of Higher Education Institution (HEI) in this commitment-relationship is likewise valuable to get their involvement. The study took place at a Portuguese university. Three focus groups, with 21 participants, were conducted to get consistent information permitting further developments. Data were analysed through NVivo software.The study gives insights revealing dimensions such as the relationships with teachers, extracurricular activities and initiation as decisive in their academic experience. Recommending and sharing their experience, underline evidence of what they are willing to give back. Moreover, their consciousness of bearing a mission to contribute to HEI’s development was expressed through strong positive feelings, such as the sense of belonging, and pride at being part of the university, defined in their statements. But they all demand an effective ability of the university to communicate with them. Overall conclusions offer a scenario of alumni’s commitment, giving HEI’s management valuable clues to improvement, but its responsibility in this commitment-relationship was also stressed. Moreover, results also provide contributions to literature enabling other HEIs to replicate the study or simply use the results for their own development. Since the study occurred in a relatively weak alumni culture context, revealing the importance in promoting debate as a means to engage alumni in HEI’s efforts for success, it presents insights for further developments in similar higher education environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Ilda Maria Pedro & Júlio Costa Mendes & Luis Nobre Pereira & Bernardete Dias Sequeira, 2020. "Alumni’s perceptions about commitment towards their university: drivers and consequences," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 17(4), pages 469-491, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:irpnmk:v:17:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s12208-020-00259-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s12208-020-00259-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12208-020-00259-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12208-020-00259-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Geyskens, I. & Steenkamp, J.E.B.M. & Scheer, L.K. & Kumar, N., 1996. "The effects of trust and interdependence on relationship commitment : A trans-Atlantic study," Other publications TiSEM ef7c8d6c-963d-4ee7-8576-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Clotfelter, C. T., 2003. "Alumni giving to elite private colleges and universities," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 109-120, April.
    3. Emerson Mainardes & Mário Raposo & Helena Alves, 2014. "Universities Need a Market Orientation to Attract Non-Traditional Stakeholders as New Financing Sources," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 159-171, June.
    4. C. R. Belfield & A. P. Beney, 2000. "What Determines Alumni Generosity? Evidence for the UK," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 65-80.
    5. Syed Alwi, Sharifah Faridah & Kitchen, Philip J., 2014. "Projecting corporate brand image and behavioral response in business schools: Cognitive or affective brand attributes?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(11), pages 2324-2336.
    6. Ilda Maria Pedro & Luis Nobre Pereira & Hélder Brito Carrasqueira, 2018. "Determinants for the commitment relationship maintenance between the alumni and the alma mater," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 128-152, January.
    7. Tamer H. Elsharnouby, 2015. "Student co-creation behavior in higher education: the role of satisfaction with the university experience," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 238-262, July.
    8. Beverly A. Browne & Dennis O. Kaldenberg & William G. Browne & Daniel J. Brown, 1998. "Student as Customer: Factors Affecting Satisfaction and Assessments of Institutional Quality," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 1-14, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anita Kéri & Erzsébet Hetesi, 2022. "Is it only the university they are satisfied with? – Foreign student satisfaction and its effect on loyalty," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 19(3), pages 601-622, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jorge Miguel Lopo Gonçalves Andraz, 2019. "Alumni Commitment to Higher Education Institutions: Determinants and Empirical Evidence," CEFAGE-UE Working Papers 2019_05, University of Evora, CEFAGE-UE (Portugal).
    2. Ilda Maria Pedro & Júlio Costa Mendes & Luís Nobre Pereira, 2020. "Identifying patterns of alumni commitment in key strategic relationship programmes," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 17(4), pages 445-468, December.
    3. Balaji, M.S. & Roy, Sanjit Kumar & Sadeque, Saalem, 2016. "Antecedents and consequences of university brand identification," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 3023-3032.
    4. Bao, Jingyuan & Durango-Cohen, Elizabeth J. & Levontin, Liat & Durango-Cohen, Pablo L., 2022. "Analysis of factors influencing recurring donations in a university setting: A compound poisson mixture regression model," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 489-503.
    5. Jessica A. Holmes & James A. Meditz & Paul M. Sommers, 2008. "Athletics and Alumni Giving," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 9(5), pages 538-552, October.
    6. Holmes, Jessica, 2009. "Prestige, charitable deductions and other determinants of alumni giving: Evidence from a highly selective liberal arts college," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 18-28, February.
    7. Foroudi, Pantea & Yu, Qionglei & Gupta, Suraksha & Foroudi, Mohammad M., 2019. "Enhancing university brand image and reputation through customer value co-creation behaviour," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 218-227.
    8. Ahmed Ibrahim Alzahrani & T. Ramayah & Nalini Suppiah & Osama Alfarraj & Nasser Alalwan, 2020. "Modeling Blog Usage From a Developing Country Perspective Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(3), pages 21582440209, July.
    9. George R. Goethals & Gordon C. Winston & David J. Zimmerman & Laurie C. Hurshman & Adam C. Sischy & Georgi Zhelev, 2004. "Who Cares? How Students View Faculty and Other Adults in US Higher Education," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-67, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    10. Faiz Muhammad Khuwaja & Waheed Ali Umrani & Sanober Salman Shaikh & Ammar Ahmed & Sanaullah Shar, 2019. "University Markor: A Context-Specific Scale to Measure Market-Orientation in Universities," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(2), pages 21582440198, June.
    11. Shamshuritawati Sharif, 2012. "Correlation Network Analysis of International Postgraduate Students’ Satisfaction in Top Malaysian Universities: A Robust Approach," Modern Applied Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 6(12), pages 1-91, December.
    12. Vithya Leninkumar, 2017. "The Relationship between Customer Satisfaction and Customer Trust on Customer Loyalty," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 7(4), pages 450-465, April.
    13. repec:pri:cepsud:224rosen is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Judit Oláh & Attila Bai & György Karmazin & Péter Balogh & József Popp, 2017. "The Role Played by Trust and Its Effect on the Competiveness of Logistics Service Providers in Hungary," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-22, December.
    15. Dugan, K. & Mullin, C.H. & Siegfried, J.J., 2000. "Undergraduate Financial Aid and Subsequent Giving Behavior," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-57, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    16. Zur, Andrew & Leckie, Civilai & Webster, Cynthia M., 2012. "Cognitive and affective trust between Australian exporters and their overseas buyers," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 73-79.
    17. Meer, Jonathan & Rosen, Harvey S., 2009. "The impact of athletic performance on alumni giving: An analysis of microdata," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 287-294, June.
    18. Yu, Heyao & Legendre, Tiffany S. & Ma, Jing, 2021. "We stand by our brand: Consumers’ post-food safety crisis purchase intention and moral reasoning," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 79-87.
    19. Matilde Bini & Lucio Masserini, 2016. "Students’ Satisfaction and Teaching Efficiency of University Offer," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 129(2), pages 847-862, November.
    20. Juan Oliveros Fontaine & Cristina del Campo & Elena Urquía-Grande, 2024. "What Are Investors Most Interested in about Sustainability? An Approach from the Scientific Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-23, April.
    21. Dziewanowska Katarzyna & Kacprzak Agnieszka, 2023. "The Influence of Engagement in Value Co-Creation on E-Learning Experience and Student Satisfaction: An Empirical Study," Marketing of Scientific and Research Organizations, Sciendo, vol. 48(2), pages 61-80, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:irpnmk:v:17:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s12208-020-00259-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.