Since the early calls for the use of a hierarchy-of-effects approach to assessing and then strategically guiding corporate management in its oversight of CSR endeavors by the enterprise, research related to CSR effects overwhelming shows many favorable social exchanges between CSR firms and relevant stakeholders. Given the attractiveness of CSR payoffs to the firm - but recognizing the resource costs also associated with CSR decisions - a renewed case is manifest for how corporate governance can better understand and optimize CSR efforts, all to the betterment of both the organization and its key stakeholders.

ABSTRACT Understanding the factors that influence alumni giving is a critical task of institutional marketers and development officers. To better understand the factors that influence alumni support, this research reports the results of a field experiment in which the effect that acknowledgement of alumni contributions has on their subsequent donation behavior is examined. Findings indicate that more elaborate acknowledgement programs that include personalized messages are most effective in increasing alumni donations. The age of alumni and their history of giving were also found to be related to giving behavior.

This article reports the results of a field experiment conducted to assess the results of acknowledgement programs used by an educational institution. A two-year study of the giving patterns of 732 subjects revealed that more frequent communication with donors had a negative effect on their future giving behavior and the useof personal appeals had a positive effect on the size of their donations. Post-hoc analysis revealed that personal appeals had a greater effect on older alumni and alumni with a shorter history of giving. These results indicate that institutions should customize their solicitation programs to the needs of targeted segments.

ABSTRACT Mission statements are critical elements in the long-term success of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. In “Beyond the Mission Statement: Alternative Futures for Today's Universities,” Finley, Rogers, and Galloway (2001) identify a number of possible identities they believe Institutions of Higher Education should pursue in order to be successful. This article expands on their proposed “Futures” and examines the critical role that mission statements have in defining the role of the organization and establishing the framework for effective market strategy.

ABSTRACT This article reports on the results of a study of the price-quality relationship as it impacts consumer's institution of higher education selection decisions. This study also investigates the effect that financial discounts in the form of financial aid have on the decision to attend an institution. Based upon focus group discussions and depth interviews, a set of quality attributes were developed. A survey of 303 potential college students and their parents indicates that high price and low price institutions are evaluated higher on quality attributes than are moderately priced institutions. Further, discounts are found to have little effect on the attendance decision. Implications of these results relative to the pricing strategies used by institutions of higher education are discussed. KEYWORDS: Price-qualityfinancial aidcollege selectiondecision factors

This article reports the results of research into the effect that price, or the cost to attend a college, has on the selection decision process. Using two models of the college decision process as the basis for evaluating price effects, focus group discussions and a national survey were conducted. Findings indicate that the importance of price increases as the decision evolves from initial screening of possible alternatives to final selection of a college to attend. An analysis of socio-economic characteristics of survey respondents indicated that family income and fathers' education was associated with the relative importance of price in the decision process. Implications for college administrators are discussed.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has long been widely acknowledged as something business should be more concerned with. However, few management models that encourage this to happen and by which managers can assess the impact of such activity on either stakeholders and/or the firm have been offered. This article describes why and how prosocial activities of the firm should be managed—and evaluated—in a conscious and explicit manner using another accepted, market-relevant paradigm. A management perspective that encourages the evaluation and control of prosocial activities by business using a hierarchy-of-effects technique to gauge impact on attitudes and behaviors of stakeholders is offered. Pilot study data derived from a controlled experiment support the view described and illustrate how goodwill can be evaluated using an affects approach to CSR.

The effects of state and trait communication apprehension's impact on potential clients' responses to help offering ads were investigated. Responses to help offering ads in general and to ads with different levels of communication intensive treatment programs were measured. The results indicate that trait apprehension is associated with diminished enthusiasm about help offering, whereas state apprehension is associated with increasing enthusiasm about help. The results also indicate that individuals with high state and state apprehension have different preferences for help offering programs than low apprehension individuals. Individuals with high state and high trait communication apprehension rated communication intensive programs (e.g., those with interactive role plays and videotaping) as most helpful, but were found to be no more likely to use those programs than other programs rated less effective. The findings are consistent with state-trait communication apprehension theory, and indicate that marketing psychological help-offering services may require segmenting promotional communications by problem dimensions and severity. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Despite the ascendancy of services marketing as a topic of interest, an absence of empirical validation measures and well-grounded research techniques in the area is evident. This article explores the need for marketing to develop an approach by which services marketing empirical research can be advanced. A methodology is proposed that operationalizes the service construct by identifying consumer perceptions of goods and services, and which provides a practical basis for conducting empirical research. Empirical evidence is offered that suggests strong reliability and face validity in support of this approach. (C) 1995 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Two earlier contributions have examined key issues addressing the marketing of parochial schools. Wrenn and Kotler (1993) propose that the marketing of church-related schools represents a case of social exchange activity. By contrast, Penner (1993) identifies two fundamental limitations to the application of marketing principles to parochial education, namely, role and function conflict. The present article seeks to consider the conceptual contribution of those two articles and to examine additional elements that are critical to the discussion but were not adequately addressed in the two prior articles. The article concludes by suggesting future research of potential relevance in the marketing of parochial education.

Despite numerous studies examining buying behavior, research on types of evaluative criteria for vendor selection involving consumers and health care professionals (functioning as market "intermediaries") has been lacking. Building on previous conceptualizations reported in marketing and health care literature, the author examines the relative influence of search and nonsearch evaluative criteria in the decision making of both patients and hospital-based health care providers. Decisions involving post-acute service vendors are analyzed to determine the relative impact of each attribute set in the selection of respiratory therapy services by patients and health care professionals. Data are presented that point to significant differences in decision-making styles between patients and health professionals, as well as among health care providers in different organizational, institutional, and professional roles. Key marketing implications are discussed.

The authors discuss an exercise that shows students how to simplify the process of matching buyers’ needs with sellers’ solutions. In the exercise, students use a “problem-solution grid” to categorize hypothetical buyers and sellers and to develop appropriate strategy to use when a certain type of seller encounters a certain type of buyer. The authors explain how the exercise is implemented in class, provide examples of student handout assignments and instructors’ answers for class discussion, and include teaching notes for a computer market scenario.

Contemplating the 1992 changes in the European Community, this study examines among-country variation in Europe among EC members and nonmembers. Three propositions are tested against data that describe advertising regulations for four key consumer product categories. Findings indicate that there are inconsistencies in these regulations among countries in Western Europe, including EC member nations.

The author explores the information needs of service consumers. In the purchase decision process, search behavior is motivated in part by perceived risk and the consumer's ability to acquire relevant information with which purchase uncertainty can be addressed. Marketing theory suggests that consumers use information sources in a distinctive way to reduce the uncertainty associated with services. Hence, six hypotheses are developed to test the information acquisition of service buyers. An experimental approach is employed to compare, in a prepurchase context, the information sources used by consumers of services and those used by consumers of goods. The resulting data support the predictions offered and extend marketing theory.

With the development of service marketing concepts comes the need to test theory against consumer behavior. This study examines differences in perceived risk and variability between services and goods. In a controlled experiment whereby product stimuli were objectively placed along a goods-services continuum, data from consumers was collected focusing on six types of perceived risk and product variability. The findings of the study provide evidence that services evoke heightened risk and product variability perceptions.

This article presents the results of an experimental portfolio test of alternative formats for an in-ad health warning/disclosure for smokeless tobacco. The study manipulated two format components (the size of type used for the health warning and the warning's background color) and found that neither significantly increased disclosure communication. The data also indicated that the disclosure (which used a health warning federally specified for smokeless tobacco products) failed to communicate the health warning to nearly half of all subjects in spite of forced exposure conditions that were particularly favorable to communication. The implications of these findings on the effectiveness of in-ad health warnings are discussed.