In a fast-paced dynamic world, the key to success lies in the ability to accept change and to rapidly respond to demands placed by ever increasing competitive environments. In business, the impact of products and services in meeting or exceeding customer’s expectations in such environments is measured by customer satisfaction and the importance thereof cannot be downplayed, thus providing management with a metric that guides and augments change. Subsequently, these dynamic competitive forces are pushing sectors such as Higher Education into the realm of service industries, where stakeholders such as students and alumni are viewed as customers. Correspondingly, measuring their satisfaction has become important as this provides strategic insight, whilst enhancing academic programmes and the student experience. The purpose of this research study was to identify the factors that determined satisfaction with the MBA programme as viewed by students and the alumni of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Business School. Furthermore, it advanced the field of stakeholder theory by identifying alumni as a key stakeholder in business schools. Consequently, the research was exploratory and consisted of quantitative and literature components where hypotheses were developed and relationships between factors analysed, in addition to the literature reviewed. The literature introduced key concepts to this study, such as alumni as stakeholder, alumni satisfaction, satisfaction with the MBA programme, measuring alumni satisfaction, MBA alumni networks and alumni communication. The factors that determined alumni satisfaction were identified by means of a statistical analysis of the data collected by the research instruments. Correspondingly, the findings indicate various factors determine satisfaction with the independent variables highlighted in this study, which are the Facilities, the MBA Programme, the Social Experience, the NMMU Business School Alumni Chapter, the NMMU Business School brand and Communication. Furthermore, it was established that there is a significant link between Social Experience, the NMMU Business School Alumni Chapter, the NMMU Business School Brand, Communication and Alumni Satisfaction.As services industries such as Higher Educational Institutions get exposed to competitive pressure, customer satisfaction comes to the fore and there are certain factors that need to be addressed to enhance satisfaction. Subsequently, this study highlights this pressure and satisfaction levels can certainly be improved by the institution across all the independent variables identified, especially in areas such as the NMMU Business School Alumni Chapter and Communication. Consequently, the NMMU Business School, for the first time have metrics to identify the factors that determine satisfaction with the MBA programme as viewed by their alumni and resultantly can strategically benefit by taking the views of their most important stakeholder into account.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:27822 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Bosman, Jeremy Maurice |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MBA |
| Format | xviii, 194 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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