Issue #3 (Volume 12 2016)

The authors develop a conceptual model of a student’s course satisfaction based on several factors that influence course learning outcomes and student’s satisfaction. This model provides a general framework to guide course design and to influence students’ course outcomes. A Marketing Management course is a part of a typical MBA program. This paper presents ideas for enhancing the design and teaching of such a course in an online setting based on teaching experience at MBA programs at several universities in the USA. Suggestions are also presented for improving team productivity and the quality of team output in an online setting. As a case study, the authors discuss a graduate Marketing Management course that was taught at a private US university in spring 2016. They discuss the design, teaching and strategies for enhancing student learning outcomes in this course. Suggestions by students to improve this course are also presented.

Keywords: marketing, student’s satisfaction, higher education, universities.
JEL Classification: M3, M1, I23

The objective of this study is to understand customer experience which is a construct made up of experiential elements created by the organization such as product, service scape, and brand and that of consumer’s personal values and preferences. When the experiential element interacts with the consumer construct, it starts an involvement process that makes the consumer evaluate the product (as a measure) on hedonic and utilitarian dimensions. The product/brand, when used, elicits emotions that lead to purchase intention behavior which is presented in the structural model. The authors have followed Tan, Foo and Kwek (2004) nested model approach in order to achieve the best fitting model for testing our hypothesis.

Keywords: customer experience, personality traits, consumer involvement, product evaluation, emotions and satisfaction.
JEL Classification: M3, D11, D12

Conventional methodology for validating measures in consumer research relies on structural equation modeling. But, this procedure requires a fairly large sample size and a clear conceptualization of the relationship between individual items and various scale dimensions. Neither of these requirements may be met in exploratory cross-national studies. Hence, this paper addresses scale validation issues in exploratory cross-national research, where sample size is a major concern. Specifically, it uses cross-national data on the vanity measure as an exemplar and a battery of descriptive analytics to show how to assess scaling assumptions, reliability, and dimensionality of consumer behavior measures. The scale validation procedure the authors describe in this paper has implications for researchers who use multi-item rating scales as measures of consumer behavior constructs.

Keywords: cross-cultural, scale validation, exploratory research, cross-national, scale applicability
JEL Classification: L1, L13, D11, D12, M31

The article is devoted to the increasing role of tourism in the world economy. The dynamics of international tourism indicators is investigated. The main global innovations in the tourism industry are identified: the growth of tourism types; the application of qualitatively new solutions of scientific and methodological and applied character; growing of tourism influence on the society; the existence of synergistic effect in the tourist industry as a result of combination of subjects efforts at all management levels; changing of the role of internal and external factors that encourage innovative tourism development. In the article, the interaction of global processes on tourism innovations is defined. These processes are: intellectualization, informatization, cooperation, formation of the global tourism market, liberalization of the national tourism markets, increased competition and the spread of transnationalization.

Keywords: tourism, innovations, globalization, world, type of tourism, innovative factors.
JEL Classification: L83, O32