Professor Jane Hemsley-Brown PhD

Purpose: the reported study tested (1) whether there are significant differences between the two countries, in terms of perceptions of market orientation (MO) in higher education (HE), (2) which MO dimensions (student; competition; intra-functional) indicate more positive attitudes and whether the differences are significant; and (3) the reliability of the instrument for using a larger sample of respondents internationally. Method: A comparative (online) survey of 68 academics in England and Israel has been conducted during the academic year of 2007. The MO questionnaire used comprises 32 factor items rated on a six-point scale, categorised using three headings: market (student-customer) orientation; competitor orientation; and inter-functional coordination. Findings: Overall, academics in both countries indicated that their HE institution is oriented towards meeting students’ needs and desires, and cares for students’ well-being, teaching and learning. In addition, our respondents alluded to their contribution to internal marketing, i.e., to the promotion of their university through their own work tasks and performances. Practical implications: The meeting of student needs, and a student centred approach can be an institutional mission, as well as a government drives initiative imposed on universities through the introduction of a market. Originality/value of paper: As MO frequently underpins the development and implementation of successful organisation-environment relationships, the current paper is a first attempt to trace the contextual determinants of this orientation by comparing its frequencies and elements in two different HE system.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine the differential effect of two cognitive (i.e. product experience, outcome focussed) and two emotional experiences (i.e. surprise and immersion) on customers’ cognitive outcomes (i.e. satisfaction, trust and value), and customers’ emotional outcomes (i.e. passion, connection and affection); and second, to test the differential effect of customers’ cognitive and emotional outcomes on switching resistance loyalty (SRL). Design/methodology/approach – Survey data were collected from 843 respondents using an online panel in the UK. Structural equation modelling was employed to analyse the data (AMOS 18.0). Findings – First, cognitive experiences had a more significant effect on customers’ cognitive outcomes compared to their effect on customers’ emotional outcomes. Second, emotional experiences had a more significant effect on customers’ emotional outcomes compared to their effect on customers’ cognitive outcomes. Third, the impact of customers’ emotional outcomes on SRL was not significantly higher compared to that of customers’ cognitive outcomes. Fourth, the indirect effect of cognitive experiences on SRL was significantly higher, compared to that of emotional experiences. Originality/value – The key contribution of this research stems from examining the differential effect of cognitive and emotional experiences on different consumers’ cognitive and emotional outcomes, thus providing deeper insights into the nature of the relationship between such variables.

At the end of a decade of enhanced marketisation in schools, this article considers the subjective meanings attached to educational marketing by school teachers and the ways they construct and interpret teachers' 'idealised' and 'actual' involvement and contribution to school marketing. Through semi-structured interviews with 12 secondary school teachers from the south of England, the study revealed teachers' perceptions of and attitudes towards competition, marketing and education, their awareness of the marketing activities of their schools, the teachers' role in marketing the school and the perceived impact of the market upon teachers' well being. The results show that there is no coherent, organised view of education marketing among teachers in the study but rather that there are a number of inchoate voices amongst teachers concerning their role in school marketing. Broadly, two voices are revealed that reflect a cognitive dissonance which may exist among school teachers in the era of marketisation. This dissonance may stem from teachers' ideology-based difficulty in perceiving marketing as part of school life, while at the same time, they are aware of its importance to the school's success.

Purpose: The paper presents the major features of market orientation (MO) and its benefits for schools, suggests an inventory to measure the degree of MO in a school, and provides strategies to incorporate elements of MO into the school culture. Approach: An instructional, technical approach which is based on empirical literature both from business and service marketing and from the emergent research on educational marketing is taken in this article. Content: The paper analyzes the implications of MO for the management of school-environment relations, and provides an inventory to measure the degree of MO in individual schools. In addition, a stage by stage approach to incorporating MO into the school culture is broadly discussed, with a focus on the principal's key role in this process. Practical implications: The paper concludes by suggesting some implications for future research on MO in schools and other educational institutions and highlights the significance of MO for our understanding of school marketing in the era of competition and choice. Originality/value of paper: As MO frequently underpins the development and implementation of successful organization-environment relationships, the current paper is a first attempt to help principals and administrators incorporate MO into their school, thereby capitalizing on the great advantages of market-oriented organizational cultures.

Discusses the interpretation of nursing statistics, the problem of counting how many nurses there are in the workforce, and the need to be aware of how statistics are compiled when presenting numerical data to support arguments relating to nursing and the nursing workforce. Argues that NHS workforce statistics provide considerable evidence for claiming that there is a significant decline in the number of nursing staff doing the work of nursing in the NHS. Explains that although there was an increase in the number of qualified nurses working in the NHS throughout the 1980s (over a ten-year period the number of qualified nurses increased by 22 per cent), the increase in qualified nursing staff has not compensated for the loss of student learners in the workforce. Emphasizes that during the last three years for which figures are available, however, these gains have been wiped out, and the number of qualified nurses has declined to pre-Project 2000 levels.

Purpose: The aim of this study is threefold: first, to examine the extent to which service quality (SQ) affects the three components of emotional brand attachment (EBA) (brand passion, brand affection and self-brand connection); second, to investigate the extent to which these three components influence brand loyalty; and third, to test the mediation effect of the components of EBA on the SQ-loyalty relationship. Design/Methodology/Approach: Survey data were collected from 355 respondents using an online panel in the UK. Smart PLS2.0 was employed to analyze the data. Findings: Three key findings emerge: first, compared to staff behavior, physical environment tends to have a stronger and more significant effect on the three elements of EBA. Second, brand passion and self-brand connection fully mediate the SQ-loyalty relationship, whereas brand affection partially mediates the same relationship. Finally, the SQ-EBA-loyalty relationship is significantly stronger for repeat visitors compared to first-time visitors. Originality: The findings offer new insights through examining the symbolic consumption and emotional aspects of a guest’s hotel experience as mediators to the SQ-loyalty relationship. The findings also add to the growing body of knowledge of the antecedents of EBA through identifying physical environment and staff behavior as key determinants of EBA. Practical Implications: Hotel brands need to design their facilities and décor, and develop guest experiences based on symbolic values and deep emotional aspects. Offering employees customer care training and adopting a consumer-centric, relational, and storytelling approach are particularly important in order to inspire and captivate hotels’ customers, and to build and shape profound and enduring affective ties between the hotel brand and its customers.

Universities today are increasingly competing for international students in response to trends in global student mobility, diminishing university funding and government-backed recruitment campaigns. This trend has driven the need for universities to focus on clearly articulating and developing their brand, and developing harmony within the brand architecture. This case study of one University focuses on brand architecture and found evidence of a move towards corporatization, based on the pressure for UK universities to align with the notion of a British Education, promoted through the British Council. However, the process of brand harmonization raises concerns about the potential impact on the marketing positioning and the autonomy of faculties and schools. The challenge seems to be to work on brand-building within the University with an understanding of two-way communication within the brand architecture: universities should acknowledge schools’ and faculties’ contributions to the identity of the brand.

Purpose - There has been much interest in evidence-informed decision making in education - identifying effective ways of increasing the use of research evidence to provide a basis for management decision making, in both the private and public sectors. However, in education, although there has been much speculation and discussion, there has been a paucity of recent empirical research evidence that provides insights into the characteristics, practice and mechanisms of successful research utilisation strategies. This study aimed to explore how research evidence was successfully disseminated and how the barriers to research use by head teachers (principals) were successfully addressed. The study was qualitative and exploratory in nature and aimed to identify examples of projects led by, and supported by, local education authorities (LEAs), that aimed to help education practitioners to access, engage with, and use the findings from published research and research carried out by themselves, and shared with others. Design/methodology/approach - This paper presents and discusses the findings from an empirical study conducted in eight local authorities in England and Wales. Findings - The research evidence suggests that to improve research use among managers in education, strategies should focus on facilitating communication networks, partnerships and links between researchers and practitioners, with the key long-term objective of developing a culture that supports and values the contribution that research can make to management decision making in education. Originality/value - Managers in local education authorities (LEAs) can help to build networks, develop partnerships between professionals locally, nationally and internationally, and also act as change agents in the dissemination and adoption of new ideas. However, the research focused on illustrative examples of research use - and further research is needed to evaluate the impact of using research for decision making in education. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

States that the number of enrolled nurse conversions completed during the last ten years has had a significant impact on the number of registered nurses (RNs) available for employment in the National Health Service (NHS), and the contribution made by the enrolled nurse conversion course programme to the NHS workforce may have delayed the impact of the "demographic time bomb" on nursing recruitment. Emphasizes that the winding down of the conversion programme, and a fall in the number of RNs employed in the NHS, combined with a decline in entries to preregistration (initial) training, could signal the beginning of the long-awaited crisis facing the nursing profession.

Purpose There has been much interest in evidence‐informed decision making in education – identifying effective ways of increasing the use of research evidence to provide a basis for management decision making, in both the private and public sectors. However, in education, although there has been much speculation and discussion, there has been a paucity of recent empirical research evidence that provides insights into the characteristics, practice and mechanisms of successful research utilisation strategies. This study aimed to explore how research evidence was successfully disseminated and how the barriers to research use by head teachers (principals) were successfully addressed. The study was qualitative and exploratory in nature and aimed to identify examples of projects led by, and supported by, local education authorities (LEAs), that aimed to help education practitioners to access, engage with, and use the findings from published research and research carried out by themselves, and shared with others. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents and discusses the findings from an empirical study conducted in eight local authorities in England and Wales. Findings The research evidence suggests that to improve research use among managers in education, strategies should focus on facilitating communication networks, partnerships and links between researchers and practitioners, with the key long‐term objective of developing a culture that supports and values the contribution that research can make to management decision making in education. Originality/value Managers in local education authorities (LEAs) can help to build networks, develop partnerships between professionals locally, nationally and internationally, and also act as change agents in the dissemination and adoption of new ideas. However, the research focused on illustrative examples of research use – and further research is needed to evaluate the impact of using research for decision making in education.

This review provides a synthesis of the scholarship that has sought to expand understanding of educational marketing practice in schools. The following research questions guided this review: (1) what are the common themes and characteristics that emerge from research about marketing in schools? (2) What remains underdeveloped in the characterization of the school marketing and what are the topics for future research? Based on 25 studies identified as pertinent for the current review the topics of: marketing perceptions, marketing planning, marketing strategies and promotion are discussed. The paper concludes by providing an analysis of the limitations of the current research and discussing future directions for research on school marketing.

The study investigates a university's brand ambidexterity strategy and its effects on brand image, reputation, and commitment in higher education. A research model integrates the determinants of university-specific brand performance and proposes that commitment toward a particular university is influenced by (a) brand ambidexterity, that is, exploratory and exploitative orientations, and (b) student level responses, these being the students' perceptions with brand image and reputation leading to increased commitment with the university. Findings suggest that when students choose to commit for the study of a postgraduate degree, a variety of factors influence their decision, of which the brand performance and brand image constructs play major roles; interestingly, brand reputation is less important. The framework helps university managers in designing appropriate strategies to influence students' commitment toward the university to, for example, continue their postgraduate studies. Implications exist for broader brand management and customer management approaches that include up and cross-selling schemes.

Since the bus deregulation (Transport Act 1985) the patronage for bus services has been decreasing in a county in South of England. Hence, methods that increase patronage, focus subsidies and stimulate the bus industry are required. Our surveys and market research identified and quantified essential factors. The top three factors are price, frequency, and dependability. The model was further enhanced by taking into account real time passenger information (RTPI), socio-demographics and ticket machine data along targeted bus routes. These allowed the design of predictive models. Here, feature engineering was essential to boost the solution quality. We compared several models such as regression, decision tress and random forest. Additionally, traditional price elasticity formulas have been confirmed. Our results indicate that more accuracy can be gained using prediction methods based on the engineered features. This allows to identify routes that have the potential to increase in profitability - allowing a more focused subsidy strategy.

Education is becoming more competitive - choice in education is now a key issue. This book will help parents, schools, colleges, universities and policy makers understand how education and training markets work.

The market is now accepted as an organizing principle of the world economy and is gradually replacing a number of political extremes ranging from totalitarianism to communism. The market continues to be viewed as way of addressing a wide range of social, industrial and economic issues: improving economic efficiency; greater value for money; enhancing innovation: a more cost effective way of achieving goals; increasing quality and the ability to compete more effectively internationally. These are just a few of the expectations of effective markets, but can the market be expected to compensate for its own shortcomings? Notwithstanding the continuing and emerging downsides to markets worldwide such as the failure of financial and housing markets, the mechanism continues to be viewed as a panacea for economic, social and political challenges in the delivery of education – even to the point of being viewed as the solution to its own failings. I will begin with a brief introduction to the launch and development of market principles and market mechanisms in higher education, and trace the challenges of markets and marketisation brought about by simultaneous internationalization. Then, I raise questions about the operation of a free market in education as it is poised to become the overriding mechanism for the allocation of resources worldwide. I explore some of the potential damage the market can inflict on higher education, and raise concerns that the achievement of some of the fundamental and core values of higher education are in conflict with the market – including evidence that markets are known to increase social polarization and reduce equality of access.

Keynote Presentation

Focusing on personal factors that influence consumer choice, group aspects of consumer behaviour such as cultural and ethnic differences, as well as theoretical and research models, this book is designed to stimulate new debate and ...

Purpose Using the resource-based view (RBV), the purpose of this paper is to examine the potential mediation effect of customer relationship management capability, branding capability and service innovation capability on the established link between market orientation (MO) and hotel performance. It further investigates the complementarity between these capabilities in relation to hotel performance. Design/methodology/approach The survey data were collected from 216 UK hotels. AMOS 23 was used to analyse the research data. Findings The link between MO and hotel performance appears to be indirect via customer relationship capability, branding capability and service innovation capability. The three capabilities also appear to play different complementary roles when affecting hotel performance. Practical implications The current study offers hotel managers a ranking of the contribution of individual capabilities to hotel performance. It also helps them to make better investment decisions in developing the right capability combinations to enhance their hotel performance. Originality/value The research is based on integrating MO and RBV into a single framework to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between MO and high-order marketing capabilities and how these factors shape hotel performance.

Due to the increasingly competitive landscape in the international higher education marketplace, colleges and universities have much to gain from the benefits of successful branding. In the commercial realm, the knowledge base on branding topics is extensive; in the realmof non-profit higher education institutions, however, more research is needed. As higher education institutions strive to develop distinctive identities, deeper understanding about topics such as brand identity, meaning, image, and reputation will enable brand owners to communicate more effectively with stakeholders including faculty, students, alumni, employers, and others. The articles in this special section describe research using a variety of qualitative (e.g., case study, fuzzy set analysis, metaphor analysis) and quantitative methods (e.g., cross-sectional surveys with data subjected to regression or structural equation modeling) utilizing primary and secondary data Scholarly contributions include new frameworks and perspectives to strengthen brand architecture of higher education institutions in the international marketplace. Practitioner readers may gain new insights for effective brand building in their own higher education institution.

This book presents the works of leading scholars and researchers in the field of educational marketing who handle issues of student retention; trust; building relationships with parents, curriculum marketing, strategic marketing, and market ...

Aims: The chapter aims to challenge the basic premise underlying the processes of globalization and internationalization of HE (Higher Education) systems, and especially the consecutive marketization process, from the standpoint of the institutional theory of organization originating in sociology (Hall, 2001). Using institutional theory of organization as a theoretical framework for examining the theoretical essentials of these major processes currently in evidence in many HE systems may explain the barriers to diversity, responsiveness, and improvement – all of which are assumed to be driven by the introduction of marketization policies in HE systems. Evidence: review, theoretical The aim of the book the chapter - contributes to providing a theoretical basis for understanding the concepts of globalisation and internationalisation in the context of HE. Summary of key ideas of the chapter: The process of globalization and internationalization of HE in many developed countries is accompanied by a process of marketization because universities have to compete for students and resources by adopting market-like ideologies and diversity policies (Edwards, 2004). Basically, marketization includes the adoption of customer-oriented attitudes, uncertainty and ambiguity, emphasises the importance of external relations, systems of quality assurance, inter-organizational competition, and marketing-led management. In this chapter, we critically reflect upon the marketization process of HE institutions, by using four basic concepts underlying the institutional theory of organization: conformity to institutional rules, isomorphism, decoupling, and normatively-based decision-making. Briefly, we develop several arguments by asking, (1) to what extent are HEIs changes fundamental and a natural consequence of the need to respond to globalization and internationalization fundamental, rather than just image development? (2) Can HEIs be genuinely responsive to international students’ special needs/wants? (3) Can we expect high levels of diversity within universities following the recruitment of large numbers of international students? (4) To what extent are international students able to make choices based on clear and visible information about the university? The proposed chapter aims to challenge conventional wisdom in the emergent area of HE marketization and to come up with thought provoking theoretical ideas about the limitations of internationalization in HE systems. References Edwards, K. (2004). The university in Europe and the US. In R. King (ed.), The university in the global age. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 27-44.

Universities and students collaborate in a shared language of excellence, quality and choice and become part of the same “neo-liberal discourse of marketisation and commodification, and globalisation” (Sauntson and Morrish 2010 p.83) where each plays their part as provider and consumer in a highly competitive international area. Whilst there are an increasing number of studies focused on the use of the Internet and website use, there are still only very few papers on the use of websites in the context of Higher Education and university choice. This study uses a sample of 60 personal statements from online post-graduate applications submitted by overseas students. The extracts are coded for analysis and compared against the website information provided on university and British Council websites during the time period of the applications. Applicants used nouns, adjectives and phrases published on the British Council website and the website of their target university.

Marketing and marketisation are not the same. However, it is not a simple task to disentangle one from the other. At one end of the distribution of meaning, marketing may be taken to be about the provision of information to help people make decisions, while at the other end of this distribution, marketisation challenges stakeholders with radical change encompassing issues of power, funding, labour, markets, and complexity. Nor is this a comprehensive list (see, e.g., Hemsley-Brown & Oplatka, 2006). Indeed, the idea of a definitive list is misleading. Meanings and lists tend to chop and change according to the particular perspective slicing the dialogue.While it is difficult to get an intellectual handle on what is happening with regard to marketing higher education – never mind what to do about it – the reader might like to think that that is rather the point: the complexity keeps the stakeholder guessing at what is difficult, if not impossible, to predict, and so this keeps us on our academic toes. Nevertheless, there are three very important characteristics evident in the literature to describe the situation and help us to develop an intellectual understanding of marketisation: (1) higher education is characterised by plurality; (2) it is competitive and likely to get even more competitive; and (3) it is rife with contestation. More than anything else in our research into marketing and the marketisation of higher education, we need analytical concepts to deal with these highly prominent yet not all-embracing characteristics. As the complexity and diversity of the literature in the subject area suggests, this is not going to come from a single disciplinary source. With regard to these characteristics, it is not simply a question of a variety of institutions of higher education competing, but these varied institutions are occupied by academics with competing theories. So institutional plurality and intellectual plurality add to the competitive fuel. Burning themes arising from these characteristics set within academic contestation are: increasing complexity, the rise of consumerism, rankings, the promotion of relevance, and identity. With regard to the second characteristic, it is irrelevant whether you like or approve or not; competition will define higher education and its being in the world and where that being is placed. Higher education’s identity and how stakeholders identify with it will alter radically. Indeed, it is already inaccurate to speak of the identity of higher education rather than identities. In consideration of the third set of characteristics, none of these goes unchallenged. Consensus is a long way off. The way forward is paved with many possibilities and potential directions. The plurality and competitive characteristics have multiple implications that work their way through how we approach marketing for higher education, understand it, and then deal with it. The articles in this special issue are just some of the research outcomes that link the major themes emanating from the characteristics. It would be impossible, of course, to cover all these themes in one special issue. Nevertheless,the articles in this special edition of the Journal of Marketing Management illustrate how marketing for higher education research is intricately bound up with (a) the characteristics and (b) the themes, and (c) how researchers break these themes down into manageable research topics such as marketing strategy, services marketing, consumer behaviour, and so on.

This book presents the works of leading scholars and researchers in the field of educational marketing who handle issues of student retention; trust; building relationships with parents, curriculum marketing, strategic marketing, and market ...

In this chapter, we critically reflect upon the marketization process of HE institutions, and use the three basic concepts underlying the institutional theory of organization: conformity to institutional rules, isomorphism, and normatively-based decision-making. Briefly, we develop several arguments by asking, (1) to what extent can changes conducted in HE institutions in response to globalisation and internationalisation be fundamental changes, rather than just image development? (2) Can HE institutions be genuinely responsive to international and local students’ special needs/wants? (3) Can we expect high levels of diversity within universities following the recruitment of large numbers of students? (4) To what extent are students able to make choices based on clear and visible information about the university? The chapter aims to challenge the basic premises underlying the processes of globalisation of HE systems, and especially the continuing marketization process, from the standpoint of the institutional theory of organization originating in sociology (Hall, 2001). Using institutional theory of organization as a theoretical framework for examining the theoretical essentials of these major processes currently in evidence in many HE systems may explain the barriers to diversity, responsiveness, and improvement – all of which are assumed to be driven by the introduction of marketization policies in HE systems.

This book presents the works of leading scholars and researchers in the field of educational marketing who handle issues of student retention; trust; building relationships with parents, curriculum marketing, strategic marketing, and market ...

The gap between the researcher’s world and the practitioner’s world has long been recognised: research literature is generally not part of a practitioner’s library (Huberman, 1990). One of the effects of this is that actions by decision-makers and practitioners are unlikely to be informed by research, and dissemination of research information and knowledge is problematic (Hillage et al., 1998). The need for practitioners to utilize the findings from research as a basis for decision making is not just an issue for schools, but is a compelling idea for the workplace as a whole (Gruber & Niles, 1973; Weiss, 1979; Huberman, 1990; Davies & Nutley, 2002; Kelemen & Bansal, 2002; Walter et al., 2003a; Walter et al., 2003b; Sutton, 2004; Percy-Smith, 2005). Many studies have explored how and why new ideas and practices are adopted (Sturdy, 2004) in an attempt to discover how practitioners and managers could be encouraged to use research to support their decision-making (Hemsley-Brown, 2005) and to increase the performance of schools (Hemsley-Brown & Sharp, 2003). The increasing interest in utilizing research findings for improving schools and providing evidence for management decision making is an important response to the rapid pace of change, the availability of electronic data and the considerably pressure to improve increasingly complex organizations. Successful and continuous improvement depends less on who has the information and increasingly on those able to make the best use of that information (Moorman et al., 1992; Hemsley-Brown, 2005). However, much of the knowledge generated by research fails to impact on a practitioner audience and although some research focuses on facilitating the utilization of research, much research effort has been devoted to explaining and justifying the gaps – the research-practice gap (Boostrom et al., 1993; Klein, 1995; Bero et al., 1998; Johnson, 2000; Huff & Huff, 2001; Kelemen & Bansal, 2002).

This has led to an increasing interest in the realities of the private schools; and this book brings together the best of recently conducted research on the ...

When a professional practitioner is faced with making a decision about what to do in a particular situation, do they base that decision on findings from research? This paper reports on qualitative and quantitative research which examined school principals’ perceptions of barriers to the use of research. To facilitate a comparison the study was conducted simultaneously in two countries: England and Israel using interviews, focus groups and the Barriers Scale survey instrument (Funk et al., 1991). The results of tests indicated that factors associated with the research itself, (e.g. relevance and access), were significant barriers to research use for principals from both countries (compared with factors associated with: the setting; the presentation of research; and the individual). The paper concludes that multiple strategies would be required to address a number of issues related to the dissemination of research and ways of addressing the gap between the aims of researchers, and the needs and expectations of practitioners.

The objective of this study of student-consumers in highereducation is to investigate the direct influence of studentchoice factors on student expectations. The mediating role ofperceptions of employability in the relationship between costs ofstudy (fees) and student satisfaction, and the outcome variable ofstudents’ recommendations, is examined in the study based onrespondents’ chosen U.K. higher education institution (HEI). Thetheoretical framework draws on cost-expectation-satisfactionassessment and expectation of employability after graduation.A survey sample of 11,822 respondents and 140 higher educationinstitutions suggest university reputation, course design, servicequality and campus social life directly influence studentexpectations. Student expectations of choice factors mediate therelationship between the cost of study and satisfaction, andstudents’ perceptions of employability after graduation mediatethe relationship between the cost of study and the likelihood ofmaking a recommendation to peers. The course design was themost influential factor impacting student expectations

In a keynote address to the Teacher Training Agency Annual Conference, Professor David Hargreaves suggested that teaching could become an evidence-based profession if educational researchers were made more accountable to teachers. This systematic literature review set out to explore: how teachers use research; which features of research encourage teachers to use research findings in their own practice; whether medical practitioners make greater use of research findings than teachers; and approaches to dissemination. Two key ideas emerge from this review. First, there appear to be common barriers to research use in both medicine and in education. Findings suggest that there is a need to create a culture in the public sector which supports and values research. There are, however, a number of factors, which appear to be more specific to the education field. Key differences in the way that research knowledge is constructed in the social sciences has led to researchers being challenged about their findings, particularly in relation to the context, generalisability and validity of the research. For these reasons the development of communication networks, links between researchers and practitioners, and greater involvement of practitioners in the research process, have emerged as strategies for improving research impact.

University branding has increased substantially, due to demands on universities to enroll greater numbers of students, rising tuition fees, the proliferation of courses, the growing "internationalization" of universities, financial pressures and reliance on income from foreign students. As higher education continues to grow, increased competition places more pressure on institutions to market their programs. Technological, social, and economic changes have necessitated a customer-oriented marketing system, and a focus on developing the university brand. This book is unique in providing a composite overview of strategy, planning and measurement informed by ground-breaking research and the experiences of academics. It combines theoretical and methodological aspects of branding with the views of leading exponents of branding in different contexts and across a range of higher education institutions. Expert contributors from research and practice provide relevant and varying perspectives allowing readers to access information on international trends, theory and practices about branding in higher education. Readers are exposed to the critical elements of strategic brand management, gain insights into the planning process of higher education branding and gain a solid understanding of the emerging research area of branding concepts in higher education. Advanced students, and researchers will find this book a unique resource, and it will also be of interest to brand practitioners in both education and public sector markets.