Date of Award
2025
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
Specialization
Marketing
Department
General Business
First Advisor
Christy Ashley
Abstract
Education-related (or educational) events, programs, and activities outside undergraduate college class meetings exist to assist students in making connections, learn about future occupations, and increase their knowledge. From the perspective of many college administrators and faculty members, active engagement in these co-curricular experiences is vital to student success. However, faculty often motivate students to attend using extra credit or require attendance, and attendance is low. There appears to be a disconnect between the value universities aim to offer and the value perceived by students.
Typically, the development and promotion of these education-related events reflect the educator's perspective, where the value of educational events is assumed to be well-understood. Perhaps as a result, persuasive efforts often take a one-size-fits-all approach that is often aimed at awareness. Extant literature on using market segmentation in an academic environment has been applied to enrollment management and engagement in the classroom. If we acknowledge undergraduate college students possess different motivations for educational event attendance, market segmentation and target marketing can also be leveraged to develop and communicate about, and increase engagement in, educational events. Therefore, an understanding of market segments can be used to improve the relevance of programs and highlight the associated benefits of attendance in ways that meet different student segments where they are and match what the students want to accomplish.
As a first step toward strengthening the value proposition at educational events, this dissertation utilizes the Theory of Planned Behavior as a conceptual framework and segments undergraduate college students based on their behavioral beliefs about educational events, as captured by their attitudes toward events and the significance the attitude holds for the individual (attitude importance). It uses a mixed-methods sequential analysis (focus groups followed by a national survey of 467 undergraduates) to identify and describe five distinct segments: Socially Driven Event Attendees, Event Disengaged, Engaged Event Participants, Socially Driven Event Attendees, and Indifferent Event Participants. It then demonstrates how the survey could be used to identify the presence and absence of the identified segments at one college. In doing so, it offers a replicable model for identifying the presence of the identified segments on different campuses. Finally, it provides personas that can be used to make the personas actionable and useful to support meaningful engagement in education-related events.
Recommended Citation
Dunlevy, Francesca Alexa, "MARKET SEGMENTATION TO IMPROVE ACADEMIC EVENT ATTENDANCE INTENTIONS AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS: A THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR APPROACH" (2025). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 4484.
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/4484