Title: The virtual classroom from a business customer retention viewpoint: an empirical-based study

Authors: Alan D. Smith

Addresses: Department of Management and Marketing, Robert Morris University, Pittsburgh, PA 15219–3099, USA

Abstract: The basic concept of the virtual classroom has evolved significantly as hectic lifestyles, the price of fuel and other scarce resources and the quality of electronic delivery systems have greatly improved. Virtual classrooms are increasing a common option that many institutions of learning, both traditional and corporate, are strategically leveraging in order to cope with increasing global competition and with continuing technological advances, it is necessary to keep up with the direction that higher education is taking, lest a university falls by the wayside. A detailed study of business professionals through hypothesis testing and exploratory multivariate analysis have pointed to the need for such service providers to address the issues of quality assurance and the perceptual issues of academic integrity and associated reputation were found to be supportive of business professionals| decision to take online courses and other training options in order to update their degrees. Finally, there will be recommendations offered to middle and lower-level managers based upon the results.

Keywords: customer behaviour; customer relationship management; CRM; electronic learning; e-learning; empirical; technology; virtual classroom; business customers; customer retention; higher education; universities; quality assurance; academic integrity; academic reputation; business professionals; online courses; training; degree updating.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIE.2008.021995

International Journal of Management in Education, 2008 Vol.2 No.4, pp.372 - 400

Published online: 16 Dec 2008 *

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