Research Projects

Periodically we will upload research projects concerning personal and corporate stewardship and lifestyle management matters.

Are Students their Universities or Colleges’ Customers

Academic research on this subject tends to view it as a movement. That approach hikes revenues, lowers quality, and coddles students. It violates the college’s mission, vision, and values, and enables entitlement-minded students. I disagree with it. Instead, I refer to a unique partnership between a college and students.

Research Findings

Sixty-four people of 100 replied to my ten-question survey titled: A Customer Buys Goods and Services from an Organization.:Are College Students Customers of Their Colleges? Ninety-one percent said colleges should serve students as customers. But the most surprising finding was 44 percent of those who attended public colleges said their colleges treated them as customers. This compares with 33 percent who attended private colleges. I expected the reverse. Here are some other facts from the survey:

1. 61% attended private colleges
2. 63% (56% public, 67% private) said colleges did not treat them as customers
3. 63% said college students are customers because they paid fees
4. 17% said we should not treat college students as customers because academia differs from business
5. 84% of those treated like customers believed this created a better study environment for them
6. 84% said professors should be sensitive and responsive to specific student needs (most stressed that professors must not succumb to college students’ unreasonable demands, but should respond with empathy)
7. 66% were male

Many folks said colleges should treat students as customers, but the student and professor relation is distinct from the administration and student role. Read more...

Can Stakeholder Capitalism fix Capitalism’s Main Flaws

Stakeholder capitalism is today’s fad to replace shareholder capitalism. But is it the correct cure? In the survey we designed and commissioned in August 2020, 65% of 145 responses showed that the central issue with capitalism isn’t the system, per se. It is flawed people driving it—more on the survey later.

To millennials and other youths, capitalism evokes exploitation, greed, oppression, privilege, and many negatives, which taint every firm. Several business leaders’ behaviors affirm those notions. But more notable is the youths’ awareness of the origin of capitalism, which rose out of feudalism. Landed gentry, knowing more profits existed in manufacturing and commerce, shifted resources from the land. But workers remained tools for owners’ gain.

Key Research Findings

1. 32% - Capitalism is a system that allows the economy to perform optimally
2. 28% - Capitalism is a system designed to exploit workers
3. 22% - Capiralism is system that enables the rich to rule over the poor 
4. 53% - Capitalism practiced in North America today causes income equality
5. 49% - Capitalism creates jobs
6. 41% - Capitalism expands the economy
7. 23% - Reform capitalism by requiring businesses to provide living wages instead of minimum wages to employees
8. 18% - Change the emphasis from businesses maximizing profit to creating equal opportunities for all
9. 11% - Prevent politicians and former government officials from getting government contracts after leaving office
10. 10% - Prevent governments from giving (corporate welfare) money ("incentives") to individual businesses
 
11. 60% - Don't require workers to join unions where one exists in a company for that worker's group

Read more...