Stakeholder orientation in public universities: A conceptual discussion and a scale development

What is it about?

This study, based on stakeholder theory, extends current research on the use of the market orientation construct in non-profit organisations, seeking to develop a new multidimensional scale that better fits the higher education context. More specifically, the main purpose of this research is to develop a stakeholder orientation (SO) scale for public universities. A mail survey was sent to all Spanish public university managers, which resulted in 1420 usable questionnaires. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling to develop the multidimensional construct. The findings confirm the applicability to higher education of this SO scale for focusing public universities towards their stakeholders. This SO scale is a multidimensional construct with five components, namely beneficiary orientation, resource acquisition orientation, peer orientation, environment orientation, and inter-functional coordination. This scale has more meaning for assessing the implementation of the marketing concept in public universities than the traditional market orientation construct.

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