A Qualitative Examination of Challenges Influencing Doctoral Students in an Online Doctoral Program

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to investigate the challenges faced by students in completion of an online doctoral program at the University of Liverpool, Online Doctoral Business Administration program. We analyse the responses of 91 doctoral students in an online DBA program. Based on the exploratory qualitative study themes were developed based on student perceptions. Various themes identified were course structure and workload, resources, absence of human interaction, technological challenges, support systems, and satisfaction with instructor and quality of instruction. Discussion, Implications and avenues for future research are presented.

Customer Experience Monitoring: A Study of Zambian Banks

“…This management is also important because it seeks to develop and empirically test customer experience monitory and evaluation and also to study the influences of service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in the Zambian banking industry. This study seems to be one of the few studies, in the context of a developing economy and Zambia in particular (Deshpande, 2016). This is on the premise that the ever increasing level of competitiveness and fundamental amendments in the world of business especially in the banking sector nowadays are pushing firms and for that matter banks to implement a customer-based strategy (Deshpande, 2016;Hay, 2004).…”

“…This study seems to be one of the few studies, in the context of a developing economy and Zambia in particular (Deshpande, 2016). This is on the premise that the ever increasing level of competitiveness and fundamental amendments in the world of business especially in the banking sector nowadays are pushing firms and for that matter banks to implement a customer-based strategy (Deshpande, 2016;Hay, 2004). These strategies are expected to prove the importance of customer experience monitoring constructs such as customer experience and satisfaction, quality of service, and customer loyalty in explaining a bank's performance.…”

“…This study will be developed and to test empirically the influence of customer experience on quality of service and customer loyalty in banking sector in Zambia and to evaluate their interrelationships in the service industry, thus a number of Zambian Banks were used as a case study by carrying out a questionnaire amongst the Banks' customers so as to provide a general significance to the study. Although this research is centered on the banking sector, however, the findings of this research may be used by other service industry players for the improvement and development of new services for profit (Deshpande, 2016;Hay, 2004).…”

“…Consequently, this study mainly focuses on such processes and improvements in customer experience monitoring through the quality of service rendered consumers and also to examines the extent by which customers experience affect customer loyalty; as well as, the relationship between customer experience and quality of service provided. This study was therefore conducted in a service industry (bank) by gathering practical data and information from customers in order to make an informed conclusion on how to monitor and improve customer experience (Deshpande, 2016;Hay, 2004). To give credence to the purpose of the study, leading local banks in Zambia were studied.…”

“…The bank also have assets worth over $20bn, UBA is known to be a partner for banking services for Africans and African related businesses globally. In particular, owing to the intangible nature of service provided and the difference in wants of customers, customer experience is very essential in the competitive service industry (Deshpande, 2016;Oliver, 2009). Thus, such decisions affect the customer base either by attracting or dropping customers.…”