Gratitude and its drivers within HE.

Conference: Academy of Marketing: Special interest group. Marketing in HE.

Dates: 27 April 2016

Abstract:

Gratitude is the missing piece of the relational jigsaw (Palmatier et al. 2009) and is of increasing focus within relationship marketing scholarship (e.g. Dewani and Sinha 2012; Huang 2015; Palmatier et al. 2009; Pelser et al. 2015; Raggio et al. 2014; Wetzel et al. 2014). This paper argues that gratitude may be an important mediator between relational inputs and engagement within HE. Scholarship, largely drawn from the psychology domain, has long established that gratitude is an affective emotion. Dewani and Sinha (2012) emphasise the importance of a desire to reciprocate as a critical defining characteristic of gratitude. This study adopts this conceptualization, proposing a gratitude construct ‘gratitude-based desire to reciprocate’ imbued with intentions to respond to feelings of gratitude. Such intentions may result in a range of behavioural actions including articulating expressions of gratitude and engagement.

This paper draws from an exploratory qualitative study examining students’ experiences of gratitude and drivers of gratitude within HE. Participants include postgraduate and undergraduate, female and male, UK and overseas students.

The research finds evidence that students report gratitude within their learning experience and seem to buy into gratitude as an appropriate lens for analyzing their student experience. Students’ gratitude is directed largely towards academics, but also to student mentors and student peers, particularly those students within groups which operate functionally and productively.

The paper proposes a conceptual framework comprising ‘gratitude-based desire to reciprocate’ as an outcome of five drivers: helping behaviours; perceived effort; environment; appreciation; and benefits. It proposes that gratitude acts as a mediator between these drivers and two important outcomes, engagement and expressions of gratitude. This conceptual framework is intended to underpin a future quantitative study within HE which will seek to determine whether the relationships hypothesized exist and the strength of those relationships.

Source: Manual