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Subject:

AEJ 95 TaylorE ADV Multidimensional scaling to advertising schools

From:

Elliott Parker <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

AEJMC Conference Papers <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Sun, 4 Feb 1996 15:12:29 EST

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The Application of Multidimensional Scaling to an Analysis of
 
           Schools of Advertising
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
by
Elizabeth Gigi Taylor
Jef I. Richards
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
April 1, 1995
 
 
 
 
 
The University of Texas
Department of Advertising
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Submit all comments to Elizabeth Gigi Taylor, Advertising
 
        Department, CMA 7.142, The University of Texas at Austin. Ph:
 512-471-1101. Fax: 512-471-7018. E-Mail:
           [log in to unmask]
 
 
        The Application of Multidimensional Scaling to an Analysis of Schools of
 
     Advertising
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ABSTRACT
        This paper presents a perceptual map of 15 advertising schools as
 
    perceived by academics in order to understand the dynamics of the
 
   advertising education market beyond simple ranking reports. The map shows
 
          the perceived similarity between the schools and their relative
evaluation
 
          of quality. The interpretation of the map reveals that schools are
grouped
 into six clusters which are ordered by perception of prestige and
 
    educational philosophy. Applications and implications for advertising
 
        education are provided.
 
                                          The Application of Multidimensional
Scaling to
 
            an Analysis of Schools of Advertising
INTRODUCTION
        The trend toward more integrated communication strategies on the part of
 
          agencies and clients has influenced both professional practice and
 
    advertising education. Today's marketing strategies are an integration of
 
          advertising, public relations, direct marketing and promotion. These
 
       changes are affecting the way advertising schools are preparing
advertising
 majors. Within the last three years, many advertising programs at major
 
          universities around the country, with commitments to both the business
 
        community and the academic establishment, have reevaluated their course
 
         curricula to accommodate the current integrated marketing communication
 
         milieu (Medill 1993, University of Colorado 1993).
        Given these changes in advertising education, there is a need for a clear
 
          understanding of the structure of the advertising education market.
Little
 reform can be made, if the current nature of the advertising education
 
         market is unclear. It is within this changing face of advertising
 
    education that the purpose of this paper was conceived.
 
LITERATURE REVIEW
        Any credible review of advertising education literature must begin with
 
          the prolific work of Billy Ross who has conducted extensive research
on the
 objective dimensions of advertising education. Dr. Ross has used this
 
         data to rank schools by number of students, number of graduates,
quantity
 
          of published research, and faculty/student ratios (Ross 1965, 1991,
 
     1964-1994). Where Shall I Go to College to Study Advertising and other
 
         related publications by Dr. Ross offer clear summaries of objective
data
 
          but lack an evaluation of the subjective dimensions of the schools.
In
 
         fact, very little research has been conducted on advertising school
 
     rankings based on subjective attributes.
        Only three studies (Keenan 1991, Stout and Richards 1993, Watson 1989)
 
          have ranked schools based on the perceptions or the subjective
evaluations
 
          of survey respondents. In 1989, two ranking studies of the top-rated
 
       advertising doctoral programs were published by Kittie Watson in the
 
      Association for Communication Administration Bulletin. One survey
reported
 the results of a survey administered to 300 members of the Association for
 Communication Administration. The other study reported the results of a
 
          survey administered to 297 member of the Broadcast Education
Association
 
          (Watson 1989).
        In 1991, Kevin Keenan of the University of Maryland, College of Journalism
 surveyed academics regarding their school perceptions. He asked "Which
 
          three schools other than your own do you consider the very best
 
 undergraduate program in advertising?" Most recently in 1993, Patricia
 
         Stout and Jef Richards, both of the University of Texas, asked
advertising
 
          practitioners to rank the top advertising graduate programs.
        Taylor and Morrison (1994) proposed a visual model of advertising
 
    education that analyzed schools of advertising beyond ranking reports. A
 
          theory versus practice continuum formed the horizontal line and a
 
   journalism versus business continuum formed the vertical line. The two
 
         scales together make a four quadrant grid representing an advertising
 
       framework called the Advertising Education Model. Although illuminating,
 
          their research was a theoretical piece without research data.
 
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
        Advertising education ranking reports as summarized above, provide a list
 
          of the "top of mind" schools in advertising education and a general
idea
 
          how they compare to each other. While this simple ranking method may
be
 
          the easiest way to collect and report a school's relative position in
the
 
          market, two questions remain unanswered:
 
1. Beyond numerical rankings, how are schools of education positioned
 relative to each other in the advertising education market?
 
2. Why are the schools positioned they way they are? That is, what
 
               are the dimensions or attributes that are used to make these
 
        evaluations?
 
        The goal of this paper is to answer these two questions by placing the
 
         schools on a perceptual map and analyzing the location of each school.
 
         Like traditional school rankings, the evaluation of the schools in a
 
      perceptual map are based on the perceptions of the survey respondents.
 
         Unlike the ranking reports, the perceptual map offers a rich visual
 
     representation of the nature of the overall education market.
        Perceptual maps are a borrowed concept from the product positioning
 
      literature within the marketing discipline. Perceptual maps show how a
 
         product's image is positioned in the market relative to the
competition.
 
          These visual diagrams are generated via multidimensional scaling
(MDS).
 
          The idea of perceptual mapping is not new, but the application of this
 
        concept to advertising education is original.
 
METHOD
        A questionnaire was used to collect input data for the perceptual map
 
        developed in this study. Survey data collected for multidimensional
 
      scaling can be collected using several different formats. These
approaches
 differ in the assumptions they employ, the perspectives taken, and input
 
          data used. The following discussion traces the data collection
decisions
 
          made in this paper.
        Nonattribute data versus attribute data. One of the first decisions in
 
          MDS is whether to collect attribute or nonattribute data. Attribute
data
 
          are the specific dimensions used to evaluate schools. Nonattribute
data
 
          was collected because school attributes used to evaluate schools are
not
 
          known. In fact, one of the goals of this research is to identify the
 
       attributes that define an advertising program.
        Preference data versus similarity data. The second decision is whether to
 ask respondents to evaluate schools in terms of similarity or preference.
 Preference measures are gathered by asking respondents to rank schools by
 
          personal preference. Similarity measures (proximity data) are
gathered by
 
          asking respondents to rate perceived degree of similarity between
schools.
 
        Similarity data was collected, rather than preference data, for two
 
      reasons:
 (1) Preference data would simply recreate a rank ordering of school which
 has already been conducted in previous research (Keenan 1991, Stout and
 
          Richards 1993). By contrast, no research has been done on the degree
of
 
          similarity between schools. (2) Preference data increases the
possibility
 of a response bias. A survey respondent might be partial to their school
 
          and rank it higher on the preference list.
        Evaluation Set. Ideally, all schools offering degrees in advertising
 
        would be plotted on the map for a perfect representation of the
advertising
 education market. Given the limitation of this approach, the goal was to
 
          select the maximum number of schools that could be reasonably
evaluated in
 
          a questionnaire. Fifteen schools, which translates into 105
individual
 
         pairwise comparisons (15 (15-1) / 2) seemed to be the maximum number
of
 
          combinations a respondent could reasonably evaluate.
        The 15 schools used in the stimulus set were selected based on a composite
 analysis of 9 different ranking reports published over the last ten years.
  The goal of the selection process was to use a variety of ranking reports
 to identify the 15 schools that accurately represented the advertising
 
         education market. Seven of the rankings listed the schools by
objective
 
          attributes such as undergraduate enrollment, graduate enrollment,
number of
 faculty, and publishing records (Barry 1990, Soley 1988, Ross 1991,
 
      Rotzoll 1984). The remaining two rankings were subjective opinion polls
 
          listing the "best" advertising programs as perceived by academicians
and
 
          practitioners (Keenan 1991, Stout and Richards 1993). The schools
used as
 
          the stimulus set were the 15 schools with the most appearances on
these
 
         rankings.
        Sampled Set. The questionnaire was sent to the chair of the advertising
 
          department, program, area, etc. from the same 15 advertising schools
 
      included in the evaluation set. It was assumed that this person would be
 
          the most knowledgeable about their own school relative to other
competing
 
          schools. In addition, chairs generally have been in academia for
several
 
          years and have acquired knowledge about other programs. Finally,
because
 
          the respondent would have a vested interest in the results of the
survey,
 
          they would be more likely to respond to the survey.
        Questionnaire. The 105 pairwise comparisons were the first items on the
 
          questionnaire. The respondent was not told what criteria to determine
 
        similarity. The final section of the questionnaire asked respondents
about
 their education, teaching and research backgrounds.
        Procedure. The questionnaire was pretested with advertising faculty at the
 researchers' university. Layout and presentation changes were made based
 
          on the pretest evaluation. The 2-page self-administered
questionnaire,
 
         cover letter and stamped, pre-addressed envelope were sent via US mail
on
 
          March 15, 1994. A second mailing was sent on April 21. At the end of
the
 
          data collection process, 13 out of the total 15 questionnaires were
 
     returned. Out of the returned 13 questionnaires, only 11 contained usable
 
          data. The final response rate was 73% or 11 surveys. The MDS
analysis
 
          was conducted using the ALSCAL (Alternating Least-Squares Scaling)
 
    multidimensional procedure within SPSS for Windows (Release 6.0).
 
    Frequency counts and means were run on questions from the respondent
 
      information section.
        Choosing the Number of Map Dimensions. Table 1 indicates the overall
 
        goodness-of-fit measures for both the 2 and 3 dimensional configurations
 
          generated by the MDS program.
 
Table 1
Goodness-of-Fit Comparisons
 
Number of
Dimensions
Stress
R-square
2
.24955
.62233
3
.18882
.61750
 
        The stress level with three dimensions (.18882) is lower than the stress
 
          with two dimension (.24955). Since the lower the stress the better,
the
 
          three dimension stress level is slightly better by .06. The R-square
level
 with three dimensions (.62233) is higher than the R-square level with two
 
          dimensions (.61750). Since the higher the R-square value the better,
the
 
          three dimensional stress level is slightly better by .0048.
        Considering both measures of fit, the three dimensional configuration is
 
          slightly more accurate than the two dimensional figure. This slight
 
      improvement in the goodness-of-fit measures is contrasted with the
 
    considerable increased difficulty in interpreting the three dimensional
 
         figure. In summary, the ease of interpreting the two dimensional model
 
         outweighs the improved stress and R-squared values of the three
dimensional
 model. Because the goal is to obtain an acceptable level of fit with the
 
          smallest number of dimensions, the two dimensional figure is the
 
  configuration presented in this paper.
 
RESEARCH FINDINGS
        Table 2 lists the coordinates for each of the 15 schools in the evaluation
 set. These coordinates were used to produce the spatial map in Figure 1.
 
TABLE 2
Evaluation Set Coordinates
 
School
School Codes
Dimension 1
Horizontal Axis
Dimension 2
Vertical Axis
Alabama
al
  -.6433
1.0894
Baruch
ba
  -.9409
-2.1524
Florida
fl
   .7103
.9374
Georgia
ga
 1.0990
.5340
Illinois
il
 1.5664
.1882
Louisiana
la
-1.1529
1.2071
Michigan
mi
  1.3344
-.2415
Missouri
mo
  -.5558
-.8690
Nebraska
nb
-1.3137
.2695
Northwestern
nw
   .7609
-1.4004
San Jose State
sj
-1.3160
-.5870
South Carolina
sc
  -.9152
.8506
Syracuse
sy
  -.0937
-1.1140
Tennessee
tn
    .2475
.9912
Texas
tx
   1.2146
.2971
 
 
 
 
 FIGURE 1
Derived Configuration
 
 
 
 
 
        Goodness-of-fit Measures. Table 3 shows the goodness-of-fit measures for
 
          all 11 matrices and the overall, aggregate matrix. A review of the
fit
 
         levels for each matrix shows only slight variations in levels between
 
       observations. Overall, the stress and R-squared values for the aggregate
 
          matrix is .24955 and .62233, respectfully. This means that
approximately
 
          25% of the variance in the matrix can not be accounted for by the MDS
 
       procedure or that approximately 62% of the variance in the overall matrix
 
          can be accounted for by the MDS procedure. Although there is very
little
 
          consistency in the research literature, Guilford suggests that an
R-squared
 correlation of .60 or higher is acceptable (Guilford 1956). Using this
 
          benchmark, the overall configuration of this research project has an
 
      acceptable goodness-of-fit measure.
 
 TABLE 3
Goodness-of-Fit Measures
 
School Matrix
Stress
R-Square
Alabama
.272
.546
Florida
.231
.670
Georgia
.231
.671
Illinois
.298
.476
Michigan
.200
.753
Nebraska
.292
.490
Northwestern
.213
.723
San Jose State
.267
.567
South Carolina
.195
.765
Tennessee
.316 *
 .398
Texas
.186**
 .786
 
Aggregate Matrix
 
.24955
 
.62233
 
 
        Profile of Respondents. As expected, department chairs have extensive
 
         teaching and research experience at a wide variety of schools. Many of
the
 respondents have taught at two or more universities prior to their current
 appointment. More than 90% of the sample have Ph.D.'s with degrees from 9
 different schools. The majority of the doctorate degrees were in
 
    Communication or Mass Communication. All respondents reported over 11
 
        years experience in education. Given this extensive educational
 
  background, the sample appears to be well versed and knowledgeable about
 
          the advertising education market.
 
INTERPRETATION
        Multidimensional scaling created the map, but the MDS process does not
 
         directly identify the two dimensions of the space. The actual
          interpretation of the configuration map must be done outside the MDS
 
      procedure. As recommend by Doyle (1973), the interpretation offered in
 
         this paper uses a certain degree of intuition and visual analysis.
         Figure 2 is a visual interpretation of the same configuration presented
 
          in Figure 1 with the following formatting exceptions: In the Figure
2, the
 Interpretation Map, the original X and Y axes have been removed. In
 
       addition, the orientation of the original configuration has been switched
 
          for a clearer representation. The left side of the original
configuration
 
          is now the top of the interpretation configuration.
        Also, the standard MDS dimension labels (Dimension 1 and Dimension 2),
 
         have been renamed to reflect the researchers' interpretation of the
map.
 
          The vertical dimension is now called "Low-High Prestige" and the
horizontal
 dimension is labeled "Academic-Professional." Finally, the schools which
 
          are grouped together are circled to form clusters. FIGURE 2
 
 Vertical Axis Interpretation (Top to Bottom)
        After careful review of the configuration, the most apparent pattern is
 
          the ordering of schools from top to bottom. Schools appear to be
 
   positioned down the configuration in a general descending order of
 
    prestige. The subjective "prestige" dimension was composed of these three
 
          factors:
                1) Academic publishing record
                2) School ranking reports
                3) Availability of graduate education
 
1) Academic publishing record.
         Because the quantity of publications is such an accepted measure of
 
       academic quality (Hexter 1969), a school's publishing record (Barry 1990,
 
          Soley 1988) is the first measure to support the "prestige" dimension.
 
        Intuition was supported by quantitative data with the discovery of the
 
        following satisfying relationship between the relative location schools
and
 their publishing records.
          All of the top four schools in the configuration -- Illinois, Michigan,
 
          Texas and Georgia -- are also the schools with the highest
productivity
 
         record. Schools at the bottom of the perceptual map - Alabama, South
 
       Carolina, Louisiana State and San Jose State - are not listed on
 
  publication productivity summaries. Table 4, Publication Productivity
 
        Summary, lists schools by amount of publication activity as reported by
 
         Barry (1990) and Soley (1988). Clearly, there is a direct relationship
 
         between publication record and the vertical position of each school on
the
 
          map.
 
TABLE 4
Publication Productivity Summary
 
Barry (1990)
Soley (1988)
1. University of Georgia
1. University of Texas
2. University of Illinois
2. University of Georgia
3. University of Texas
3. Michigan State University
      Michigan State University
4. Arizona State University
5. New York University
5. New York University
6. University of South Carolina
6. Baruch College
7. Arizona State University
7. University of Illinois
8. Baruch College, CUNY
8. Northwestern University
9. Southern Methodist University
9. University of Wisconsin
10. Columbia
10. University of Houston
      Wharton
 
 
2) Subjective rankings.
        Additional intuitively reasonable conclusions were confirmed by comparing
 
          the positions of schools on advertising education ranking surveys
(Watson
 
          1989, Keenan 1991, Stout and Richards 1993) and the position of
schools on
 
          the perceptual map. All of the ranking surveys report the same
general
 
         school clusterings found on the configuration map. Specifically,
Illinois,
 Georgia, Texas, Michigan, and Florida are all ranked on previous surveys
 
          in the top quarter of the lists and positioned in this MDS map in the
top
 
          quarter of the perceptual space. See Table 5 - Opinion Survey
Summary.
TABLE 5
Opinion Survey Summary
 
Keenan (1991)
Stout and Richards (1993)
Watson (1989)
1. Illinois
1. Northwestern
1. Illinois
2. Texas
2. Texas
2. Georgia
3. Florida
3. Michigan State
3. Texas
4. Michigan State
4. Syracuse University
4. Missouri
5. Northwestern
     Missouri
 
6. Georgia
6. Wisconsin
 
7. North Carolina
7. Harvard
 
8. South Carolina
     Pennsylvania
 
9. Missouri
     Thunderbird
 
      Tennessee
 
 
 
3) Availability of graduate study.
        Finally, the availability of graduate education (MA, MS, and Ph.D.) is
 
         considered a function of prestige because the authors assume that
schools
 
          offering graduate education will have a more diverse and better
qualified
 
          faculty. In addition, the availability of graduate education is a
 
    straightforward way to classify schools into groups. As Figure 2, the Map
 
          Interpretation figure indicates, all of the schools in the evaluation
set
 
          offer undergraduate advertising education. Some of the schools in the
set
 
          offer graduate degrees, but even fewer schools have doctoral programs.
        Northwestern University, the exception to typical advertising education in
 many ways, is the only school which offers only a MS degree (Ross 1993).
 
          Perhaps the fact that Northwestern only offers graduate advertising
 
     education explains why the school is located higher on the prestige scale
 
          than other schools that offer all three levels of academic degrees.
        The conclusion drawn from these observations is that a school's "prestige"
 image will increase if the program offers graduate education, that is,
 
         both a Master's degree and a Doctorate degree. A review of Table 6
below
 
          confirms that school offering all three levels of education are at the
top
 
          of the map while schools only offering MA's or only BA's are located
 
      towards the bottom of the map. The one exception to this observation is
 
          Northwestern which is located in the top half of the map with only a
MA ad
 
          vertising degree program.
 
TABLE 6
Advertising Schools by Degree Offerings
BA, MA, Ph.D.
BA and MA
MA only
 BA only
Illinois
South Carolina
Northwestern
San Jose State
Michigan
Louisiana State
 
 
Texas
Nebraska
 
 
Georgia
 
 
 
Florida
 
 
 
Tennessee
 
 
 
Syracuse
 
 
 
Missouri
 
 
 
Alabama
 
 
 
Baruch
 
 
 
 
 
Horizontal Axis Interpretation (Left to Right)
        The second apparent pattern in the configuration is the positioning of
 
         schools from left to right on the horizontal axis. In general, the
schools
 on the left side of the configuration appear to be schools with academic
 
          and scholarly objectives. Schools on the right side of the map appear
to
 
          be schools which emphasize professional preparation. In this
          interpretation, the division between a scholarly research and
professional
 
          preparation is based on the following three factors:
                1) Academic publishing record
                2) Academic or professional Master's program
                3) Communication or business Master's program
 
1) Academic publishing record.
        Again, the schools fall in a generally predictable pattern from left to
 
          right based on their academic publication record. The schools with
the
 
         highest scholarly publication record are located on the academic or
left
 
          side of the configuration (Soley 1988, Barry 1990). It makes
intuitive
 
          sense that schools which emphasize scholarly research have the
greatest
 
         number of publications in academic journals. It also makes intuitive
sense
 that the schools which emphasize professional preparation would have more
 
          publications in trade or consumer publications. Because this study
focuses
 on academic literature, no data was collected regarding publishing outside
 the academic arena. The authors acknowledge that schools such as
 
    Northwestern on the right or professional side of the configuration
 
     undoubtedly have impressive publication records in trade and consumer
 
       press.
 
2) Academic or professional Master's program.
        In general, undergraduate advertising degree programs have a professional
 
          orientation while Doctoral programs have a research emphasis. Some
 
     Master's degrees are research based and require a thesis. Other Master's
 
          degree programs are professionally oriented and require a professional
 
        report. A few schools offer the option of a Master's degree in either
 
        track (Ross 1991). Applying these observations to the perceptual map,
it
 
          appears that the schools on the right side of the configuration
emphasize
 
          professional education and schools on the left offer more scholarly or
 
        academic graduate advertising education.
 
3) Communication or business Master's program.
        All of the schools in the stimulus set except for Baruch College are
 
       located in schools or colleges of journalism or communication.
 
 Northwestern emphasizes business applications, although it is located in a
 
          School of Journalism (Medill 1993). Baruch and Northwestern, the two
 
       schools offering a business orientation, are located on the right,
 
    professional side of the configuration along with Syracuse, Missouri, and
 
          San Jose State. For this reason, advertising schools with a business
or
 
          professional orientation are located on the right side of the
          configuration, while advertising programs in schools of communication
 
       offering more academic degrees are located on the left side of the map.
 
Clusters
        Beyond horizontal and vertical positioning of schools, several distinct
 
          clusters of stimuli are apparent. Below is a discussion of each of
the six
 clusters.
        Cluster 1: Top Tier Advertising Schools. University of Illinois,
 
     Michigan State University, University of Texas, and University of Georgia
 
          are clustered together at the top of the figure on the left side of
the
 
         configuration. Given their relative position, these schools appear to
be
 
          the most prestigious academic research schools in the evaluation set.
All
 
          of these schools offer three levels of advertising education and have
 
       impressive publishing records (Ross 1993; Soley 1988, Barry 1990).
        Cluster 2: Second Tier Advertising Schools. University of Florida and
 
          University of Tennessee are both located in the top half of the
 
 configuration but below the first cluster of schools. Both schools offer
 
          three levels of advertising education, but do not enjoy the publishing
 
        records of the first tier schools (Ross 1993; Soley 1988, Barry 1990).
        Cluster 3: Third Tier Advertising Schools. University of Alabama,
 
       University of South Carolina, Louisiana State University, University of
 
          Nebraska, and San Jose State University are all loosely grouped into
this
 
          third tier of advertising schools. Out of this cluster, only
University of
 Alabama offers a doctoral degree. All of the schools except San Jose
 
        State University offers Master's level education (Ross 1993). San Jose
 
         State is the only university on the west coast offering a Bachelor of
 
       Science degree in Advertising (San Jose State University 1994). None of
 
          the schools are ranked in publication productivity studies (Soley
1988,
 
          Barry 1990).
        Cluster 4: Integrated Marketing Communication Education. Northwestern
 
          University is the only school located in the IMC (Integrated Marketing
 
        Communication) cluster. Medill is different than the other programs
 
      because it offers an integrated approach to advertising. The curriculum
is
 grounded in business and marketing practice (Medill 1993). In the
 
     perceptual map, Northwestern is in the upper half of the vertical prestige
 
          scale and located on the right professional education side of the
 
   configuration.
        Cluster 5: Advertising within Professional Schools of Journalism.
 
        University of Missouri and Syracuse University are appropriately
clustered
 
          together. Both schools have a strong print and electronic
professional
 
         journalism emphasis (University of Missouri 1993, Syracuse University
 
       1994). This cluster is located on the right, professional side and in
the
 
          lower half of the perceptual configuration. Perhaps the reason for
the
 
         relatively low prestige rating of the two schools is that the
evaluation of
 the schools was done by advertising faculty, not journalism faculty. In
 
          addition, opinions from Missouri and Syracuse were not included in the
 
        survey because the two schools did not return surveys.
        Cluster 6: Business Advertising Education. Baruch College, CUNY was the
 only business school in the sample. It is the only school accredited by
 
          AACSB rather than ACEJMC. In addition, Baruch is the only program to
offer
 an MBA, rather than a Master of Science, Master of Arts or a Master of Mas
 
          s Communication (Ross 1991). Appropriately, Baruch is isolated in the
far
 
          lower right hand corner of the configuration.
        In summary, this spatial map suggests that the perception of advertising
 
          programs is more complex than the simple ordinal format suggested by
 
      ranking reports. The configuration in this thesis reveals that the
 
     underlying structure of the advertising education market has several
 
      schools groupings. Schools are clustered together according to their
 
       perceived prestige. The top schools have a more research emphasis and
 
        offer Doctorate education. Lower tier schools do not have prolific
 
     publishing records and only offer Master's level education. Schools are
 
          also clustered together based on their philosophical approach to
 
  advertising education. Schools with an academic and communication emphasis
 are group separately from schools with a business or professional
 
    orientation.
 
APPLICATIONS
        There are several practical ways in which the perceptual map can be
 
      applied to advertising education. First, the perceptual map can be used
as
 guide for prospective students and guidance counselors during the school
 
          selection process. The map can help students, with specific
advertising
 
          education goals, make school application decisions.
        Similarly, the map can also be used by professors applying for positions
 
          at advertising schools. A professor can use the map to anticipate
which
 
          schools offer the best philosophy of education match and the desired
level
 
          of research rigor. In addition, schools that feel favorably
represented in
 the map, can use the configuration in promotional brochures to show where
 
          their school is positioned relative to the rest of the advertising
market.
 Further, healthy competition between advertising schools is generated by
 
          schools eager to move into higher tiers of prestige.
        Also, academic publishers, accustomed to segmenting the textbook market
 
          can use the map to target textbook marketing efforts. In addition,
 
     publishers can also use the map as a guide for soliciting professors as
 
         authors. Publishers are more likely to court authors at top ranked
 
     research schools for authorship because of the reputation of their school
 
          affiliation.
        In summary, this map of the current advertising education market has
 
       implications for practitioners, students, faculty, employers, publishers,
 
          and administrators. More intelligent decisions regarding advertising
 
       programs can now be made based on this graphic representation of the
 
      advertising education market. This paper essentially created a decision
 
          making tool for those involved in advertising education.
 
LIMITATIONS
        Design Limitations. Although great care was taken to select a qualified
 
          sample that would represent the general perceptions of the advertising
 
        education market, eleven respondents is too small. There is no doubt
that
 the results of this study would be more robust if the sample size were
 
         larger. In addition, a portion of the sample felt unqualified to
complete
 
          the questionnaire. This apparent lack of respondent knowledge might
be not
 because of the limited ability of the sample, but because some of the
 
        advertising schools in the evaluation set are not very well known for
their
 advertising programs. Also, the 105 pairwise comparisons made the
 
     questionnaire very tedious and intimidating. For those respondents
 
     completing the survey, fatigue probably affected some of the last pairwise
 
          evaluations. Finally, the similarity scale too large. Respondents
were
 
          asked to evaluate schools based on a 9-point semantic differential
scale.
 
          During the coding process, it was apparent that the scale was too
large
 
         because respondents were not using all of the gradations. Perhaps the
 
        large scale added to the intimidation factor.
        MDS Limitations . This MDS research project is subject to the following
 
          inherent limitations of multidimensional scaling as suggested by
Kruskal
 
          (1978). 1) Perhaps all respondents did not judge each school pair
based
 
          on the same dimensions. Even if all respondents did use the same
attribute
 
          set, all respondents probably did not attach the same degree of
importance
 
          to a dimension. 2) The perception of a school's attribute might not
 
      correspond to the reality of the school's attribute. 3) The dimensions
 
         actually used by each respondent to evaluate the degrees of similarity
 
        between schools might not be the same dimensions used to interpret the
map.
 
 
FUTURE RESEARCH AND CONCLUSION
        The focus of this research project has been purposefully narrow. The goal
 was to create a perceptual map of the advertising education market using
 
          multidimensional scaling. Because the resulting configuration does
show
 
          that differences in schools exist, there is justification for further
 
       research. An interesting future study would be to conduct the same study
 
          with a different sample and compare the perceptions of the different
sample
 to the perceptions of advertising faculty. For example, how would schools
 be positioned on a map if advertising executives or prospective students
 
          made the pairwise evaluations? Finally, additional insights about the
 
        advertising industry could be gained by applying multidimensional
scaling
 
          to other advertising institutions like agencies, academic journals,
 
     textbooks, media software, trade journals, and professional associations.
 
REFERENCES
 
 
Advertising Education Literature
Barry, Thomas E. (1990), "Publication Productivity in the Three Leading US.
 Advertising Journals: Inaugural Issues Through 1988," Journal of
 
     Advertising 19 (1), 52-60.
 
Hexter, J. H. (1969), "Publish or Perish - A Defense," Public Interest, 17
 (Fall), 60-77.
 
Keenan, Kevin (1991), Unpublished Advertising Program Ranking Study,
 
       University of Maryland, College of Journalism.
 
Ross, Billy (1965), Advertising Education: Programs in Four-Year American
 
          Colleges and Universities, American Academy of Advertising and
American
 
          Association of Advertising Agencies, Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech Press.
 
Ross, Billy (1991), The Status of Advertising Education , Lubbock, TX:
 
         Advertising Education Publications.
 
Ross, Billy and Keith Johnson (1964-1993),Where Shall I Go To College to
 
          Study Advertising , Baton Rouge, LA: Advertising Education
Publications.
 
Rotzoll, Kim B. and Arnold Barban (1984), "Advertising Education," in
 
        Current Issues and Research in Advertising, James Leigh and Claude
Martin,
 eds., The University of Michigan, 2,1-18.
 
Soley, Lawrence C. and Leonard N. Reid (1988), "Advertising Article
 
     Productivity Updated,"
        Journalism Quarterly 65 (Spring) 157-164.
 
Stout, Patricia and Jef I. Richards (1993), "Advertising Agency Views on
 
          Graduate Education in Advertising," An unpublished study, University
of
 
          Texas at Austin.
 
Taylor, Elizabeth Gigi and Deborah K. Morrison (1994), "Where Theory and
 
          Practice
        Intersect: A Proposed Model for Analyzing Advertising Education," in
 
          Proceedings of t he 1994 Conference of the American Academy of
Advertising
 
          , Karen Whitehill King, ed, American Academy of Advertising, 64-73.
 
Watson, Kittie W., Renee Edwards, and Larry L. Barker (1989), "A Rating of
 
          Doctoral Programs in Selected Areas of Mass Communication:
1987-1988,"
 
          Association for Communication Administration Bulletin, 67 (January),
 
        20-36.
 
School Literature
Medill Brochure (1993), Evanston, Illinois: The Medill School of
 
   Journalism, Northwestern University.
 
San Jose State University Brochure (1994), San Jose, California:
 
   Department of Journalism and Mass Communications, College of Applied
 
       Sciences and Arts.
 
Syracuse University Brochure (1994), Syracuse, New York: S.I. Newhouse
 
         School of Public Communications, Syracuse University.
 
University of Colorado Brochure (1993), Boulder, Colorado: School of
 
       Journalism, University of Colorado.
 
University of Missouri Brochure (1993), Columbia, Missouri: Department of
 
          Advertising, University of Missouri.
 
Multidimensional Scaling Literature
Doyle, Peter (1973), "Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling: A User's Guide,"
  European Journal of Marketing, 17, 2, 82-88.
 
Guilford, J. P. (1956), Fundamental Statistics in Psychology and Education,
 
        New York: McGraw Hill.
 
Kruskal, Joseph B. and Myron Wish (1978), Multidimensional Scaling, Beverly
 Hills: Sage Publications.


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