Research on the Effect of Economics and Management Major Teachers’ Teaching on Students’ Course Satisfaction

Abstract

Improving students’ course satisfaction is conducive to the development of sustainable education. Based on the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) theory and the perceived value theory, this paper constructs an analytical framework of “teacher teaching–students’ psychological transformation–students’ course satisfaction”; puts forward hypotheses; builds models; collects 270 valid questionnaires from current students in universities majoring in economics and management in mainland China; and uses correlation analysis, regression analysis, and mediation test methods to study the influence of the economics and management major teachers’ teaching on students’ course satisfaction. This research shows that (1) teachers’ teaching has a differentiated driving effect on students’ psychology, with the usefulness of teaching content being the key path to enhancing students’ perceived value, teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods being the core means to building trust in a course, and the moderate difficulty of examination driving students’ examination preparation intention, and (2) students’ psychology is the core means for the transformation of course satisfaction, with perceived value directly driving course satisfaction; course trust being the cornerstone of course satisfaction and playing a significant mediating role between teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods and students’ course satisfaction, and students’ examination preparation intention positively promoting course satisfaction and playing a significant mediating role between moderate difficulty of examination and course satisfaction. This study provides some scientific basis for improving course satisfaction and teaching efficiency, enhancing the teaching quality of higher education, and promoting the development of sustainable education.

1. Introduction

Improving students’ course satisfaction is conducive to the development of sustainable education. Philip Kotler, a renowned American marketing expert, believes that satisfaction is a level of a person’s sensory state, which stems from the comparison between the performance or output that customers obtain from a product or service and their expected performance or output. Customer satisfaction is a function of the difference between what is actually obtained and what is expected, and the differences form different degrees of customer satisfaction.

For public or private universities, as well as domestic or international universities, students are their main customers and one of the main guarantees for their survival [1,2,3,4]. Especially in the current post-COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn era, many universities, majors, and courses have been closed or canceled due to the lack of students. Course teaching is a kind of knowledge-imparting service provided by teachers to students. Therefore, from the perspective of marketing, students are the objects of teachers’ knowledge-imparting services [5]. Moreover, for universities, the rapid development of online courses, such as online postgraduate courses, can be regarded as a transformation in business models. Under this model, universities can expand their reputation by approaching more students and ensure their long-term financial stability and competitiveness by developing cost-effective online platforms, and these platforms can accommodate an unlimited number of students [6]. Obviously, some scholars have objections to equating college students with university clients [7,8], and the marketing approach to higher education is not applicable when it comes to particularly dangerous or responsible areas, for example, nuclear energy, but is for general majors in higher education institutions such as economics and management; considering the reality that course teaching is a kind of knowledge-imparting service provided by teachers to students, the existing relevant literature such as [1,2,3,4,5,9], and the college students spend their money and time on education and hope to obtain the highest return [10,11], it is reasonable for this paper to equate students with university clients.

In order to succeed and remain competitive, universities must identify and provide key aspects that are important to students to ensure students’ course satisfaction [9]. Student course satisfaction can be defined as the comparison between students’ perceived performance and expected performance of teaching services [12,13]. When students’ perceived performance in the course is lower than the expected performance, students are dissatisfied with the course; if the perceived course performance matches the expected performance, students are satisfied with their course performance. If the perceived course performance exceeds the expected performance, students will be satisfied; if it far exceeds the expected performance, students will be highly satisfied. Student satisfaction in a course generally includes satisfaction with the usefulness of teaching content, satisfaction with course teaching services, that is, satisfaction with the teacher’s attitudes and methods in teaching, and satisfaction with the moderate difficulty of the examination and scores. To promote the sustainable development of universities, majors, and courses, it is essential to research and improve students’ course satisfaction. However, currently, the theoretical mechanism and practical path by which teachers’ teaching affects students’ course satisfaction are still unclear. In the current post-COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn era, in many universities, some economics and management majors, such as marketing, tourism management, and e-commerce, have been canceled due to the lack of students; therefore, considering the economics and management major as an example, studying the impact of teachers’ teaching on students’ course satisfaction is of great significance for formulating teaching policies to improve students’ course satisfaction and course teaching efficiency, enhance the quality of higher education teaching, and promote the development of sustainable education. Thus, considering the economics and management major teachers’ teaching as an example, this study investigates the effect of teachers’ teaching on students’ course satisfaction.

The contributions of this paper are as follows: (1) based on the literature review, theoretical foundation, stimulus–organism–response (SOR) theory, and perceived value theory, this paper puts forward some new hypotheses and constructs a new conceptual model; (2) this paper expands and deepens the connotations of the customer relationship theory, SOR theory, and perceived value theory; (3) this paper deconstructs the theoretical mechanism and practical path by which the teaching of teachers majoring in economics and management affects course satisfaction; and (4) this paper provides some scientific basis for enhancing course satisfaction and teaching efficiency, improving the quality of higher education teaching and promoting the development of sustainable education.

The other parts of this paper are as follows. The second section reviews the relevant literature. The third section puts forward hypotheses and constructs a new conceptual model. The fourth section describes the research method. The fifth section presents the results. The sixth section contains the results’ discussion. The seventh section comprises the conclusion. The eighth section discusses the limitations and future research of this paper.

2. Literature Review

Currently, many scholars have conducted extensive and in-depth research on the relevant aspects such as customer satisfaction, students’ course satisfaction, the perceived value theory, and the SOR theory.

2.1. Research on Customer Satisfaction

Course teaching is a kind of knowledge-imparting service provided by teachers to students. From the perspective of marketing, students are the customers of teachers’ knowledge-imparting services [1,2,3,4,5,9]. Therefore, the theory of customer satisfaction is also applicable to students’ course satisfaction [5,14]. Currently, the academic circles at home and abroad have conducted extensive and in-depth research on customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction can be defined as the ratio of the perceived utility to the expected utility of a product or service. When a product or service meets the customer’s expected needs, that is, the perceived utility is greater than the expected utility, the customer is satisfied; otherwise, they are dissatisfied [15]. In other words, consumers’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction is determined by the degree of uncertainty of expectations. For example, if the performance of a product or service is lower than consumers’ expectations, consumers’ expectations will be denied and dissatisfaction will occur, thereby negatively affecting customer loyalty, and vice versa [16]; the failure of a product or service to provide the expected benefits can also lead to consumer dissatisfaction [17].

It is of great significance to study customer satisfaction. Different studies have shown that loyalty is described through the mediating effect of satisfaction, and customer satisfaction is the main influencing factor of customer loyalty and customer value, which leads to company profits [18,19]. Customer satisfaction has a positive impact on customer loyalty; more specifically, dissatisfaction has a negative impact on customers’ repurchase behavior [17], and satisfied customers are more likely to become loyal customers [20,21,22], which means a satisfied customer will keep or increase their shopping frequency, shopping amount, and purchase expenditure accordingly [23], and is more likely to recommend products and services to others [24]. The connection between customer satisfaction and loyalty is highly variable, depending on the industry and the nature of the variable [25]. Applying these theories to teaching situations, a higher students’ course satisfaction will also increase students’ course loyalty, that is, students will promote and recommend the course teacher and the courses they teach to more classmates [9].

2.2. Research on Student Satisfaction

Some scholars have conducted research on student satisfaction. Student satisfaction refers to the positivity of students’ subjective evaluations of various outcomes and experiences related to education [26], and is also defined as the comparison between the expected value and perceived value of education received by students, that is, the realization degree of the expected value of education [27]. The higher the satisfaction of students with educational institutions such as universities, the more capable institutions are of establishing a positive image and enhancing competitive advantages [28]. Pezeshki et al. [29] collected expert and student survey data and employed the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, interpretive structural model, and structural equation model to study the satisfaction index of Iranian students studying at public universities in Iran. Yanova [5] constructed a customer satisfaction index to evaluate the satisfaction with educational quality. The customer satisfaction index (CSI) is firmly rooted in the educational paradigm and holds an important position in the mandatory public reports of educational institutions [30]. The customer satisfaction index is also a manifestation of analytical statistics in general education and higher education [31], which shows the extent to which the current level of quality-oriented education is adapted to the needs of students. Meanwhile, the model for calculating the CSI is the subject of scientific debate [32], and scholars often construct different indicators to measure the customer satisfaction index [33].

The various influencing factors of student satisfaction have been widely studied. De-Juan-Vigaray et al. [9] studied the prerequisites for student satisfaction, including the acquisition ability when teaching conditions must adapt to environmental and human factors after the pandemic and energy crisis; the results show that acquisition ability and ability development, as incentive factors, and teaching methods, teaching staff, curriculum management, and course facilities, as health factors, are antecedent variables of student satisfaction. Teachers’ teaching content, attitudes, and methods in a course, as well as management models, all have a significant impact on students’ satisfaction [34]. Some scholars have studied the influence of classroom facilities and infrastructure on student satisfaction. The research found that students’ course satisfaction increases through perceiving teaching facilities [35,36]. The research by Hsieh et al. [37] shows that the installation of air conditioners in schools in Taiwan generally improves the satisfaction of students and teachers, which is greatly influenced by factors such as age, teaching experience, and classroom location. Arcadu et al. [38] proposed hypotheses, collected actual data, and conducted quantitative analyses of the new food phobia and food life satisfaction scales for college students. Considering 227 Italian college students who were far away from their native families as samples, the relationship between food phobia and food-related satisfaction was studied. Life satisfaction is one of indicators for measuring overall well-being and satisfaction with life [39]. It plays an important role in how individuals cope with stress. Some scholars have studied the life satisfaction of college students [39]. College students’ life satisfaction is influenced by various factors such as academic pressure, that is, students’ perceived needs and expectations for academic performance [40], personal achievements, interpersonal relationships, and the general living environment [41]. Higher life satisfaction is conducive to resisting various pressures [42]. Empirical evidence indicates that high stress levels can reduce life satisfaction, while low life satisfaction can intensify stress, creating a vicious cycle that eventually leads to negative outcomes such as dropping out of school [43]. With the rapid development of information technology and the wide acceptance of the concept of sharing educational resources, open education has gradually become an important part of China’s national education. Lu et al. [44] investigated how open education affects student satisfaction in China through academic buoyancy and flow experiences, where academic buoyancy refers to the adaptive response to common and daily challenges in learning, for example, poor academic performance or weakened motivation [45], and flow experience refers to a very pleasant state in which an individual is completely immersed, with concentrated attention, often accompanied by a distorted perception of time [46]. Josefina et al. [47] studied the influence of learning style on the satisfaction of undergraduate nursing students with flipped course teaching. Among them, learning style can be regarded as an indicator of how individuals perceive and process information when constructing knowledge. It shows how they interact with reality [48]. Although there are a large number of students in the online modules of higher education, we know very little about how online teachers can interact with online students in a way that encourages students to stay and enhances their satisfaction. For this reason, Elntib [49] investigated the impact of online teacher maladaptive and adaptive relationship styles as drivers of online student retention and satisfaction on students’ course satisfaction. The teaching methods of teachers also have an important influence on students’ course satisfaction. Cao et al. [50] studied the acceptance and satisfaction of blended learning among undergraduate nursing students. Some scholars in existing studies have found that the flipped course teaching method has improved students’ course satisfaction [51], while some scholars have found that this teaching method has decreased students’ course satisfaction [52]. Joseph et al. [53] investigated the paradoxical effect of the flipped course on the learning ability and satisfaction of nursing students in the basic clinical nursing course. Routon et al. [54] studied relative age, university satisfaction, and students’ views on acquired skills and students’ satisfaction. The study found that, although relatively older students achieved similar results and their satisfaction did not decrease when leaving university, they believed that they benefited less from higher education in terms of skills and knowledge gains. The relationship between students’ course satisfaction and course loyalty has also been well studied, such as students’ satisfaction with their educational experience should be a welcome outcome to obtain their future educational loyalty [55,56].

2.3. Perceived Value Theory

Perceived value is a concept proposed in the 1990s by integrating marketing and psychological research. Perceived value refers to the overall utility value of a product or service perceived by consumers based on cost–benefit considerations [57]. The success and adoption of a technology or service are based on the specific value perceived or expected by consumers from the technology or service [58]. According to the core perspective of the perceived value theory, when consumers make a purchase, they conduct a comprehensive and systematic assessment of the benefits that the product or service can provide as well as the costs they need to bear, thereby constructing a cognitive framework about the value of the product or service. Such a value cognition mechanism plays a decisive role throughout the entire decision-making process of consumers. Zeithaml [57] was the first to provide a clear definition of customer perceived value, namely, when evaluating the cost and benefit of something, and this value judgment and social paradigm cause individuals to have different perceptions of the cost and benefit of the same thing. Bolton et al. [59] pointed out that perceived value is the personal perception of consumers after having a real experience of a product or service and comparing it with its price. Perceived value has been studied in many studies [60] and measured from the perspective of consumers [61,62]. Perceived value is marked as an eternal contributing factor of sustained intent and loyalty [63]; the perceived value of a product or service by consumers determines their satisfaction and loyalty [61,62,63,64]. In the teaching scenarios of economics and management teachers, students spend time, energy, and money listening to the teachers’ lectures, hoping to gain knowledge that is useful to them [27]. The teaching content provided by teachers can stimulate students, thereby enabling them to perceive the value of the teaching content’s application [9,34], such as the practicality of course content, meets students’ actual needs (job hunting, postgraduate entrance examination preparation, civil service examination preparation, starting a business, and so on), and resonates with students, and when students learn this course knowledge from the teacher, students feel a sense of achievement. At this point, when students compare the perceived value with the expected value, different levels of course satisfaction are formed [27].

2.4. SOR Theory

Some scholars have studied the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) theory, which was first proposed by Woodworth in 1929 based on the stimulus–response theory. As a theoretical framework encompassing input, process, and output, it meets the requirements of explaining the mechanism by which organisms process their emotions and cognition within themselves by perceiving external environmental stimuli, thereby influencing their behaviors as response outputs [65]. Environmental stimuli can trigger emotional responses in individuals, which in turn leads to behavioral responses [66]; the organism refers to the cognitive and emotional processes of the organism’s psychology, such as flow, perception, and sensation [65]; response refers to the specific behavior that an organism makes after thinking and mental activities in response to external stimuli [67]. The SOR theory is often applied in customer relationship management research [68] to explain how environmental stimuli affect an individual’s cognitive and emotional states as well as subsequent behavioral responses [69,70,71]. In the teaching scenarios of economics and management teachers, the usefulness of teaching content, teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods, and the moderate difficulty of examination constitute the external stimulating factors, and students, as organic experience, perceive and evaluate these stimuli, thereby generating perceived value, course trust, examination preparation intention, and so on [9,34]. Eventually, students’ course satisfaction generates different grades of evaluation during teaching evaluations [55,56].

To sum up, scholars have conducted a great deal of valuable research in related fields and obtained many useful insights and conclusions, which provide a good theoretical basis for this article. Studying students’ course satisfaction is of great significance for formulating teaching policies to improve students’ course satisfaction, enhance course teaching efficiency, improve the quality of higher education, and promote the development of sustainable education. However, currently, the theoretical mechanism and practical path by which teachers’ teaching affects students’ course satisfaction are still unclear. Therefore, research on this topic is urgently needed, considering the economics and management major teachers’ teaching as an example.

3. Research Hypotheses and Model Construction

3.1. Research Hypotheses

Based on the existing research, perceived value theory, and SOR theory, and in combination with the teaching characteristics of economics and management teachers and the psychological and behavioral characteristics of students, this study distills relevant hypotheses on the impact of economics and management teachers’ teaching on students’ course satisfaction based on three aspects: teachers’ teaching, students’ psychology, and course satisfaction.

3.1.1. Influence of Teachers’ Teaching on Students’ Psychology

There is a significant impact of teachers’ teaching on students’ psychology, and this mechanism of action has already received sufficient theoretical support and empirical research. When considering teaching staff, the variables to be considered are their teaching quality and efficiency [72], such as enhancing the usefulness of teaching content, improving teachers’ attitudes and methods in courses, and ensuring moderate difficulty of examination [73]; furthermore, enhancing students’ perceived value of the content taught in a course, establishing a positive course trust between teachers and students, and cultivating students’ self-confidence such as a stronger willingness to prepare for examinations and self-efficacy are among the main roles of teachers [74]. Students’ learning is purposeful, and they hope to gain benefits by investing their time, energy, and money in their studies, which is in line with the theory of perceived value, and the greater usefulness of course content surely leads to an increase in students’ perceived value [73,74]; especially in the current post-COVID-19 and economic downturn era, students are more eager for the teaching content provided by teachers to be valuable for their future; more specifically, students hope that teachers’ teaching content can better meet their actual needs such as job hunting and preparation for postgraduate entrance examinations, civil service examinations, and entrepreneurship. The better the teaching methods of teachers are designed and the more suitable they are for students, the higher the efficiency of students’ understanding of knowledge will be, the more trust they will have in the course, and thus higher the teaching efficiency and learning efficiency will be [75]. In addition to role-based teacher–student relationships, methods to enhance teachers’ approachability such as appropriate humor, timeliness, care, and friendliness enable teachers to establish a social atmosphere conducive to learning [76,77], and enhance students’ trust in the course. Effective course management by teachers can also affect students’ course feeling [78]. When students feel the caring attitude of their teachers, for example, the difficulty of the examination is moderate and their grades are in line with their efforts, they strive to exhibit their greater potential, such as having a stronger willingness to prepare for the examination [79]. In view of this, this study proposes the following hypotheses:

H1a. 

The usefulness of teaching content positively influences students’ perceived value.

H1b. 

Teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods have a positive impact on course trust.

H1c. 

Moderate difficulty of examination positively influences examination preparation intention.

3.1.2. Influence of Students’ Psychology on Their Course Satisfaction

Student psychology has a significant impact on students’ course satisfaction (such as satisfaction with course content, satisfaction with teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods, and satisfaction with difficulty of examination). The quality of the connection and interaction between students and teachers, which leads to different psychological states of students, is regarded as a key factor in student satisfaction and retention rate [49]. Social interaction with teachers, if it goes beyond simple academic inquiries and provides students with better psychological experiences, will lead to better performance of learning modules and student satisfaction [80]. If universities through useful teaching content create good perceived value for students, students are more likely to be loyal to and support the schools they are satisfied with, thereby enhancing the reputation of these schools [10,81]. Students have sufficient insights to distinguish between those teachers who attempt to truly connect with them and those who merely adhere to formulaic conventions [82]. The better the impression that teachers make on students, the more harmonious the relationship with students, the better the subjective feeling of students towards this course, the higher the trust of students in the course, and the higher the satisfaction of students with the course [82]. If teachers handle students’ inquiries superficially and have poor communication skills, it will harm students’ psychological feelings such as perceived value, course trust, and examination preparation intention, thereby harming students’ progress [83] and reducing students’ course satisfaction. Course teaching requires students’ active participation, such as taking the initiative to prepare for examinations. When students passively avoid their participation, the student-oriented skills of teachers, like rational thinking, may have a negligible impact [84]. Teachers guarantee that the difficulty of the examination is moderate, which convinces students that their examination results will be in line with their efforts, and this can leave a good first impression, as well as a lasting impression, on the students [82]. Teachers who obtain higher harmony scores from students will have students’ higher willingness to participate in the courses they teach, such as a higher willingness to prepare for the examinations, which increases the probability of students achieving better grades [85] and students’ satisfaction with the course. In view of this, this study proposes the following hypotheses:

H2a. 

Perceived value positively influences students’ course satisfaction.

H2b. 

Course trust positively promotes students’ course satisfaction.

H2c. 

Examination preparation intention positively promotes students’ course satisfaction.

3.1.3. Mediating Effect of Course Trust and Examination Preparation Intention

Teachers’ teaching can use students’ psychology as a bridge to form an indirect action path of “external stimulation–psychological perception–effect manifestation”. De-Juan-Vigaray et al. [9] studied the preconditions of student satisfaction. The results indicated that ability acquisition and ability development, as incentive factors, and teaching content, teaching staff, teaching methods, course facilities, and examination difficulty, as health factors, were the antecedent variables of student satisfaction. They affect students’ perceived value, their trust, and their cooperation in the course such as their willingness to prepare for examinations, ultimately influencing students’ satisfaction with the course. Student satisfaction is a topic of interest for many researchers. Satisfaction depends on the quality of service and its ability to meet the expectations of college students. The existing studies have shown that many factors such as the nature of the school [26], the quality of school services [28], teachers’ attitudes and methods of teaching and teaching content [27], and teachers’ course management [86] and students’ course feelings [87] are positively correlated with students’ course satisfaction. Teachers’ good attitudes and methods in a course is conducive to establishing course trust, thereby improving students’ satisfaction with teachers [74]. The research by Cao et al. [50] shows that the factors influencing students’ acceptance or satisfaction include teachers’ teaching ability and teaching style, as well as the preparation of course teaching content. The influence of some new teaching methods on students’ feelings such as course trust and their satisfaction has also been studied. For example, in the teaching of science and mathematics, the flipped course teaching method is more effective than the traditional teaching method [88]; however, the findings regarding learning outcomes and student satisfaction remain mixed [89,90,91]. Some scholars’ research has found that the flipped course teaching method increases students’ course trust, thereby increasing students’ course satisfaction [92]. Embedding some control strategies in the overall supportive teaching style, while also including some student autonomy, seems to stimulate student participation [93]. Applying these theories to the control of examination difficulty, teachers should make the examination difficulty moderate such that students’ grades are in line with their efforts. Making students realize that, as long as they study harder for the examination, they can achieve better results stimulates their willingness to prepare for the examination, providing them with a better experience and a higher satisfaction [34]. To sum up, this study proposes the following hypotheses:

H3a. 

Course trust mediates the relationship between teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods and students’ course satisfaction. The stronger the course trust, the stronger the positive relationship between the two.

H3b. 

Examination preparation intention mediates the relationship between moderate difficulty of examination and students’ course satisfaction. The stronger the examination preparation intention, the stronger the positive relationship between the two.

3.2. Model Construction

Based on the above literature review, theoretical foundation, and research hypotheses, and in accordance with the SOR theory and perceived value theory, combined with the objectives of this paper, this paper constructs the following conceptual model to study the theoretical mechanism and practical path by which the teaching of teachers majoring in economics and management affects course satisfaction, as shown in Figure 1.

Noteworthily, the teaching system is a complex system composed of students, teachers, teaching materials, teaching equipment, teaching environment, etc. Many other influencing factors such as teaching equipment and teaching environment affect the impact of teachers’ teaching on students’ course satisfaction. In future research, we will consider more influencing factors and reach a more comprehensive conclusion.

4. Method

4.1. Questionnaire Design

This questionnaire is based on the SOR theory and the perceived value theory, combined with the characteristics of the economics and management major, to construct a complete “stimulus–organism–response” measurement system. This questionnaire is divided into two major parts: the first part is the basic information of the students, including whether they are current students majoring in economics and management, gender, age, and monthly consumption level. The second part of the questionnaire investigates the influence of teaching by economics and management teachers and students’ psychology on students’ course satisfaction. This study employed a five-point Likert scale to measure all the items, more specifically, “1” to “5” represent “strongly disagree”, “disagree”, “remain neutral”, “agree”, and “strongly agree”, respectively. All the measurement items were developed based on the previously validated literature and adapted to fit the research context. The first level consists of measurement items for teachers’ teaching, including the following three dimensions: the usefulness of teaching content (Q5–Q7), which mainly refers to [73,88]; teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods (Q8–Q11), which mainly refers to [75,86]; and the moderate difficulty of examination (Q12–Q14), which mainly refers to [34,82]. The second level involves students’ psychology, including the following three dimensions: perceived value (Q15–Q17), which mainly refers to [10,81]; course trust (Q18–Q20), which mainly refers to [76,77]; and students’ examination preparation intention (Q21–Q23), which mainly refers to [79,85]. The third level is course satisfaction (Q24–Q26), which mainly refers to [29,74]. Specifically, it is shown in

Table 1. Research dimensions and measurement items of student’s course satisfaction.

Dimensions		Measurement Items
Teachers’ teaching	Usefulness of teaching content (UTC)	Q5. In class, the teacher will explain theoretical knowledge in connection with practical situations.
		Q6. In class, the teacher will focus on explaining the corresponding course content based on students’ future needs for job hunting, postgraduate entrance examination, civil service examination and entrepreneurship.
		Q7. In class, the teacher will conduct relevant case analyses and problem discussions based on students’ future needs for job hunting, postgraduate entrance examination, civil service examination and entrepreneurship.
	Teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods (TTAM)	Q8. Teachers prepare lessons carefully.
		Q9. Teachers have a proper attitude towards course, arrive at the classroom early and do not change or miss courses without reason.
		Q10. Teachers actively manage the course, care for and attract students.
		Q11. Teachers adopt appropriate teaching methods such as case teaching, problem discussion and artificial intelligence teaching based on the course content explanation, and try to give lectures based on the teaching materials as much as possible.
	Moderate difficulty of examination (MDE)	Q12. Teachers try to impart more and newer knowledge when teaching.
		Q13. During the examination, teachers will set questions based on the textbooks.
		Q14. Teachers assess students with an attitude that does not make examination too difficult or too easy for students.
Student psychology	Perceived value (PV)	Q15. The content of the course is practical and resonates with me.
		Q16. The content of the course can meet my actual needs (such as job hunting, postgraduate entrance examination, civil service examination, and entrepreneurship.).
		Q17. Learning this course knowledge from the teacher makes me feel a sense of achievement.
	Course trust (CT)	Q18. I believe the teacher wants to do her/his best to teach this course well.
		Q19. The teacher treats all students equally in class.
		Q20. I think the content explained by the teacher is reliable and trustworthy.
	Examination preparation intention (EPI)	Q21. I believe that by studying hard for the examination, I will achieve good grades.
		Q22. If I don’t study hard for the examination, my grades will be poor or I may even fail.
		Q23. I am willing to prepare for the examination actively.
Student course satisfaction (SCS)		Q24. I’m satisfied with the course content.
		Q25. I’m satisfied with the teaching attitude and methods of the teachers in course.
		Q26. My grade is in line with my efforts.

.

When selecting the pre-research sample, the selection bias is controlled by choosing respondents who are current students majoring in economic and management. Through various student groups, a total of 35 eligible students were invited to participate in the pre-survey by means of an online questionnaire. After conducting the preliminary pre-research work, a total of 32 valid questionnaire samples that met the research requirements were collected in this study. The sample size of the pre-research met the requirements [94,95]. The results showed that the descriptions of some questions were too long and not easy to understand. After streamlining the language and revising the descriptions, the final scale was developed, and the questionnaires were distributed.

4.2. Data Collection

China is the country with the largest number of students majoring in economics and management; therefore, considering the economics and management major students in Chinese universities as the sample is feasible. The questionnaire was written in Chinese and distributed online from 8 April to 27 April 2025. The scope covers most provinces and cities in mainland China. We mainly used the questionnaire research platform “Questionnaire Star” to complete the data collection. The survey was conducted in various online communities, such as WeChat, QQ, Zhihu, and so on, which were also the way of inviting the participants. The selection bias was controlled by choosing respondents who are current students majoring in economic and management, which was the first question of the questionnaire, and if they were a current student majoring in economic and management, they continued the survey; if not, they discontinued the survey. The first paragraph of the questionnaire states that “Thank you very much for participating in this research survey on the effect of economics and management major teachers teaching on students’ course satisfaction. Your answers are crucial to my research and will help me gain a deeper understanding of the students’ true thoughts and needs. I guarantee that all the information you provide will be used solely for academic research and will be strictly confidential. Your anonymity is assured, and all personal information has been desensitized and does not involve any issues related to morality or ethics. There are not any risks involved in participating and the individual cannot be directly or indirectly identified. Please feel free to fill it out. Now, please start filling out the questionnaire. We look forward to receiving your valuable feedback. Thank you for your participation!”. A formal survey collected 300 questionnaire samples. Subsequently, the collected questionnaires were screened. After screening, the number of valid questionnaires was 270, and the effective recovery rate was 90%. The descriptive analysis of the gender, age, and monthly consumption level of the sample of this survey revealed the following: a total of 270 students were surveyed, and the sample showed a significant gender imbalance, with female students accounting for 65.16% (176 students), while male students only making up 34.84% (94 students). This reflects the fact that female students are in the majority among the students majoring in economics and management in China. It also reveals the reality that women are more inclined to take courses related to economics and management in China, such as accounting and financial management, e-commerce, and business administration. In terms of age distribution, the group aged 18–25 accounted for 41.85% (113 students), forming the core student group; next were students under 18 years old (24.07%, 65 students) and those aged 26–30 years old (22.59%, 61 students), and students over 31 years old only made up 11.49%, indicating that the majority of the respondents were undergraduate students; the proportion of master’s degree students was moderate, while that of doctoral students was the smallest, which was in line with the proportion of university students in China. In terms of monthly consumption level, the middle monthly consumption level group with a monthly average of CNY 1000 to 3000 accounts for the largest proportion, reaching 67.78% (183 students); students with a monthly average of less than CNY 1000, CNY 3000 to 5000, and more than CNY 5000 account for 7.14%, 18.15%, and 6.67%, respectively. Since undergraduate students make up the vast majority of the sample, the monthly consumption level of the vast majority of samples is at a moderately low level.

5. Result

5.1. Reliability and Validity Tests

5.1.1. Reliability Test

In this paper, the reliability of the questionnaire was tested by using the software SPSS27.0 to measure the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of each variable and item. The specific results are shown in

Table 2. Reliability test.

Variables	Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient	Number of Questions
Usefulness of teaching content	0.785	3
Teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods	0.819	4
Moderate difficulty of examination	0.751	3
Perceived value	0.766	3
Course trust	0.784	3
Examination preparation intention	0.744	3
Students’ course satisfaction	0.779	3
The overall questionnaire	0.937	22

. If the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient is higher than 0.8, it indicates high reliability; if the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient is between 0.7 and 0.8, it indicates good reliability.

This study conducts reliability analysis on the variable dimensions involved in questions 5 to 26, respectively. As can be seen from Table 2, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of each variable range from 0.744 to 0.819, indicating that the design of the questions in each dimension is acceptable. To sum up, the questionnaire design of this study is relatively reasonable.

5.1.2. Validity Test

In this study, the software SPSS27.0 was applied to examine the validity of the questionnaire. The closer the KMO value is to 1, the stronger the correlation between the variables. The KMO test value of the survey data is 0.953, which is close to 1 and greater than the standard value of 0.8. A significant p-value in Bartlett’s sphericity test is <0.05. The Bartlett sphericity test results of the survey data show that the p-value is <0.001, which is significant and means that there is a correlation between variables. Therefore, the validity of this scale is relatively good.

5.2. Normality Test

The results of the normality test are shown in

Table 3. Results of normality test.

Variables	Kolmogorov–Smirnov Test		Shapiro–Wilke Test
	D	p	W	p
Usefulness of teaching content	0.235	<0.001	0.894	<0.001
Teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods	0.246	<0.001	0.891	<0.001
Moderate difficulty of examination	0.240	<0.001	0.894	<0.001
Perceived value	0.215	<0.001	0.913	<0.001
Course trust	0.195	<0.001	0.929	<0.001
Examination preparation intention	0.207	<0.001	0.913	<0.001
Students’ course satisfaction	0.213	<0.001	0.909	<0.001

.

The significance levels of all variables were p < 0.001, indicating that the data deviated from the normal distribution. Due to the large sample size (N = 270), the results of the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test were given priority to confirm the non-normality characteristics of the variables. It is noted that, in Table 3, the value of D of Kolmogorov–Smirnov test is relatively small and tends towards 0, which is [0.195, 0.246], and the value of W of Shapiro–Wilke test is relatively large and tends towards 1, which is [ 0.891, 0.929], indicating that, although the data do not fully conform to the normal distribution, on the whole, the data only slightly deviate from the normal distribution.

5.3. Correlation Analysis

When all the variables do not follow a normal distribution, the Spearman correlation coefficient is used instead of the Pearson correlation coefficient. The examination results are shown in

Table 4. Correlation analysis of variables.

	UTC	TTAM	MDE	PV	CT	EPI	SCS
UTC	1	--	--	--	--	--	--
TTAM	0.415 **	1	--	--	--	--	--
MDE	0.469 **	0.432 **	1	--	--	--	--
PV	0.485 **	0.501 **	0.470 **	1	--	--	--
CT	0.476 **	0.505 **	0.477 **	0.636 **	1	--	--
EPI	0.515 **	0.461 **	0.533 **	0.537 **	0.542 **	1	--
SCS	0.436 **	0.497 **	0.491 **	0.524 **	0.569 **	0.453 **	1

Note: ** indicates a significant correlation at the p < 0.01 significance level (bilateral).

.

Based on the correlation among variables in the data, Table 4 indicates that teachers’ teaching has a significant positive impact on students’ psychology, and students’ psychology in turn has a significant positive effect on students’ course satisfaction.

5.4. Regression Analysis

According to Table 3, although the data do not fully conform to the normal distribution, on the whole, the data only slightly deviate from the normal distribution; in the case of a larger sample size of this paper, the normality assumption can be appropriately relaxed. This section uses Eviews 10 for multiple regression analysis to verify the corresponding hypotheses.

5.4.1. Impact of Teachers’ Teaching on Students’ Psychology

The regression analysis results of the impacts of the usefulness of teaching content, age, and monthly consumption level on the perceived value of students are shown in

Table 5. Regression analysis results of the impacts of the usefulness of teaching content, age, and monthly consumption level on perceived value.

Dependent Variable: Perceived Value
Method: Least Squares
Date: 30 June 2025 Time: 23:47
Sample: 1270
Included observations: 270
Variable	Coefficient	Std. Error	t-Statistic	Prob.
C	4.410212	0.225781	19.53315	0.0000
Age	−0.156387	0.043788	−3.571491	0.0004
Monthly consumption level	−0.534004	0.068891	−7.751400	0.0000
Usefulness of teaching content	0.190705	0.038140	5.000153	0.0000
R-squared	0.567998	Mean dependent var		3.520988
Adjusted R-squared	0.563126	S.D. dependent var		0.820138
S.E. of regression	0.542082	Akaike info criterion		1.627906
Sum squared resid	78.16494	Schwarz criterion		1.681216
Log likelihood	−215.7673	Hannan-Quinn criter.		1.649313
F-statistic	116.5794	Durbin-Watson stat		1.832119
Prob(F-statistic)	0.000000

.

Table 5 aims to verify the hypothesis H1a. The model fits well, and the overall regression model is significant. The usefulness of teaching content refers to the fact that the teacher in a course, based on the key points of students’ future job hunting, postgraduate entrance examinations, civil service examinations, and entrepreneurship, explains the corresponding course content or conducts relevant case analyses and problem discussions, which positively affects students’ perceived value ($\beta =0.191,p<0.01$). Therefore, the hypothesis H1a holds true. The greater the usefulness of a teacher’s teaching content, the higher the perceived value by students. The variance inflation factor (VIF) of all the variables is tested, and all the VIF values are within the range of 1.392–2.025, which are smaller than 3.3, indicating no collinearity issues [96,97].

The regression analysis results of the impacts of teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods in a course, age, and monthly consumption level on the course trust of students are shown in

Table 6. Regression analysis results of the impacts of teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods in a course, age, and monthly consumption level on course trust.

Dependent Variable: Course Trust
Method: Least Squares
Date: 1 July 2025 Time: 00:00
Sample: 1270
Included observations: 270
Variable	Coefficient	Std. Error	t-Statistic	Prob.
C	4.571563	0.249943	18.29042	0.0000
Age	−0.147845	0.044688	−3.308377	0.0011
Monthly consumption level	−0.629257	0.071773	−8.767273	0.0000
Teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods	0.176540	0.042075	4.195784	0.0000
R-squared	0.591703	Mean dependent var		3.446296
Adjusted R-squared	0.587098	S.D. dependent var		0.862199
S.E. of regression	0.554027	Akaike info criterion		1.671498
Sum squared resid	81.64771	Schwarz criterion		1.724808
Log likelihood	−221.6523	Hannan-Quinn criter.		1.692905
F-statistic	128.4954	Durbin-Watson stat		2.065585
Prob(F-statistic)	0.000000

.

Table 6 aims to verify the hypothesis H1b. The model fitting degree is good, and the overall regression model is significant. Teachers’ attitudes and methods in teaching have a positive impact on course trust ($\beta =0.177,p<0.01$); thus, the hypothesis H1b holds true. The better the teachers’ attitudes and methods in teaching are, the higher the students’ trust in the course will be. The variance inflation factor (VIF) of all the variables is tested, and all the VIF values are within the range of 1.497–2.104, which are smaller than 3.3, indicating no collinearity issues [96,97].

The regression analysis results of the impacts of moderate difficulty of examination, age, and monthly consumption level on students’ examination preparation intention are shown in

Table 7. Regression analysis results of the impacts of moderate difficulty of examination, age, and monthly consumption level on examination preparation intention.

Dependent Variable: Examination Preparation Intention
Method: Least Squares
Date: 1 July 2025 Time: 00:06
Sample: 1270
Included observations: 270
Variable	Coefficient	Std. Error	t-Statistic	Prob.
C	3.761809	0.262486	14.33146	0.0000
Age	−0.255389	0.049280	−5.182362	0.0000
Monthly consumption level	−0.304632	0.082676	−3.684663	0.0003
The moderate difficulty of examination	0.287768	0.043966	6.545274	0.0000
R-squared	0.510917	Mean dependent var		3.492593
Adjusted R-squared	0.505401	S.D. dependent var		0.886674
S.E. of regression	0.623577	Akaike info criterion		1.908016
Sum squared resid	103.4337	Schwarz criterion		1.961326
Log likelihood	−253.5821	Hannan-Quinn criter.		1.929423
F-statistic	92.62516	Durbin-Watson stat		1.646767
Prob(F-statistic)	0.000000

.

Table 7 aims to verify the hypothesis H1c. The model fitting degree is good, and the overall regression model is significant. The moderate difficulty of the examination positively affects students’ examination preparation intention ($\beta =0.288,p<0.01$); thus, the hypothesis H1c holds true. It indicates that a moderate difficulty of the examination is conducive to enhancing students’ willingness to prepare for it. The variance inflation factor (VIF) of all the variables is tested, and all the VIF values are within the range of 1.376–2.203, which are smaller than 3.3, indicating no collinearity issues [96,97].

5.4.2. Impact of Students’ Psychology on Students’ Course Satisfaction

The regression analysis results of the impacts of students’ psychology on course satisfaction are shown in

Table 8. Regression analysis results of the impacts of students’ psychology on their course satisfaction.

Dependent Variable: Course satisfaction
Method: Least Squares
Date: 30 June 2025 Time: 22:28
Sample: 1270
Included observations: 270
Variable	Coefficient	Std. Error	t-Statistic	Prob.
C	0.390187	0.161029	2.423089	0.0161
Perceived value	0.370156	0.069221	5.347417	0.0000
Course trust	0.321658	0.062408	5.154145	0.0000
Examination preparation intention	0.191889	0.056100	3.420462	0.0007
R-squared	0.592295	Mean dependent var		3.472222
Adjusted R-squared	0.587696	S.D. dependent var		0.878368
S.E. of regression	0.564008	Akaike info criterion		1.707207
Sum squared resid	84.61588	Schwarz criterion		1.760517
Log likelihood	−226.4729	Hannan-Quinn criter.		1.728614
F-statistic	128.8106	Durbin-Watson stat		2.018525
Prob(F-statistic)	0.000000

.

Table 8 conducts a regression analysis of students’ psychology on course satisfaction, aiming to verify the three hypotheses H2a–H2c. The model fits well, and the overall regression model is significant. Perceived value positively affects course satisfaction ($\beta =0.370,p<0.01$); thus, the hypothesis H2a holds true. It indicates that the higher the perceived value of a teacher’s teaching content by students, the higher their course satisfaction with the teacher’s teaching. Course trust positively promotes course satisfaction ($\beta =0.322,p<0.01$); thus, the hypothesis H2b holds true. It indicates that more the students trust a teacher’s teaching, higher the students’ satisfaction with the teacher’s teaching. Students’ examination preparation intention positively promotes course satisfaction ($\beta =0.192,p<0.01$); thus, the hypothesis H2c holds true. The stronger the students’ examination preparation intention is, the higher the scores that they achieve will be, thus increasing the students’ course satisfaction. Therefore, the hypotheses H2a–H2c are validated. The variance inflation factor (VIF) of all the variables is tested, and all the VIF values are within the range of 2.092–2.725, which are smaller than 3.3, indicating no collinearity issues [96,97].

5.5. Mediating Effect Test

The mediating effect test mainly examines whether course trust plays a mediating role between teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods and students’ course satisfaction, and whether students’ examination preparation intention plays a mediating role between moderate difficulty of examination and students’ course satisfaction. In this paper, the Bootstrap test method was employed to examine the mediating effect. The data were sampled multiple times with the sample statistics. The mediating effect was tested using the macro program PROCESS v4.1 prepared by Anderw F. Hayes of SPSS.27 under the 95% confidence interval of Bootstrap with 5000 sub-samples. If the confidence interval of the indirect effect does not contain 0, it indicates that the mediating effect is significant. If the confidence interval of the indirect effect contains 0, it means that the mediating effect is not significant. The mediating effect test results of course trust between teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods and course satisfaction, as well as students’ examination preparation intention between moderate difficulty of examination and course satisfaction, are shown in

Table 9. Mediating effect test results.

Path	Effect Types	Effect Value	95% Confidence Interval		p	Effectiveness Ratio	Decision
			Upper Limit	Lower Limit
Teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods $\to$ course trust $\to$ students’ course satisfaction	Total effect	0.5004	0.4112	0.5895	<0.001	--	Supported
	Direct effect	0.2149	0.1253	0.3049	<0.001	42.9%
	Indirect effect	0.2854	0.2206	0.3487	<0.001	57.1%
Moderate difficulty of examination $\to$ students’ examination preparation intention $\to$ students’ course satisfaction	Total effect	0.4981	0.4129	0.5833	<0.001	--	Supported
	Direct effect	0.2711	0.1793	0.3630	<0.001	54.4%
	Indirect effect	0.2270	0.1473	0.3085	<0.001	45.6%

.

The indirect effect value of course trust between teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods and students’ course satisfaction is 0.2854 (accounting for 57.1%), and the Bootstrap confidence interval does not include 0, which is [0.2206, 0.3487], indicating that course trust is an important path for teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods to affect students’ course satisfaction, with a significant mediating effect. In view of this, the H3a hypothesis holds true. The indirect effect value of students’ examination preparation intention between moderate difficulty of examination and students’ course satisfaction is 0.2270 (accounting for 45.6%), and the Bootstrap confidence interval does not include 0, which is [0.1473, 0.3085], indicating that students’ examination preparation intention is an important path for moderate difficulty of examination to affect students’ course satisfaction, with a significant mediating effect. Considering this, the H3b hypothesis holds true.

5.6. Summary of Hypothesis Testing

Through an empirical analysis of 270 valid sample data collected, this paper verified all the proposed relationship hypotheses. The summary results are shown in

Table 10. Results of research hypothesis testing.

Number	Research Hypothesis	Decision
H1a	Usefulness of teaching content positively influences students’ perceived value.	Supported
H1b	Teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods have a positive impact on course trust.	Supported
H1c	Moderate difficulty of examination positively influences examination preparation intention.	Supported
H2a	Perceived value positively influences students’ course satisfaction.	Supported
H2b	Course trust positively promotes students’ course satisfaction.	Supported
H2c	Examination preparation intention positively promotes students’ course satisfaction.	Supported
H3a	Course trust mediates the relationship between teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods and students’ course satisfaction. The stronger the course trust, the stronger the positive relationship between the two.	Supported
H3b	Examination preparation intention mediates the relationship between moderate difficulty of examination and students’ course satisfaction. The stronger the examination preparation intention, the stronger the positive relationship between the two.	Supported

.

Through correlation analysis, regression analysis, and mediating effect tests, all the above hypotheses hold true.

6. Discussion

6.1. Discussion on Key Findings

The first key finding of this study is that usefulness of teaching content positively influences students’ perceived value. This is consistent with the existing relevant studies [72,73,74]. Whether a teacher’s teaching content can be popular among students depends crucially on making students feel it is valuable. Students’ learning is purposeful. They hope to gain benefits by investing their time, energy, and money in their studies. This is human nature and also the motivation for students to learn. Especially in the current post-COVID-19 era, the global economy is in a downturn. Students are more eager for the teaching content provided by teachers to be valuable for their future. For instance, in classes, teachers explain theoretical knowledge in connection with practical situations and explain the corresponding course content based on students’ future needs for job hunting, postgraduate entrance examinations, civil service examinations, and entrepreneurship, and conduct targeted case analysis and problem discussions. For the course content to make students feel valuable, the first requirement is that the content taught by the teacher is practical; the second requirement is that the course content can meet the actual needs; finally, the third requirement is that students should feel that they have a sense of achievement by learning this course knowledge from the teacher.

This study also found that teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods have a positive impact on course trust. This is also consistent with the existing studies [74,75,76,77]. In the teaching process, teachers are obviously of extreme importance to students, which also conforms to the Chinese definition of a teacher: “A teacher is one who imparts knowledge, teaches skills and resolves doubts.” The establishment of students’ trust in the course basically depends on the teacher [74], specifically on the teacher’s attitudes and methods in teaching. A teacher’s attitude towards teaching clearly has a significant impact on students’ trust in the course. Only when a teacher prepares lessons carefully, has a correct attitude towards teaching, arrives at the classroom early, manages and cares for students, and attracts them, can students feel that the teacher is truly committed to teaching the course well, and thus develop trust in what the teacher teaches. The way teachers teach is also very important for the establishment of students’ trust in the course. If teachers do not adopt appropriate teaching methods in a course, such as not using information-based teaching and not making PPT or using other courseware because they find it troublesome, and just sitting on the podium reading textbooks, such courses are bound to be boring and cannot win students’ trust in the course, and vice versa. This is consistent with the existing research that some teaching methods, such as the flipped course, can enhance students’ course trust and teaching efficiency [88,92].

The moderate difficulty of examination positively influences examination preparation intention. This is consistent with a few existing studies [78,79]. Although university courses do not have as many examinations as high school courses, generally speaking, each course has a final examination, and the results of these examinations can have a relatively significant impact on students, such as influencing their scholarship selection, grade point, job hunting after graduation, and postgraduate entrance examinations. Teachers’ control over the difficulty of course examinations should adhere to the principle of embedding some control strategies throughout the supportive teaching approach [93], that is, the student’s grade should be in line with student’s efforts. The examination difficulty should not be too low, because a very low examination difficulty means students can pass the examination regardless of whether they prepare for it or not, which is not conducive to stimulating students’ willingness to prepare for the examination; the difficulty of the examination also should not be too high, because very high examination difficulty means that whether one prepares for the examination or not, students cannot pass it, which would dampen students’ willingness to prepare for the examination. It is best that the difficulty of the examination is moderate. Thus, teachers should conduct the examination with the attitude of imparting knowledge as much as possible in a course and not making examinations too difficult or too easy for students, so that students feel that they can achieve good grades through their efforts, and if they do not work hard, their grades will be poor or they may even fail, thus making them willing to actively prepare for the examination.

The perceived value positively influences students’ course satisfaction. This is consistent with the existing studies [10,81]. From the perspective of customer relationship theory, students only feel satisfied when the actual value they gain from taking a course exceeds their expected value. Thus, only when students sense the value of taking a course, that is, the course content meets their actual needs, they experience course satisfaction and then course loyalty, such as recommending more students to take this course and so on [95]. In fact, in the current economic downturn, in order to ensure that students can be employed after graduation, many universities in China have adjusted their courses and majors based on the perceived value of students. For instance, due to the depression of the real estate industry in China, students majoring in related fields such as civil engineering and architecture have difficulty finding jobs after graduation. This has led to students in these majors having extremely low perceived value of their majors and courses, and therefore extremely low course satisfaction. As a result, many universities in China have reduced the enrollment quotas for these majors or even canceled these majors. This is also a realistic manifestation of the positive impact of perceived value on students’ course satisfaction. Students majoring in economics and management learn how to make better use of resources when resources are scarce; the time, energy, money, and other resources that they spend on the course are limited; therefore, only when students perceive the content of a course as valuable, they experience course satisfaction.

Course trust positively promotes students’ course satisfaction. This is consistent with the existing studies [74,82]. Only when students trust a certain teacher’s teaching course, they are willing to listen to the course without resistance and have a sense of satisfaction with the course; on the contrary, when a teacher’s inappropriate teaching attitude and methods cause students to lose trust in the teacher’s courses, students will not attend these courses seriously. For instance, students may be late, leave early, or even skip classes and students may do other things during class and may not even bring books to class. Evidently, students will not be satisfied with the course. Course trust includes students’ trust in teachers, such as believing that teachers will prepare lessons carefully, find the latest knowledge, and impart it to students through the best teaching method and believing that teachers will not be absent from classes, reschedule courses, or be late without reason, which would affect students’ trust in the courses. Course trust also includes students’ trust in the content taught by teachers, such as believing that what teachers say is practical and reliable. Obviously, only when students trust the teacher and the content of the course can there be ultimate students’ course satisfaction.

Students’ examination preparation intention positively promotes students’ course satisfaction. This is also consistent with a few existing studies [83,84,93]. One possible reason why students have a weaker willingness to prepare for examination is that the examination is too easy, making no significant difference whether the student prepares for the examination or not. This obviously leads to a lack of willingness to prepare for the examination and dissatisfaction with the course, especially for those students who usually listen carefully in class, which is unfair. Moreover, for those students who usually do not listen carefully in class, it is not beneficial in the long run because this will make them develop the idea of obtaining something for nothing. The other possible reason why students have a weaker willingness to prepare for an examination is that the examination is too difficult, making it hard for students to pass regardless of whether they prepare for it or not. This will inevitably lead to a low willingness of students to prepare for the examination and a low level of students’ course satisfaction. Moderate difficulty of examination is obviously the best. Teachers embed some control strategies in the overall supportive teaching style [93], making the examination neither too easy nor too difficult. In this way, students have a stronger willingness to prepare for the examination; as long as they study hard, they can achieve good grades. Good grades should be achieved through one’s own efforts and the students’ grades should be in line with student’s efforts, which will inevitably lead to higher satisfaction among students in course examinations.

In addition to the direct relationships, we have also discovered the mediating role of course trust and examination preparation intention. Course trust mediates the relationship between teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods and students’ course satisfaction. The stronger the course trust, the stronger the positive relationship between the two. This is consistent with the existing studies [9,27,86]. Teachers are an extremely important factor influencing students’ course satisfaction in the teaching system. Specifically, it includes teachers’ teaching attitudes such as whether they prepare lessons carefully, whether they change courses without reason, and so on and teachers’ teaching methods such as whether teachers adopt better teaching methods to impart knowledge to students and so on. For example, some scholars have studied the influence of teachers’ teaching methods such as flipped courses on students’ course satisfaction [88]. This study indicates that an important mechanism by which teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods in a course influence students’ course satisfaction is to enhance their trust in the course, which is also in line with the actual teaching situation. The teaching attitudes and methods of teachers, as an external stimulus, will give students a direct subjective feeling [82], generating a kind of course trust such as “I believe the teacher wants to do his best to teach this course well” and “I think the content explained by the teacher is reliable and trustworthy”, thereby enabling students to have course satisfaction. If a teacher does not prepare lessons carefully for a course, such as the PPT content being outdated and inconsistent with the textbook or even contradictory, always changes courses at will, and does not strengthen course management and care for and attract students, this will inevitably make students distrust the teacher and their course, thinking that the teacher is just going through the motions; therefore, this raises doubts about the reliability and credibility of the content taught by the teacher and creates low course trust, ultimately leading to low student satisfaction in the course.

Examination preparation intention mediates the relationship between moderate difficulty of examination and students’ satisfaction in a course. The stronger the examination preparation intention, the stronger the positive relationship between the two. This is consistent with the existing studies [82,85]. Although few scholars have studied the difficulty of examination, there is no doubt that difficulty of examination has a significant impact on students’ course satisfaction. This is because the difficulty of course examinations represents whether the students’ grades are in line with the students’ efforts, and the results of course examinations have a relatively important influence on students, such as affecting scholarship selection, grade point, job hunting after graduation, and postgraduate entrance examinations. As mentioned above, teachers should take examinations with the attitude of imparting knowledge as much as possible in a course and should not make examinations too difficult to dampen students’ enthusiasm for preparation, nor should they make examinations too easy, which fails to stimulate students’ enthusiasm for preparation. Teachers’ appropriate control over the difficulty of examinations is conducive to giving full play to students’ subjective initiative, that is, their willingness to prepare for the examinations. The difficulty of examinations should make students feel that “I feel that through hard study, I will achieve good grades.”, “If I don’t study hard for the examination, my grades will be poor or even fail” and “I am willing to study actively for the examination”, which will inevitably lead to the majority of students achieving satisfactory grades through hard study, and in turn positively affect students’ scholarship selection, grade point, job hunting after graduation, postgraduate entrance examinations, and so on, ultimately resulting in better student satisfaction in a course.

6.2. Theoretical Implications

From a theoretical perspective, this study improved and developed some relevant theories such as the customer relationship theory, SOR theory, and perceived value theory. Based on the existing research [1,2,3,4,5,9], this paper holds that course teaching is a kind of knowledge-imparting service provided by teachers to students, and students are the main customers of universities. The customer relationship theory was applied to the research on students’ course satisfaction, and through the comprehensive application of SOR theory and perceived value theory, the analytical framework of “teacher teaching–student psychological transformation–student course satisfaction” was constructed, some new hypotheses were proposed, a new conceptual model was built, and results consistent with the teaching reality of economics and management majors in universities were obtained. These result from the expansion and deepening of the connotations of the customer relationship theory, SOR theory, and perceived value theory. In addition, the conceptual model constructed in this study incorporates more influencing factors of teachers’ teaching on course satisfaction, such as examination difficulty and examination preparation intention, and can integrate multiple disciplines theories. At the same time, this paper deconstructs the theoretical mechanism by which the teaching of teachers majoring in economics and management affects course satisfaction.

6.3. Practical Implications

From a practical perspective, for the course teaching of economics and management majors, the research conclusions can help universities and teaching staffs accurately grasp the key elements of student course satisfaction. At the same time, this article deconstructs the practical paths by which the teaching of economics and management teachers influences course satisfaction. Specifically, the usefulness of a teacher’s teaching content can influence students’ perceived value. For instance, if the course content can meet students’ actual needs and is in line with reality, making students feel a sense of resonance and giving students a sense of achievement, this in turn affects students’ satisfaction with the course. This provides a direction for teachers to prepare course teaching content. Teachers’ attitudes and methods of teaching not only directly affect students’ satisfaction in a course but also influence students’ trust in the course. This puts forward requirements for teachers’ lesson preparation, teaching attire, teaching mood, teaching methods, and so on. The difficulty of teachers’ course examinations directly affects students’ satisfaction in a course and influence their willingness to prepare for its examinations. This places requirements on the examination difficulty of teachers’ courses. The difficulty of the examination should not be too low, making students feel that they can pass it regardless of whether they prepare for it or not, as this is not conducive to stimulating students’ willingness to prepare for an examination. The difficulty of the examination should not be too high, making students feel that whether they prepare for it or not, they will not pass it, as this would dampen students’ enthusiasm towards examination preparation. These results provide some scientific basis for enhancing course satisfaction and teaching efficiency, improving the quality of higher education teaching, helping to create a more dynamic, efficient, and sustainable teaching system, and promoting sustainable education development.

7. Conclusions

Based on the existing research, SOR theory, and perceived value theory, this paper proposes hypotheses, constructs models, and uses statistical measurement methods based on questionnaire data to study the impact of teachers’ teaching on students’ course satisfaction, considering the economics and management major as an example. Through empirical analysis, the conclusions drawn are as follows:

(1)

Teachers’ teaching has a differentiated driving effect on students’ psychology: the usefulness of teaching content is the key path to enhancing students’ perceived value; teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods are the core means to building trust in a course; and the moderate difficulty of examination drives students’ examination preparation intention.

(2)

Students’ psychology is the core means for the transformation of course satisfaction: perceived value directly drives course satisfaction; course trust is the cornerstone of course satisfaction and plays a significant mediating role between teachers’ teaching attitudes and methods and students’ course satisfaction, and students’ examination preparation intention positively promotes course satisfaction and plays a significant mediating role between moderate difficulty of examination and course satisfaction.

Based on the above conclusions, in order to enhance students’ course satisfaction in the teaching of economics and management teachers, this paper suggests optimizing the usefulness of teaching content, strengthening the application scenarios of knowledge and emotional connections, and improving students’ perceived value; improving teachers’ attitudes and methods in teaching such as promoting digital artificial intelligence teaching, and building course trust; teachers should also strive to impart knowledge as much as possible in a class, adopt an attitude that does not make examinations too difficult or too easy for students, and stimulate students’ willingness to prepare for examinations. Finally, we should promote the development of sustainable education by enhancing students’ course satisfaction.

8. Limitations and Future Research

Although this article deconstructs the theoretical mechanism and practical path by which the teaching of economics and management teachers affects course satisfaction, future research can be further expanded in multiple directions to make theoretical analysis and practical suggestions closer to real needs: (1) In light of the characteristics of teaching in different professional courses, cross-disciplinary comparative studies can be carried out in the future. Currently, this research only focuses on the teaching of economics and management teachers. However, the teaching of teachers, and students’ psychology and preferences in engineering, science, and other humanities and social science courses are significantly different. These differences will affect the impact of teachers’ teaching on students’ course satisfaction. For instance, students from different majors have different criteria for judging perceived value, such as students majoring in economics and management tending to prefer cost and benefit analysis, while those majoring in civil engineering possibly caring more about the construction technology of an engineering project. (2) This research is based on the teaching data of teachers majoring in economics and management in mainland China. In the future, collecting the teaching data of teachers majoring in economics and management from different countries can be attempted. The purpose of economics and management courses is to allocate and utilize resources to benefit the country and the people based on the national conditions. However, different countries obviously have different national conditions. Therefore, the teachers’ teaching content, attitude, and method and the examination difficulty of economics and management course in different countries will also vary. Moreover, the psychological characteristics of students in different countries are also different. Therefore, in the future, teaching data of economics and management majors in different countries can be collected to obtain more general research conclusions. (3) The conceptual model in this paper contains many influencing factors of students’ course satisfaction; however, the teaching system is a complex system composed of students, teachers, teaching materials, teaching equipment, environment, and so on, and there are still many factors affecting students’ course satisfaction. Although it is unlikely that one model completely includes all these factors; however, the models established in future research can take into account more influencing factors to improve the research conclusions of this paper.