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Article

The Influence of a Student-Led Advertising Agency Service-Learning Project on SMME Client Satisfaction: An Expectancy–Disconfirmation Paradigm

by
Rodney Duffett
* and
Dylan Cromhout
Marketing Department, Faculty of Business and Management Sciences, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Hanover and Tennant Street, Cape Town 8000, South Africa
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Educ. Sci. 2022, 12(12), 847; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12120847
Submission received: 28 October 2022 / Revised: 10 November 2022 / Accepted: 17 November 2022 / Published: 22 November 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Education and Scholarship in Higher Education)
Review Reports Versions Notes

Abstract

:
The success of small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs) is especially important for increasing employment and economic growth that is sustainable in developing nations. SMMEs are reported to be more successful if they use particular business management strategies compared with those that do not implement such strategies. Service-learning projects (S-LPs), in the form of student-led advertising agencies (SLAAs), can assist SMME clients (community partners) with customer research, knowledge transfer and skills training, advertising, and marketing and business services, as well as provide students with practical experience. However, most research is directed at the student benefits, and few empirical studies investigate the advantages for the clients. Therefore, the main objective of this inquiry was to examine SMMEs’ satisfaction in terms of the perceived influence of a SLAA S-LP on lasting impact and business performance. A total of 107 SMME clients were surveyed via a structured questionnaire. The findings indicated that the SLAA S-LP had a significant positive influence on the lasting impact, and business efficiency, brand awareness, competitive advantage, employee motivation, customer loyalty, new customers, and sales of the participating SMMEs. Therefore, the SLAAs provided the SMMEs with low-cost marketing and advertising options that improved the performance of their businesses.

1. Introduction

After several years of recession and minimal economic growth, combined with the ill effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate increased to 35.3% in South Africa, but was as high as 65.5% among the youth [1]. Consequently, many unemployed individuals established SMMEs (small, medium, and micro enterprises), mainly microenterprises in the informal business sector, in townships and other disadvantaged communities as a survival strategy [1]. However, the failure rate of these SMME initiatives is very high (as many as 70% do not survive past the first year), since these businesses are severely disadvantaged due to a lack of business/marketing knowledge and skills, little financial access, and ineffective government initiatives [2]. Several other studies confirm that SMMEs do not have the necessary resources and expertise in marketing that are essential to implement effective marketing strategies [3,4,5,6,7]. Notwithstanding the challenges, SMMEs must find ways to sustain their operations in an economic market that has become “increasingly more competitive, more specialized, more globalized, and more technologically-driven” [3,8]. Soke and Wild [2] asserted that SMMEs which used strategic management practices (e.g., marketing and/or marketing communications (MC)) would not only survive but could also grow and create employment.
Anderson et al. [9] revealed that service-learning (S-L) “… involves intentionally linking service activities with the academic curriculum to address real community needs while students learn through active engagement and reflection”. There has been S-L growth in recent business education research [10,11,12,13,14], especially in the discipline of marketing inquiries [7,15,16,17]. The discipline of marketing is suitably compatible with S-L pedagogy because SMMEs and NPOs (non-profit organizations) frequently require marketing services but are unable to procure such services due to no or limited funds [2,17]. Service-learning programmes (S-LPs) can assist in bridging this gap by allowing marketing students to use their skills and knowledge (that were learnt in the classroom) to solve real-world marketing problems [7,15,16,17]. Additionally, S-L mostly targets NPOs since these organizations mainly depend on volunteers and donations to attain their objectives. Though, there has been rapid growth in the use of S-LPs to assist SMMEs both internationally [7,10,14] and locally [13,18,19] in recent years. Market research, business and marketing plan development, marketing materials, and tools, which include advertising/MC campaigns, social media, and websites to increase sales and customers, are examples of typical marketing-related S-LPs for SMMEs [8,19]. Some international investigations report growth in SMME performance [7,20], but few South African S-L inquiries consider the benefits of this pedagogy on SMMEs [13,19,21]. Mungaray-Lagarda et al. [7] also asserted that business and marketing S-LPs are important in assisting with disadvantaged SMMEs (microenterprises) particularly in developing countries. Furthermore, no prior S-LP inquiry has considered SMME client satisfaction, which collectively includes such a wide range and variety of business performance variables (i.e., business efficiency, brand awareness, competitive advantage, employee motivation, customer loyalty, new customers, and sales) from a community partner perspective in an African developing country. Hence, this investigation sought to address this gap in research by evaluating the influence of a student-led advertising agency (SLAA) S-LP on lasting impact and business performance variables in terms of SMME community partner client satisfaction.
A Cape Peninsula University of Technology Advertising subject lecturer and a local agency (based in Cape Town), viz. Brand Shepherd, developed an S-LP in 2010. The Marketing Diploma students formed small SLAAs to assist SMME clients (mainly located in disadvantaged communities) with little-to-no customer research, knowledge and skills training (especially in terms of the maintenance of the digitals platform, which were developed by the students, such as websites, blogs and social media platforms), advertising/MC plans, and marketing and business services. The advertising/MC campaign plans included advertising, media and creative strategies, strategic plans, budgets, and timelines, as well as other marketing strategies and recommendations. A number of the advertising/MC campaign plan elements were implemented by the SLAAs, especially those that did not entail any financial costs (i.e., pro bono work) other than the students’ expertise and time. For example, the SLAAs created websites, blogs, and social media pages; composed press releases; developed advertising media material (e.g., competition entry forms, posters, loyalty cards, flyers, business cards); and some negotiated with the SMME suppliers to supply advertising material and prizes for competitions. The main goal of the S-LP was to provide SMME clients with low-cost customer research, knowledge transfer and skills training, and various advertising and marketing resources and tools that could be used to improve the performance of the businesses. The S-LP gave the marketing students a platform to practically apply the theoretical concepts taught in the classroom in the actual business environment, which not only gave them practical experience, but also allowed the students to give back to their communities. The SLAA S-LP has assisted approximately eight hundred SMMEs with customer research, knowledge transfer and skills training, advertising, marketing, and business services over a 13 year period.
Furthermore, several studies affirm many benefits for the students employed in student-led agencies (SLAs), for example, improved creative skills, practical workplace experience, enhance employment prospects, increased acceptance of cultural diversity, and enhanced learning owing to working with real-life clients, as well as improved critical thinking, group work, leadership, communication, problem-solving, and organizational and personal development skills [22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29]. However, the aforementioned inquiries considered SLAs from the agency employer, student, and/or course coordinator perspective to examine SLA structures and the student benefits due to participating in such S-LP initiatives. Consequently, there are several noteworthy research gaps; firstly, no academic study has previously assessed satisfaction of the recipients (i.e., the clients) owing to the services that were provided by SLAs, and, secondly, none of the inquiries assessed the achievement of the clients’ business performance goals due to the services rendered by the SLAs. Thirdly, another research gap is that a majority of the studies took place in the US, and further SLA-related research was mandated to be conducted in other countries [30]. So, this is one of the first studies to consider client satisfaction in the realization of their business performance goals due to a SLA in order to bridge the above-mentioned research gaps, and the inquiry was also be performed in an African developing country to fulfill the gap in research that stipulated further SLA-related research should be implemented in different countries.
Hence, the aim of this research was to consider SMME client satisfaction due to customer research, knowledge transfer and skills training, and advertising/MC plans that were developed and implemented by the SLAA S-LP to assess the perceived influence on lasting impact and various business performance variables (i.e., business efficiency, brand awareness, competitive advantage, employee motivation, customer loyalty, new customers, and sales) in a developing country.

2. Theoretical Background and Hypotheses

2.1. Service-Learning

S-L can be defined as “a form of experiential education where learning occurs through a cycle of action and reflection as students work with others through a process of applying what they are learning to community problems, and, at the same time, reflecting upon their experience as they seek to achieve real objectives for the community and deeper understanding and skills for themselves” [31]. Hence, S-L can be surmised as a type of community engagement; uses experiential learning and teaching techniques in specific academic courses; includes reflection and instruction; is credit-bearing and assessed; fosters civic, personal, vocational, and academic student learning; focuses on the needs of the community; and offers students, academic staff, service providers, and community partners mutually beneficial associations [20,32,33,34].
The Community Higher Education Service Partnership proposed a triad S-L learning model, which emphasizes a “three-way partnership” between different stakeholders, namely the external service providers (non-government and private organizations), community partners/clients (commonly SMMEs and NPOs) and university (generally academic coordinators/staff, and students), and [35]. However, most S-L inquiries emphasize the student benefits and pedagogical considerations [11,12,15,16] and frequently ignores the impact on the community partner (client) [7,17,36,37,38,39]. This is of concern, since the principal S-L principles are reciprocity and mutuality [31,32]. Hence, S-L coordinators often experience a dearth of empirical evidence to engage community partner clients in a manner that results in positive outcomes, yet the community partners enduring commitment is essential for the success of S-L as a pedagogical practice [13,20]. Mungaray-Lagarda et al. [7] proposed that there is a need for further research that considers SMME-related S-LPs in developing countries. Hence, this study considered S-LP satisfaction from the community partners’ (i.e., SMME clients) perspectives.

2.2. SMME Marketing

A broad range of South African inquiries have considered SMME marketing. The goal of these inquiries is generally to understand the implementation of SMME marketing strategies, for example, integrated MC tool usage [2], marketing challenges [6], strategic marketing needs analysis of SMMEs [19,21], marketing strategy usage in rural areas [40], marketing skills needs analysis [6,41], financial performance, and marketing strategy associations [42]. Some inquiries also examine the influence marketing technology on SMMEs in South Africa. These studies consider competitiveness and business performance technology influences [43,44], mobile marketing adoption [45,46], both technology and traditional MC tool usage [47], and the extent of social media usage [4,44]. Soke and Wild [2] confirmed that SMMEs think highly of advertising, sales promotion, and marketing in South Africa. However, SMMEs frequently lack marketing and advertising expertise, internal capabilities, and finance necessary to develop effective marketing strategies [3,7,8]. Lekhanya [40] verified that SMMEs have limited experience, skills, and knowledge to implement and design advertising/MC campaigns, sales promotions, and marketing strategies, which is generally evident in newer marketing-related platforms such as digital advertising and social media marketing [5,44,48]. For these reasons, a mutually beneficial relationship can be facilitated between the stakeholders of marketing-related S-LPs, where the students gain valuable practical experience, and the SMMEs and NPOs receive customer research, knowledge transfer and skills training, and various advertising and marketing resources, tools, and services.
Cant [41] suggested that SMMEs can be taught how to develop and design marketing plans and increase the success and growth of their businesses. Cant [41] also proposed that the “marketing concept” should be the foundation of SMMEs that will make sure that efforts are focused on the identification of customer needs and customer satisfaction to increase the sales and profitability of these small businesses. Bruhn et al. [49] revealed that consultant services can positively influence SMME business performance in terms of an increase in profits and productivity. Marketing, accounting, and long-term planning are the management practices that are most positively influenced by such interventions, and marketing-related S-LPs can assist SMMEs to increase their marketing proficiency. However, Bushouse [50] suggested that due to lack of expertise, capabilities, and resources, and some SMMEs may claim not to have the time for S-LP engagement but will engage in S-LPs if the perceived advantages are greater than the outlay of time and other resources. Niehm et al. [3] and Mungaray-Lagarda et al. [7] offered several convincing reasons for the formation of SMMEs partnerships with business-related S-LP projects. These scholarly authors suggest a number of parallels between community derived benefits from NPOs and SMMEs in S-LPs, for example: both face difficulties in securing training, consultation, and other forms of assistance to facilitate businesses growth; both organization types can increase employment and reduce poverty; NPOs and SMMEs have similar human and financial limitations; and both organization types can offer students practical training, experience and expertise that is necessary for their learning, growth and personal development and learning. Hence, it is apparent that S-LPs can be of great assistance to SMMEs regarding marketing, advertising, and other business-related services, and students’ personal and academic development.

2.3. Student-Led Agencies

Bush and Miller [22] described a student-led agency (SLA) as a student operated agency that replicates the procedures and processes of a real-life professional agency (e.g., integrated MC, public relations, digital, research, below-the-line, advertising, research). SLAs are a type of S-L pedagogy, where students can develop actual campaigns that are pitched to and used by real-life actual clients [23,24]. Several authors highlight that many positive experiences can be derived from working in an SLA, namely better workplace preparation, enhanced understanding of theoretical concepts, enhanced decision-making abilities, increased learning due to experience with real-life clients, improved job prospects, a grasp of agency processes, greater creative work abilities; improved cultural sensitivity; and client diversity skills [25,26,27]. Students stressed many desirable personal skills, benefits, and soft skills due to working in SLAs, namely teamwork, accountability, problem-solving, critical thinking, organization, confidence, conceptualization, client interaction, writing, communication, interpersonal skills, self-efficacy, leadership, and management skills [26,27,28,29]. Hence, the Advertising/MC subject lecturer felt that SLAA was an effective experiential learning mechanism to implement an S-LP. The SLAA S-LP not only gave the students practical work experience and the opportunity to improve their soft skills, but also served as a means for them to give back to their communities by using what they learnt in the class to make a meaningful difference in their clients’ businesses.
Several inquiries indicated an increase in university SLA usage for business-related courses (e.g., public relations, media studies, advertising, digital marketing, and others), but these studies only assessed the value of SLAs, student skills and benefits, and/or SLA structures from the viewpoint of academic coordinators, students, and agency employers [42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49]. Therefore, there is limited inquiry that examines the influence of SLAs from a client perspective, as well as that considers the perceived influence of the student campaigns and recommendations on the actual performance of the clients’ businesses. Furthermore, the abovementioned inquiries are predominantly US-based, and there is a dearth of SLA-related investigation from other countries. Maben [30] proposed research should also be initiated in other countries to examine the benefits of SLAs. Hence, the aim of this research was to evaluate the perceived SMME clients’ satisfaction due to customer research, knowledge transfer and skills training, and advertising/MC plans that were developed and implemented by the SLAAs during an S-LP in a developing country.

2.4. Theoretical Framework and Hypothesis Development

2.4.1. Theoretical Framework

The expectancy–disconfirmation theory is a well-known model used to consider the satisfaction of clients and customers [51]. The theory suggests that clients who make use of services and customers that purchase have a certain performance expectation before the actual acquisition, and this is utilized to consider the performance of services or products after use or consumption. Clients and customers are usually satisfied if the services and products performance is greater than their expectations, which causes positive disconfirmation. Conversely, the clients and customers are generally dissatisfied if the services and product performances are less than their expectations, which causes negative disconfirmation [52].
Some prior studies ascertained that SMME clients were satisfied with the S-LPs due to the sustainable favorable influence on their businesses [7,8,18]. Furthermore, other inquiries affirm that S-LPs can improve community partners’ business performance and satisfaction [20,28,36,53]. Therefore, several hypotheses are proposed, which consider the satisfaction of SMME clients in terms of the lasting impact and various business performance variables (business efficiency, brand awareness, competitive advantage, employee motivation, customer loyalty, new customers, and sales) due to the SLAA S-LP.

2.4.2. Hypothesis Development

Schachter and Schwartz [54] found that community partner clients were satisfied with public relations S-LPs, which was also perceived to have a lasting impact on the participating organizations. Sprague and Hu [55] concurred that community partner clients found S-LPs to have an enduring and sustainable impact. Some SMME clients expressed positive satisfaction predispositions towards S-LPs, which increased their likelihood of future participation, especially owing to sustainable impact on their businesses [3,7,8,18,54,55,56]. So, it is hypothesized that:
H1. 
Satisfaction is greater among SMME clients that perceive a lasting impact because of the SLAA S-LP.
Krasynska et al. [57] confirmed that S-LPs can improve the capacity of organizations in areas such as community outreach, fundraising, communications, leadership, human resources, and management. Plaut et al. [58] concurred that S-LPs can improve the efficiency of organizations, for example, the community partners were able to increase funding, service and meet their obligations. Additionally, other investigations verify that MC can improve the efficiency of businesses, especially SMMEs [5,6,17,37,59,60]. So, it is hypothesized that:
H2. 
Satisfaction is greater among SMME clients that perceive increased business efficiency because of the SLAA S-LP.
Several inquiries reveal that S-LPs can increase community awareness, which leads to satisfied community partners [17,55]. Likewise, other investigations indicate that MC can improve the sustainable performance of SMMEs by raising marketplace visibility [59,60]. So, it is hypothesized that:
H3. 
Satisfaction is greater among SMME clients that perceive increased brand awareness because of the SLAA S-LP.
Groenewald et al. [61] suggested that MC strategies can be effectively employed by SMMEs to establish a competitive advantage, since MC assists with growing a reliable marketplace image. Brand awareness that can be sustained by organizations can realize a competitive advantage since there are numerous services and products vying for consumers’ attention [62]. A competitive advantage can also be achieved if businesses are able to create MC strategies to effectively meet customer needs [63]. Furthermore, a business competitive advantage showed improvements due to the MC value [64], which could be developed by SLAA S-LPs. So, it is hypothesized that:
H4. 
Satisfaction is greater among SMME clients that perceive an increased competitive advantage because of the SLAA S-LP.
Various inquiries affirm an association between employee motivation and benefits of MC (for example, sales growth), particularly among marketing and sales employees [65,66]. Some studies also verify the favorable impact of S-LPs on employee morale, which lead to higher levels of satisfaction [67,68]. So, it is hypothesized that:
H5. 
Satisfaction is greater among SMME clients that perceive increased employee motivation because of the SLAA S-LP.
Many authors posit that traditional and online MC activities can assist businesses to maintain relationships with customers, which could increase customer loyalty [4,5,59]. Several other authors ascertain that SMME customer loyalty can improved by marketing and advertising campaigns [4,40] that could be implemented by SLAA S-LPs. So, it is hypothesized that:
H6. 
Satisfaction is greater among SMME clients that perceive increased customer loyalty because of the SLAA S-LP.
Several inquiries confirm that SMMEs can acquire new customers via MC campaigns [5,40,60,69,70]. New customers can be enticed by marketing campaigns that make use of referrals [40]; SMMEs can use social media as an inexpensive means to target new and broader audiences that were previously out of reach [60,71,72,73]; this supposition was confirmed by Rambe [5] and Mosweunyane et al. [70], who agreed that new customers can be attracted by social media MC, which could be developed by SLAA S-LPs. So, it is hypothesized that:
H7. 
Satisfaction is greater among SMME clients that perceive increased new customers because of the SLAA S-LP.
Many studies verify that MC can increase SMME sales, especially when both online and traditional MC strategies are employed [2,40,59,70,74]. Furlow [75] indicated that MC S-LPs that led to increased sales resulted in high client satisfaction levels. Other investigations established that marketing-related S-LPs, which increased revenue for the community partner organizations, also resulted in elevated levels of satisfaction [17,76]. So, it is hypothesized that:
H8. 
Satisfaction is greater among SMME clients that perceive increased sales because of the SLAA S-LP.
Krasynska et al. [57] found that some S-LPs were perceived to not have any positive impact on the community partner organizations. Mapheto et al. [74] affirmed that some SMMEs believed that their customers perceived the student developed MC in a negative light. However, sometimes SMMEs implement advertising/MC in a haphazard and non-strategic manner that often disregards customer needs [77]. Furthermore, some SLAAs S-LP participants may not be adequately prepared, interested or communicate effectively with the SMME community partners, which leads to poor advertising/MC plans [18]. So, it is hypothesized that:
H9. 
Satisfaction is lower among SMME clients that perceive no impact on business performance because of the SLAA S-LP.

3. Materials and Methods

The inquiry was grounded on the positivist paradigm whereby social behavior can be observed by researcher in scientific manner. The SLAA S-LP produced a large quantity of quantitative data, so the empirical verification was based on a variance ratio model owing to the topic of topic study’s complexity. This design of the study facilitated a linear examination of satisfaction of SMME clients owing to their partaking in the SLAA S-LP. This study is classified as a “summative programme evaluation” since it considers the collective impact of the SLAA S-LP by establishing if the customer research, knowledge transfer and skills training, and advertising/MC campaign plan activities successfully achieved the proposed research goals via a statistically analysis of significant associations in terms of the satisfaction of the participating SMMEs.

3.1. Sampling

Over three hundred (331) SMME clients were serviced by the SLAA over five-years and formed the basis of the research population, but thirty-seven SMME clients were not eligible to be included in the sample frame as they failed to provide the stipulated feedback after the conclusion of the SLAA S-LP each year. An additional fourteen SMME clients did not provide their contact particulars and so were also not included in the sample frame, which therefore consisted of two hundred and eight SMME clients. The entire sample frame was contacted telephonically to establish if the SMMEs were willing to be included in the survey and that there was a SMME client owner/employee accessible for the completion of the questionnaire. Ultimately, one hundred and seven community partners granted permission to be surveyed and completed the questionnaires, which were undertaken at the SMME client premises.

3.2. Research Instrument and Procedure

The questionnaire was “structured” and largely based on the research of Schachter and Schwartz [54], who granted permission for the use and adaption of several questions derived from the questionnaire according to the SLAA S-LP research parameters. Screening questions were first asked to determine if the SMME clients were directly involved in working with the students that participated in the SLAA S-LP. Closed-end questions, in a multiple-choice format, were used to gather SMME client demographic information, which included turnover, employee numbers, SMME business entity legal forms, and the age of the SMMEs. The satisfaction of the SMME client was assessed via a single four-point rating measurement scale question that was adopted from Schachter and Schwartz [54], which was as follows: “How satisfied are you with the overall S-LP?” The options for response were as follows: “very dissatisfied”, “dissatisfied”, “satisfied”, and “very satisfied”. Another single five-point rating measurement scale question, which was also adopted from Schachter and Schwartz [54], was utilized to assess the lasting (sustainable) impact of the SLAA S-LP on SMME clients. The options for response were as follows: “negative impact”, “no lasting impact”, “nominal lasting impact”, “some lasting impact”, and “significant lasting impact”. The perceived increase in business performance variables due to the SLAA S-LP, viz. on business efficiency, brand awareness, competitive advantage, employee motivation, customer loyalty, new customers, sales, and “no impact on business performance” questions were assessed via “multiple response list dichotomous options”, which stipulated that SMME client participants should tick each applicable option box.

3.3. Data Analysis

The questionnaires that were completed by the SMME clients were examined to confirm that all the questions were answered, and follow-up telephone calls were used to gather incomplete and/or missing data. SPSS was used to run the applicable statistical tests to describe the sample via mean (M) values, frequency percentages, and standard deviation (SD) values. As mentioned in prior discourse, the satisfaction of the SMME client was assessed via a single four-point rating measurement scale question; therefore, it was not possible to compute reliability and validity measures for the study [54]. The SMME clients’ perceived satisfaction with the SLA S-LP was analyzed in relation to the lasting impact variable and each business performance variable via a linear variance ratio model statistical method, viz. analysis of variance (ANOVA), to establish if there was support for the proposed hypotheses. A post-hoc assessment, namely Bonferroni, was executed to determine where the significant differences (p) were located among these variables.

4. Results

4.1. SMME Client Demographics

A majority (86.2%) of the SMME clients’ annual turnover was less than one million South African Rand (ZAR), followed by one to six million ZAR (10.3%), and more than six million ZAR (3.5%). A majority (61.8%) of the SMME clients had 0–4 employees, 37.2% had 5–19 employees, and 1% had 20–48 employees. The SMME business entity legal forms were as follows: sole proprietorships (43.1%), CC (26.5%), private companies (22.5%), partnerships (6.9%), and joint ventures (1.0%). A minority (43.8%) of the SMMEs were less than 5.5 years old versus an overwhelming majority (56.2%) that were older than 5.5 years.

4.2. SLAA S-LP SMME Client Lasting Impact

A significant majority of SMME clients (77.9%) reported that the SLAA S-LP had some lasting (sustainable) impact on their businesses. Over half of the SMME clients noted that the SLAA S-LP had some (30.8%) and significant (21.2%) lasting impact, whereas 26.0% of the affirmed nominal lasting impact. Conversely, 18.2% indicated that the SLAA S-LP had no lasting impact, whereas 3.8% reported a negative impact.

4.3. SLAA S-LP SMME Client Satisfaction

A vast majority of SMME clients (71.7%) exhibited high positive satisfaction levels with the SLAA S-LP as nearly half of the SMME clients were satisfied (47.2%) and a quarter (24.5%) were very satisfied. However, 29.3% of the SMME clients expressed dissatisfaction with the SLAA S-LP—5.7% of the SMME clients were very dissatisfied and 22.6% were dissatisfied.

4.4. Business Performance Variables

Two thirds (67%) of the SMME clients reported an increase of business performance variables due to the SLAA S-LP, whereas one third (33%) indicated that there was no impact on their businesses’ performance. SMME clients revealed an increase in the business performance variables as follows: business efficiency (17.5%), brand awareness (41.7%), competitive advantage (12.6%), employee motivation (14.6%), customer loyalty (26.2%), new customers (44.7%), and sales (39.8%).

4.5. SLAA S-LP Statistical Analysis

The ANOVA statistical measure showed that SMME client satisfaction (M = 2.92, SD = 0.837) was significant (p < 0.001) due to the SLAA S-LP. A summary of the perceived lasting impact and increase of business performance variables, in terms of the mean square, F-values (F), and significance (p) due to the SLAA S-LP, is detailed in Table 1.
Lasting impact (F = 23.047, p = 0.001, 95% C.I. = [0.058, 3.85]): SMMEs that affirmed minimal (M = 2.74, SD = 0.712, SE = 0.137), some (M = 3.13, SD = 0.554, SE = 0.098), significant (M = 3.64, SD = 0.492, SE = 0.105), and impact, which was lasting (sustainable), revealed greater satisfaction in comparison with SMMEs that indicated a negative impact (M = 1.50, SD = 0.601, SE = 0.289) and “no lasting impact” (M = 2.09, SD = 0.569, SE = 0.151) because of the SLAA S-LP.
Business efficiency (F = 12.180, p = 0.001, 95% C.I. = [2.61, 3.76]): SMMEs that indicated increased business efficiency (M = 3.50, SD = 0.514, SE = 0.121) because of the SLAA S-LP revealed greater satisfaction in comparison with SMMEs that indicated no increase in business efficiency (M = 2.78, SD = 0.837, SE = 0.089).
Brand awareness (F = 28.561, p = 0.001, 95% C.I. = [2.37, 3.52]): SMMEs that indicated increased brand awareness (M = 3.37, SD = 0.489, SE = 0.075) because of the SLAA S-LP revealed greater satisfaction in comparison with SMMEs which stipulated no brand awareness increase (M = 2.59, SD = 0.873, SE = 0.110).
Competitive advantage (F = 14.926, p = 0.001, 95% C.I. = [2.63, 3.98]): SMMEs that indicated an increased competitive advantage (M = 3.69, SD = 0.480, SE = 0.133) because of the SLAA S-LP revealed greater satisfaction in comparison with SMMEs that indicated no increase in a competitive advantage (M = 2.80, SD = 0.815, SE = 0.0.85).
Employee motivation (F = 10.819, p = 0.001, 95% C.I. = [2.63, 3.82]): SMMEs that indicated increased employee motivation (M = 3.53, SD = 0.516, SE = 0.133) because of the SLAA S-LP revealed greater satisfaction in comparison with SMMEs that indicated no increase in employee motivation (M = 2.80, SD = 0.833, SE = 0.085).
Customer loyalty (F = 12.473, p = 0.001, 95% C.I. = [2.56, 3.59]): SMMEs that indicated increased customer loyalty (M = 3.37, SD = 0.565, SE = 0.109) because of the SLAA S-LP revealed greater satisfaction in comparison with SMMEs that indicated no increase in customer loyalty (M = 2.75, SD = 0.854, SE = 0.096).
New customers (F = 36.989, p = 0.001, 95% C.I. = [2.32, 3.55]): SMMEs that indicated increased new customers (M = 3.39, SD = 0.537, SE = 0.079) because of the SLAA S-LP revealed greater satisfaction in comparison with SMMEs that indicated no increase in new customers (M = 2.53, SD = 0.833, SE = 0.108).
Sales (F = 36.608, p = 0.001, 95% C.I. = [2.37, 3.61]): SMMEs that indicated increased sales (M = 3.44, SD = 0.550, SE = 0.086) because of the SLAA S-LP revealed greater satisfaction in comparison with SMMEs that indicated no increase in sales (M = 2.48, SD = 0.809, SE = 0.100).
No business performance impact (F = 115.444, p = 0.001, 95% C.I. = [1.79, 3.44]): SMMEs that stipulated that there was not an impact (M = 2.03, SD = 0.674, SE = 0.116) because of the SLAA S-LP revealed lower satisfaction in comparison with SMMEs that indicated that there was a favorable influence (M = 3.43, SD = 0.498, SE = 0.062) on business performance.
Therefore, the nine proposed hypotheses were supported, which are detailed in Table 2.

5. Discussion

5.1. Satisfaction

Most of the SMME clients were satisfied with the overall S-LP (i.e., in terms of the customer research, knowledge transfer and skills training, and advertising/MC campaign plans). This result is relatively analogous to other investigations where Schachter and Schwartz [54] ascertained that 74% of community partners were very content with a S-LP recommendations; Sprague and Hu [55] revealed that 85% of community partners were satisfied with a S-LP; and Krasynska et al. [57] and Barrientos [78] indicated that 92% and 79% of community partners ascribed satisfaction because of S-LP activities. Many other community partners also revealed high satisfaction levels with various S-LPs [3,7,8,18,20,21,38,53,56,57,58,68,69,79].
Hence, SLAA S-LPs can create satisfaction and sustainable benefits for community partners, especially due the growth and survival challenges experienced by many South African SMMEs. So, it is proposed that this SLAA S-LP is significantly expanded by forming partnerships with other universities to offer the SLAA S-LP to reach a greater number of South African SMMEs. In this manner, students from other universities could also gain real-world experience while extending important marketing support and development in a bid to improve the rate of success and meet the unique needs of South African SMMEs. It is important that all the SLAAs are properly equipped to perform their responsibilities to warrant the success of the S-LP. Therefore, the S-LP coordinators should make sure that the SLAAs are competent and properly trained in providing the necessary customer research, knowledge transfer and skills training, and advertising/MC campaign plan elements, which will ensure that the SMMEs derive benefit and positive disconfirmation from these S-LP components. The S-LP coordinators could also make use of senior students (for example postgraduate students) to assist the SLAAs with greater work experience and knowledge. Furthermore, the S-LP coordinators must monitor and manage the training and its impact on the SMME clients regularly and adjust the SLAA S-LP processes where applicable to better meet the needs of these community partners [55].
However, a minority of the SMME clients were dissatisfied with the SLAA S-LP. Typically, there are always some students only engage in the S-LP since they are mandated to do so to pass the course, and typically do just enough work to pass [68]. Therefore, it is essential that the SLAAs are instructed about the importance of the S-LP regarding the survival and success of their SMME clients and understand how the SLAA S-LP contributes to society’s greater good. The SLAAs should also be partnered with SMME clients in sectors that are interesting to them, which should increase their levels of engagement and enthusiasm to go beyond the basic course requirements [68]. Some SLAAs may also have a lack of work experience and knowledge [55,69], which may result in a poor service being rendered to the SMME clients and result in negative disconfirmation. The S-LP coordinator could create comprehensive best practice procedural guidelines and develop systems to provide detailed support to assist the SLAAs in providing a better-quality service to the SMME clients. The S-LP coordinators should monitor SLAAs’ work to make sure of adherence to the best practice procedural guidelines, which should be coupled with continuous feedback from the SMME clients to assist in monitoring the work quality and implementation of control mechanisms where there is found to be ineffective service. Furthermore, as previously mentioned, postgraduate students could also be assigned to one or more SLAAs to serve as tutors or mentors, who will provide the SLAAs with additional knowledge and work experience to better assist the needs of their SMME clients, which should increase the sat isfaction with the S-LP.
Therefore, in summary, the management plan and S-LP design should incorporate best practice procedural guidelines, support measures, community development needs, and effective S-LP coordination systems to make sure that the service components are effectively rendered by the SLAAs assure greater satisfaction. The best practice procedural guidelines should include a comprehensive SLAA work hand-over to the SMME clients, effective advertising/MC campaign plan implementation, and an extensive follow-up with the participating SMME clients upon the conclusion of the S-LP.

5.2. Lasting (Sustainable) Impact

An overwhelming majority of the SMME clients revealed that the overall SLAA S-LP had a lasting impact on their businesses, which increased the prospect of repeated participation. Vizenor et al. [69] concurred that that S-LPs can have major sustainable and lasting impact on community partner organizations. Plaut et al. [58] and Barrientos [78] stated that community partners would frequently partake in S-LPs due to the satisfaction and high-quality work. Barrientos [78] also affirmed that S-LPs often result in a major lasting and sustainable impact on the community partner organizations, which was also verified by Schachter and Schwartz [54] and Sprague and Hu [55]. Many other community partners also stress that S-LPs have a lasting and sustainable business impact, which result in high satisfaction levels and the potential for repeated participation [3,7,8,18,56,69]. It is also imperative that the S-LP provide SMME clients with enduring and sustainable success, so the SLAAs develop advertising/MC and marketing and business strategies that can assist the participating SMME clients in bringing them closer to the attainment of their long-term objectives. Therefore, the S-L coordinators should ensure that the SLAAs are fully instructed about the long-term needs and challenges of South African SMMEs (in the context of community service) and make certain that they do not only consider the marks awarded for the S-LP. Hence, S-LPs should endeavor to provide valuable benefits that have a lasting and sustainable impact on SMME client businesses performance instead of focusing on teaching activities aimed at providing effective student experiential learning experiences, which are often at the expense of the community partners [20,75].

5.3. Business Performance Variables

The results showed that the SLAA S-LP had a significant favorable impact on the performance business variables under investigation, viz. business efficiency, brand awareness, competitive advantage, employee motivation, customer loyalty, new customers, and sales of the participating SMME clients. This is a rational result since these business variables form the basis of advertising/MC and marketing campaign and/or business objectives for many SMMEs [7,8,18,64]. Additionally, other research verifies that S-LPs can lead to the improvement of business performance and satisfaction among community partners [8,17,18,20,36,37,53,55,56,69].
Nearly a fifth of the participants indicated an increase in efficiency of their businesses due to the SLAA S-LP, which also resulted in a significant positive association with SMME client satisfaction. This result is confirmed by many other inquiries that agree advertising/MC, marketing and business services can improve business efficiency [4,5,17,37,59,60]. Krasynska et al. [57] and Plaut et al. [58] also verified that S-LPs improved the organization efficiency, for example, in the areas of community outreach, leadership, management, communications, governance, and fundraising.
Over 40% of the participants affirmed growth in brand awareness due to the overall SLAA S-LP, which showed a significant positive association with SMME client satisfaction. Several other SMME-related studies agree that marketplace awareness can be elevated by advertising/MC and thereby increase the performance of businesses [4,59]. These results were also affirmed by several other studies that also found an increase in organization awareness due to S-LPs that led to community partner satisfaction [17,55].
Some SMMEs specified an increase in terms of competitive advantage due to the overall SLAA S-LP, which revealed a significant positive association with SMME client satisfaction. Several other studies also suggest that advertising/MC and marketing can result in a competitive advantage [61,62,63,64] that could be realized by SLAA S-LPs.
Some SMMEs also reported improved motivation of their employees due to the overall SLAA S-LP, which resulted in a significant positive association with SMME client satisfaction. Other investigations substantiate that S-LPs can positively affect employee morale and satisfaction [67,68]. Allen et al. [65] and Mishra and Sinha [66] agreed that there is a favorable relation between advertising/MC and marketing benefits and employee motivation, which could be rendered by S-LPs.
More than a quarter of participants stipulated a customer loyalty increase due to the SLAA S-LP, which also showed in a significant positive association with SMME client satisfaction. Several other inquires also posit that advertising/MC and marketing services can improve the loyalty of customers [4,5,40,59], which could also be executed by SLAA S-LPs.
Close to half of the participants experienced an increase in new customers due to the overall SLAA S-LP, which showed a significant positive association with SMME client satisfaction. Some other inquiries confirm that marketing services such as advertising/MC can assist in acquiring new customers for SMMEs [5,40,43,60,69,70], which could also be realized by S-LPs.
Two out of five participants reported an increase in sales due to the overall SLAA S-LP, which revealed a significant positive association with SMME client satisfaction. Husseinifard et al. [17], Furlow [75], and Metcalf [76] disclosed that community partners could increase their revenue via S-LPs that increase client satisfaction levels [17,76]. Additionally, other investigations also attest that advertising/MC and marketing increase sales among SMMEs [2,59,70], which could also be initiated by S-LPs.
Exactly one third of participants indicated that there was no positive impact on the performance of businesses due to the overall SLAA S-LPs, which resulted in a significant negative association with SMME client satisfaction. Other research verifies that S-LPs did not always have a positive impact since the SMMEs may lack the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively implement SLAA marketing and MC plans and recommendations [18,48,77]. Furthermore, the SLAA marketing and advertising/MC may be perceived negatively and so not to have an impact on the organizations of the community partners [57,74]. The participating SLAA may also not be sufficiently prepared or interested other than receiving a pass for the S-LP [18,67]. Sometimes, there are breakdowns in communication and/or engagement between the SMME clients and university S-LP coordinator [67,68,80,81]. The SMME clients face time constraints or are not interested in the S-LPs [67], which may also result in no perceived business performance impact and negative disconfirmation with the S-LP.
Hence, it is imperative that the SLAAs implement the S-LPs in line with the SMMEs’ business performance objectives. Therefore, the S-LP and SLAA results should be continuously monitored and evaluated by the programme coordinator to confirm that it positively contributes to the SMME clients’ objectives. It can be surmised that the SLAA S-LP has the potential to provide many business performance benefits for the SMMEs, which is especially important for the prosperity and economic growth of the South African economy. So, as recommended in prior text, it is suggested that the S-LP coordinators seek ways expand the SLAA S-LP to other South African universities, and even to other international universities, especially in other developing countries.

5.4. Limitations

The research has some limitations that provide direction for further inquiry. The research was cross-sectional since the SMME clients were surveyed over a single point of time, so it is recommended that the community partners are surveyed annually to improve the robustness of the results. The research sample size was apt, but a larger number of participants could enhance the results’ generalization. The study focused on a solitary S-LP and university in South Africa, so other investigations could be expanded to consider multiple S-LPs, universities across countries. Only the SMME client S-LP benefits were considered, but further research could examine other types of pedagogies in terms of community engagement and work-integrated learning among an array of community partner categories, as well as investigate the other stakeholders (e.g., SLAAs, S-LP coordinators, and external service partners) benefits. SMME usage in S-LPs is showing growth internationally, but there remains a dearth of information concerning SLAAs from a client perspective. So, additional inquiry is needed to assess the client benefits of SLAA S-LPs both locally and globally.

6. Conclusions

It can be surmised that a majority of the SMME clients specified a lasting impact and satisfaction with one or more business performance variables due to the SLAA S-LP. It can also be concluded that most of the participants expressed satisfaction with the overall SLAA S-LP, which is indicative that the SMME clients received customer research, knowledge transfer and skills training, advertising/MC, marketing, and business services from the SLAAs that was greater than their expectations, and so caused positive disconfirmation, based on Oliver’s [51] expectancy–disconfirmation theory, owing to the S-LP. Therefore, this investigation showed that S-LPs can have a lasting sustainable impact and improve SMMEs performance, so such experiential learning initiatives should not only be restricted to NPOs as community partners. However, the SLAA S-LP can be improved via a more complete follow-up by the S-LP coordinators with the SMME clients and SLAAs to ensure that the objectives of both stakeholders are suitably realized upon conclusion of the S-LP; improved S-LP coordination and monitoring by the S-LP coordinators; and enhanced induction and training for the SLAAs and SMME clients that participate in the S-LP. In this manner, it is hoped to minimize or even eradicate the SMME clients who experienced dissatisfaction with the S-LP (i.e., the SLAA marketing and MC services were perceived to be lower than the SMME client expectations, and therefore resulted in negative disconfirmation), and ensure that future SMME client participants will experience positive disconfirmation because of this innovative SLAA S-LP. Finally, this study assists in addressing the research gap, which was detailed in prior text, by contributing to the limited body of knowledge that assesses the influence of SLAAs services on achieving SMME community partner client business performance goals, and from a developing country perspective. Hence, it is hoped that this research will stimulate further SLA-related research that considers the impact of equivalent SLAA S-LP initiatives on SMME community partner clients in different countries.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, D.C. and R.D.; methodology, D.C. and R.D.; software, R.D.; data curation, D.C.; validation, D.C. and R.D.; formal analysis, D.C. and R.D.; investigation, D.C. and R.D.; re-sources, D.C. and R.D.; supervision, R.D.; writing—original draft preparation, D.C. and R.D.; writing—review and editing, D.C. and R.D.; project administration, R.D. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Cape Peninsula University of Technology Research Ethics Committee (FOBREC252 and 25 March 2015).

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Data Availability Statement

The data presented in this study is available upon request from the corresponding author. The data is not publicly available due to restrictions.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Table
Table 1. SLAA S-LP lasting impact and business performance variables.
Table 1. SLAA S-LP lasting impact and business performance variables.
Business Performance VariablesMean SquareFp
Between GroupsWithin Groups
Lasting impact8.5120.36923.0470.001 *
Business efficiency7.6590.62912.1800.001 *
Brand awareness15.7400.55128.5610.001 *
Competitive advantage9.1690.61414.9260.001 *
Employee motivation6.8840.63610.8190.001 *
Customer loyalty7.8240.62712.4730.001 *
New customers19.1670.51836.9890.001 *
Sales19.0210.52036.6080.001 *
No impact on business performance38.4330.333115.4440.001 *
* p < 0.001.
Table
Table 2. Hypotheses.
Table 2. Hypotheses.
HypothesesSupport
H1: Increased lasting impactYes
H2: Business efficiencyYes
H3: Increased brand awarenessYes
H4: Competitive advantageYes
H5: Employee motivationYes
H6: Customer loyaltyYes
H7: New customersYes
H8: SalesYes
H9: No impact on business performanceYes
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Duffett, R.; Cromhout, D. The Influence of a Student-Led Advertising Agency Service-Learning Project on SMME Client Satisfaction: An Expectancy–Disconfirmation Paradigm. Educ. Sci. 2022, 12, 847. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12120847

AMA Style

Duffett R, Cromhout D. The Influence of a Student-Led Advertising Agency Service-Learning Project on SMME Client Satisfaction: An Expectancy–Disconfirmation Paradigm. Education Sciences. 2022; 12(12):847. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12120847

Chicago/Turabian Style

Duffett, Rodney, and Dylan Cromhout. 2022. "The Influence of a Student-Led Advertising Agency Service-Learning Project on SMME Client Satisfaction: An Expectancy–Disconfirmation Paradigm" Education Sciences 12, no. 12: 847. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12120847

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