Twelve BYU-Hawaii interns, led by psychology professor Dr. Ronald M. Miller, formed a mentored consulting team with 15 students from the Shenzhen Tourism College from June 28 to August 23 to design, execute and analyze a high-level visitor satisfaction and marketing survey for the largest entertainment-based company in China.
The BYU-Hawaii interns were Kin Yu Au, Man Lung Chan, Samuel Dauphinee, Pik Ching "Orient" Lai, Mei Fong Leung, Sung Leung, Shuen Ling Sally Ng, Kelsey Olds, Nicole Smith, Nicki Strong, Nathan F. Tilton and Sin Sze Yiu. The Yamagata Foundation provided the travel funding for the interns while Shenzhen Tourism College provided room and board.
Dr. Miller said Shenzhen OCT Holding Company currently draws 6 million visitors a year to their theme parks — including Splendid China/Chinese Folk Cultural Village, which is based on the Polynesian Cultural Center model — as well as malls, housing and other businesses in Shenzhen, a city of about 12 million population in mainland China just across the border from Hong Kong. "We basically did a Ph.D.-level business project that they estimate would have cost the company about $5 million U.S.," he said.
He explained the combined group conducted initial testing, created a statistically valid survey, then surveyed 1,600 customers and did statistical analyses of the data. "We made recommendations based on the analyses as well as from ourselves," Dr. Miller said, adding the students also did reviews in the scientific literature to see what would benefit the company.
"It was a comprehensive report that they could use to try to improve their company. There was tremendous value to that. In fact, in one of our meetings the vice president sort of turned to his research team and said, 'This is a professor with a bunch of kids. I pay you guys to do this. Why can't you do this?' They really didn't have an answer."
"When they realized how good our students are, and how well we worked together with their students, it was tremendously gratifying," Dr. Miller continued, noting the company was very pleased with the results. In fact, in a letter of recommendation, OCT Vice President Anthony Wang wrote, "I and my company are grateful for the quality and scope of the work accomplished and we are currently implementing their recommendations on a company-wide basis." He added that any employer would benefit to work with such "exceptional" students.
The students also said they gained a great deal from the experience. For example, Ng, a senior mathematics major from Hong Kong, said before completing the internship she was not sure she could do it, "but after this experience I realized that I applied what I learned from [Dr. Miller's statistics] class to a real-life situation. I gained a lot of confidence and in the future I will put this in my résumé."
Lai, a junior Hospitality and Tourism Management major from Hong Kong, said she is now learning from books what she has already experienced in Shenzhen. She also felt the group provided good examples from a Church perspective: "The students in China watched what we were doing. Sometimes we prayed in the cafeteria, and they would ask us why. Many times I wanted to tell them more [but didn't in accordance with current Church policy], and I think in the future they'll be ready for that. We gained friendship and love."
Olds, a senior psychology major from Denver, Colorado, said, "We showed them that BYU-Hawaii has very professional students [who deliver] very professional results." She added the experience expanded her worldview and an increased appreciation for her Shenzhen counterparts. "Just to see how hard-working they are really made we want to work more internationally, to be able to expand my view even more."
Strong, a senior psychology major from Hollister, California, was also impressed with the Shenzhen students. "I was so moved by the care and the genuine friendship. We weren't just assigned as their project. I believe we became genuine friends with these people. It was an amazing experience to see us grow together. Even though there was a little bit of a communication barrier, we worked through that and were able to produce results. They were just the hardest working, most honest, diligent, kindest and most genuine people I think I've ever met."
"Also, to see the end results — a 400-page report — gave us a tremendous feeling that we created everything from scratch. We created the instrument. It was a very significant feat that we were able to accomplish," she said.
Tilton, a senior biology and psychology major from Thatcher, Arizona, who spent the previous summer with Dr. Miller on a project in Tonga and has also been active in Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), said the experience was awesome: "Here we were going into a world-class business. Their goal within the next five years is to have 20 million visitors. They're going to have seven parks. Disney wants to be like them in China."
"I think we represented the university well, and not only that, I think we were great ambassadors for the Church," he added.
"You could see the different groups working together for this common purpose. They all did a tremendously good job," said Dr. Miller. "The students were working at the very highest levels of business and government. They were able to see that the education they get at BYU-Hawaii is such that they are really able to do more than people with advanced degrees who actually work for those businesses. They've had world-class experience, which helps their résumés in terms of going to graduate school and getting jobs."