Showing papers in "Journal of Marketing Education in 2017"

Developing Students’ Cultural Intelligence Through an Experiential Learning Activity: A Cross-Cultural Consumer Behavior Interview

Abstract: Business schools can increase their competitiveness by offering students intercultural skills development opportunities integrated into the traditional curricula. This article makes a contribution by proposing an approach to developing students’ cultural intelligence that is based on the cultural intelligence (CQ) model, experiential learning theory, and contact theory. This study empirically tests the effectiveness of the proposed approach by developing and conducting a cost-efficient, easy-to-implement experiential learning activity where marketing students and advanced English as a Second Language students interview each other about consumer behavior differences. The activity led to a perceived increase in cultural knowledge, motivation, and confidence in the students’ ability to communicate with people from other cultures. Overall, students deemed the activity a valuable part of their education. Students’ CQ was positively correlated with the self-reported (perceived) prior experience-based and studie...

Universal Design for Learning in Teaching Large Lecture Classes

Abstract: To augment traditional lecture with instructional tools that provide options for content representation, learner engagement, and learning expression, we followed the Universal Design for Learning (...

The Employers’ View of “Work-Ready” Graduates: A Study of Advertisements for Marketing Jobs in Australia:

Abstract: This study of job advertisements extends our understanding of how employers, rather than researchers, describe the specific skills and attributes sought in candidates for employment in graduate mar...

Job Requirements for Marketing Graduates: Are There Differences in the Knowledge, Skills, and Personal Attributes Needed for Different Salary Levels?:

Abstract: Several studies in the business press and in the marketing literature point to a “transformation” of marketing caused by the availability of large amounts of data for marketing analysis and plannin...

Revisiting the Relationship Between Marketing Education and Marketing Career Success

Abstract: In a replication of a classic article by Hunt, Chonko, and Wood, regression analysis was conducted using data from a sample of 864 marketing professionals In contrast to Hunt, Chonko, and Wood, an

Cross-Cultural Selling: Examining the Importance of Cultural Intelligence in Sales Education:

Abstract: Cross-cultural selling has become an important factor in sales education. In the current competitive business graduate market, students who enter the workforce in frontline customer service positio...

Leveraging Experiential Learning to Encourage Role Transition from "Student" to "Professional": Insights from Identity Theory.

Abstract: Drawing on identity theory, this conceptual inquiry posits a need to redefine the standard that individuals use to judge themselves as a “business student.” Learners will be more likely to succeed ...

An Online Project-Based Competency Education Approach to Marketing Education:

Abstract: As the marketplace becomes more competitive, there is a growing demand for business educators to prepare graduates to adapt to the challenges of the marketplace. However, concerns regarding the ped...

Evidence Items as Signals of Marketing Competencies and Workplace Readiness: A Practitioner Perspective.

Abstract: Although past research has spent considerable effort identifying competencies and academic activities that are associated with workplace readiness, the literature is largely silent regarding what m...

Editors’ Corner: the “work-ready” marketing graduate

Abstract: There is a growing acceptance in business schools today of the need to address the marketing industry’s demand for “work-ready” graduates. What constitutes “work-ready” and how it can be effectively developed in marketing majors remains open for debate. A particular issue is the depth and breadth of preparation that marketing programs should provide. Is it sufficient to develop graduates with the skills to obtain their first job? Or should marketing faculty prepare students not only for their first job but also to be career-ready and valuable to society at the same time? Stakeholder groups have differing expectations about what comprises a “work-ready” graduate. From the education institutional perspective, work readiness ensures that all marketing graduates have achieved at least a minimum standard in specific business-related learning goals including effective skills in communication, teamwork, ethics, and the ability to integrate the various business disciplines (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, 2013). The business perspective expands the educational perspective to include immediate (add value for the organization) and longer term objectives that encompass career goals and aspirations. Such raises the question: How can marketing faculty deliver an optimal mix of skills and knowledge that ensure that graduates have the tools to adapt to the challenges of the post-graduation marketplace and fulfill their potential? While there has been much discussion in the Journal of Marketing Education about the skills that stakeholders believe should be developed and assessed, there are benefits in expanding the conversation (Cummins, Peltier, Pomirleanu, Cross, & Simon, 2015; Finch, Nadeau, & Reilly, 2013; Schlee & Harich, 2010; Walker et al., 2009). To understand the current and the “best” possible trade-offs, we must evaluate the influence that employers and their current needs have in shaping the curriculum, the tendency for classroomdeveloped skills to be focused on employability rather than career management, and whether current specializationfocused marketing curricula effectively prepares “careerready” graduates who are often required to work in cross-cultural or multidisciplinary groups. Articles in this special edition of the Journal of Marketing Education examine and expand existing thinking about what “work-ready” presently means and what it should mean in and beyond the marketing classroom. The articles examine the issues from both the business and academic perspectives, and they challenge the value of a specialist marketing education. In the first article, Regina Schlee and Gary Karns examine how technological transformations in marketing and the need to integrate considerably large data into marketing planning have both affected skill requirements and compensation for entry-level graduates. Their analysis of job postings illustrates the dynamic nature of the knowledge, skills, and personal attributes required for entry-level positions. Schlee and Karns found that three quarters of the job listings included one or more required analytical or technological skills. They discuss several recommendations for curricular adjustments including the need to increase students’ quantitative analysis skills and their familiarity with marketing technology, and to promote cross-functional cooperation (e.g., between marketing and information systems faculty). Continuing in this vein, Ellen McArthur, Krzysztof Kubacki, Bo Pang, and Celeste Alcaraz examine job postings, focusing on employers’ descriptions of the required skill sets and attributes of graduate applicants for entry-level jobs. The most frequently required skills and attributes include motivation, time management skills, communication skills, and digital marketing experience. The authors identify two primary gaps between the content in marketing programs and requirements in job advertisements: (1) the range of digital marketing specialties and (2) effective communication skills (primarily writing). The authors raise the issue of the marketing degree’s purpose and whether marketing curricula achieve that purpose. The third article focuses on the academic perspective. Duleep Delpechitre and David Baker examine developing cultural intelligence in the classroom given today’s increasingly globalized and multicultural business environment. They examine the importance of sales students’ cultural intelligence and how it influences their adaptive selling 712411 JMDXXX10.1177/0273475317712411Journal of Marketing EducationBacon editorial2017

The Changing Role of Salespeople and the Unchanging Feeling Toward Selling: Implications for the HEI Programs:

Abstract: Over the past five decades, several studies have shown that students’ reticence toward choosing a sales career has remained constant. Their lack of awareness and misconceptions regarding a sales job are two reasons behind this negative perception and lack of students’ “work readiness.” Using a conceptual model on student intention to pursue a sales career, this study has two goals: (a) to understand whether students recognize the changes in the salesperson’s role and (b) to investigate whether new understanding of these changes has any impact on students’ feelings and perceptions regarding selling as a career choice. After a preliminary qualitative analysis, a survey was carried out in a European country (Italy). Findings suggest that students are partly aware of the salesperson’s role, but they have a limited understanding of the evolution that has taken place in that role. In addition, there emerges a new antecedent, Understanding the salesperson role, that has had a significant impact on students’ Feel...

Moving Toward New Horizons for Marketing Education : Designing a Marketing Training for the Poor in Developing and Emerging Markets

Abstract: In recent years, marketing education has broadened to poor people in developing and emerging countries. In this article, the authors use four empirical studies that apply well-established training design procedures to design a marketing training program for Ethiopian pastoralists. Because pastoralists operate in extremely remote, traditional, and sparsely populated regions of developing and emerging markets, the training complements trainings for the poor applied in urban areas of these countries. As such, the article provides implications for training program designers on how they can adapt the training program procedures to other contexts, thereby making marketing ideas accessible to a large and important new target group for marketing education.

The Effects of Source, Revision Possibility, and Amount of Feedback on Marketing Students’ Impressions of Feedback on an Assignment:

Abstract: This study examines how three factors affect students’ reactions to critical feedback on an assignment—amount of feedback (none vs. low amount vs. high amount), source of feedback (instructor-provi...

Editors’ Corner: The “Work-Ready” Marketing Graduate: Part II:

Abstract: Welcome to Part II of the special issue on “The ‘Work Ready’ Marketing Graduate.” Part I examined and expanded the existing thinking about what “work-ready” presently means and what it should mean in and beyond the marketing classroom. The articles examined the issues from both the business and academic perspectives, and they challenged the value of a specialist marketing education. In Part II, the focus shifts slightly. The first two articles examine successively how a student’s transition to a “work-ready” graduate involves a gradual change in his or her own perceived identity, and how students’ work-readiness might meaningfully be communicated to potential employers. Beyond their skill set, “workready” graduates must possess the ability to adapt their skills to meet the demands of a dynamic market place, which is the subject of the third article. The fourth article examines why many students are resistant to a career in sales and how this mindset can be changed. In the first article, Douglas Ewing and Randall Ewing consider whether marketing educators are producing successful business students rather than the “work-ready” graduates who employers seek. “Work-ready” business graduates must first transition from the classroom where they have been conditioned to succeed in an academic environment to a business environment demanding different skills. Drawing on Identity Theory, the authors propose that the traditional “business student identity” needs to be redefined to facilitate students identifying as a working professional. The authors assert that if carefully orchestrated, a curriculum and academic environment that more closely reflects the professional environment will facilitate this transition. The initiative’s potential obstacles and opportunities are identified and discussed. Heather Honea, Iana Castro, and Paula Peter examine how employers determine the competencies of job applicants, specifically how marketing practitioners evaluate different evidence items and activities as signals of marketing competencies among marketing graduates. The authors developed a survey composed of a comprehensive set of evidence items, and they surveyed marketing practitioners to determine the items that emerged as valued signals. The authors provide insights concerning how marketing curricula can be leveraged in terms of assessments and deliverables that students can use to signal their workplace readiness to employers. In the third article, Christine Ye, Jerry Van Os, Dick Chapman, and Dax Jacobson describe how they employ an online competency-based model alongside a real-world project to narrow the gap between employer expectations and student skills. While acknowledging that the initiative occurs in a small college with small class sizes and a high level of faculty–student interaction, there is much in this article that is quite useful for developing curricula in marketing departments regardless of size and funding, especially when seeking approaches that bridge the gap between students’ academic needs and the requirements of their future employers. In the final article, Paola Palanga, Silvio Cardinali, Luca Vincenzo Ballestra, and Graziella Pacelli examine the reluctance of students to consider a career in sales. Based on the findings of a survey of undergraduate students, the authors suggest that while students are partly aware of the salesperson’s role, they have only a limited understanding of the evolution that has taken place in that role, specifically the changes that have occurred in the role. A more complete understanding of the salesperson role, particularly the relational aspects, had a significant association with students’ feelings about a career in sales. The authors provide suggestions as to how marketing educators can apply their findings within the curriculum. These articles conclude the two-part special issue on the “work-ready” marketing graduate. Hopefully, the articles have encouraged your interest in this topic and provided useful information on the perspectives, how-to specifics, and challenges in embarking on this transitional initiative. 740450 JMDXXX10.1177/0273475317740450Journal of Marketing EducationFreeman et al. editorial2017