Using the Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory and the Course Experience Questionnaire, this article examines Principles of Marketing students’ learning-approach preferences (among deep, surface, or strategic approaches), their perceptions of the quality of their academic program, and the relationship between those two sets of measures. Data gathered from 742 business students across seven majors show the strategic approach to be most favored, followed by the deep approach, and then the surface approach. Preference for the strategic approach also related most strongly to satisfaction with academic achievement. Furthermore, higher ratings of the quality of the academic program are positively related to use of strategic and deep approaches to learning, and negatively associated with surface learning behaviors. Results were invariant across all majors; therefore, instructors should avoid assuming that marketing majors learn in systematically different ways from their peers in other business disciplines. The authors advocate for greater recognition of marketing principles students’ preferences for use of the strategic approach and offer recommendations for marketing educators to support strategic learners within the Principles of Marketing course.
The scarcity of comprehensive alternatives to management simulators with financial reporting hampers the effective use of business games in classrooms. This paper introduces the Supply Chain Competition Game, an offline management simulator that generates comprehensive business results across a wide range of parameters. This game is made freely accessible to decision-makers, educators, and independent learners, and can be used both offline and online. The objective is to create a serious game in open access with a broader set of variables compared to traditional management simulators. The design of the simulators involves modifying the well-known beer game to include marketing, personnel, accounting, and supply chain competition. Using an electronic spreadsheet format enables flexibility with easy modification of the simulator without requiring programming skills, providing adaptability to diverse educational needs. Classroom results for students demonstrate the financial impact of chosen business strategies on key performance indicators, incorporating a comprehensive set of variables and offering insights into supply chain management from economic, social, and environmental sustainability perspectives. The game is suitable for teaching logistics in international business and contributes to making management simulators more affordable. This study outlines an experience developing and implementing spreadsheet-based business games in higher education courses to overcome limitations in existing simulators.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping marketing education through adaptive learning systems, automated feedback, and generative tools such as ChatGPT. As students increasingly use generative AI to support tasks such as brainstorming, drafting, and data analysis, instructors are simultaneously experimenting with AI-assisted feedback, grading support, and course design. Despite these benefits, adoption remains uneven due to psychological responses that influence how students and faculty engage with AI-enabled systems. This conceptual study extends the General Extended Technology Acceptance Model of e-Learning (GETAMEL) by introducing AI Anxiety as a multidimensional construct capturing cognitive, affective, and behavioral reactions to autonomous and opaque technologies. The framework positions AI Anxiety as a conditioning mechanism that shapes how perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use translate into behavioral intention. Individual factors (e.g., self-efficacy, privacy concerns, generational cohort) and contextual influences (e.g., institutional support, faculty adoption, classroom norms surrounding generative AI use) further shape these relationships. By refining technology acceptance theory for intelligent systems, this research offers a foundation for future empirical testing and provides practical guidance for fostering trust, transparency, and psychologically safe AI integration in marketing education.
# Overview Bosonac Orthodontics faced a challenge as the technology-averse and highly conservative Orthodox Jewish community flocked into Lakewood, New Jersey, leaving their treatment chairs unoccupied. To maintain their position as the leading dento-facial provider in Ocean County, the practice needed to revamp its marketing strategies and make crucial decisions regarding target market selection. This case is ideal for undergraduate students in Principles of Marketing, Advertising, or Consumer Behavior courses. Sudents will apply their understanding of the 4Ps of marketing, target marketing, and segmentation to a real-world business scenario. Students will analyze demographic trends, explore the values and beliefs of a unique subculture, and develop innovative marketing strategies to effectively reach this secondary target market. They must also consider how to align marketing mediums and strategies with the chosen target audience. # Learning Outcomes 1. Analyze population trends, evaluate best practices in target marketing, and provide recommendations for market selection. 2. Assess the effectiveness of newspaper marketing and propose alternative strategies and improvements.
Transformative consumer research (TCR) and macromarketing are two critical emerging fields of business education that can develop critical thinkers capable of addressing pressing problems. The role that marketing plays in advancing sustainability and well-being is encouraged by these fields. However, there is a lack of attention to macromarketing and TCR in the top 50 marketing doctoral programs worldwide, which often prioritize quantitative modeling over these critical topics. The article promotes the Transformative Ethical Pedagogy Model (TEPM) as a framework for reforming education through systemic understanding, critical reflection, experiential learning, and dialogical engagement. We recognize the challenges that arise when incorporating TCR and macromarketing into PhD programs. However, without integrating TCR and macromarketing into curricula, we risk perpetuating outdated paradigms, limiting marketing's potential for social impact. Educators can create separate courses on these topics or incorporate them into existing ones; but deferring a decision is not an option.
This study examines the impact of mobile textbook applications on exam performance among undergraduate business students. While mobile apps have demonstrated effectiveness in preparing students for language proficiency exams, limited research has explored their role in concept acquisition within content-driven college courses, leaving non-language disciples underexplored. This creates a critical research gap, as most existing studies have focused on language proficiency contexts like TOEFL and IELTS. This research focuses on and investigates how exam scores are influenced when mobile exam preparation apps are actively promoted by instructors in a large undergraduate marketing course. By providing empirical support that instructor-led promotion of a mobile exam preparation app can positively influence student performance in content-intensive courses, this study offers a significant contribution to advancing marketing education. Drawing on Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory and Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, we propose theoretical expectations that instructor modeling will enhance engagement, and the app’s design will facilitate learning. Findings suggest that when faculty model and encourage the use of these apps, student engagement and performance improve, supporting these theoretical expectations. These results underscore the potential of integrating mobile learning tools into pedagogical strategies to enhance academic outcomes in higher education. For educators, this highlights the practical significance of strategically incorporating and actively promoting mobile learning tools to enhance pedagogical strategies and student success.
# Purpose of the Study This paper addresses the gap between marketing theory and practice by presenting a pedagogical framework to improve students' analytical skills. It details a hands-on case study for teaching customer segmentation, a core competency in marketing analytics. # Method/Design and Sample A robust analytical pipeline, including K-Means clustering and PCA visualization, is applied to a real-world transactional dataset of over 189,000 records from a Brazilian bakery. # Results The analysis identifies four distinct customer segments. These findings are transformed into a replicable teaching module with practical classroom activities, such as persona creation and campaign simulations, designed to foster critical thinking and data interpretation skills. # Value to Marketing Educators This work provides educators with a ready-to-use case study and supplementary materials (dataset and Python code) to teach complex analytics concepts. The framework is a practical tool to enhance student engagement and prepare them for data-driven industry challenges.
Personal Brand Logos (PBL’s)] have been utilized in business courses to encourage professional development (Montoya & Vandehey, 2002), leadership (Rampersad, 2009) and creative design (Kucharska & Mikolajczak, 2018) among others. This also comes on the helm of the Personal Branding Phenomenon (Khedher, 2018) which argues that individuals are adopting marketing principles to position themselves effectively in the professional landscape. The current study will extend the literature by adopting the Personal Branding approach to increase student success in the classroom. Students enrolled in an introductory marketing course were asked to develop a Personal Brand Logo (PBL) that they would wear throughout the course. Data was collected on knowledge and skill development as well as personal reflection essays. Findings support the utilization of PBL’s to encourage engagement and retention among all students and specifically among students who claimed low interest in the material.
## Purpose of the Study It is important for sales educators to provide sales students with skills that lead to immediate performance benefits for the early stage of their career. This paper investigates the performance benefits of questioning skills, customer orientation (CO) and adaptive selling (AD) for sales students. ## Method/Design and Sample Dyadic survey data was collected from 62 sales encounters between sales students selling to real business-to-business customers. Hypotheses were tested using OLS regression. ## Results: Sales students and customers rate questioning skills similarity but have very little agreement about CO and AD. Using sales student ratings, CO interacts with questioning skills to improve customer purchase intention and AD does not improve performance. Using customer ratings, only questioning improves purchase intention but not CO or AD. ## Value to Marketing Educators Educators should include questioning skills and CO in their curriculum to provide immediate performance benefits to sales students. AD is important but does not have immediate performance value. When using 360-degree evaluations, educators should be aware that student and customer ratings of CO and AD will likely disagree and have a different impact on performance.
Marketing student preference for six different instructional methods was determined using a choice-based conjoint analysis. Each instructional method was a significant determinant of students’ choice of a given class, but the six methods varied significantly in terms of their importance weights. Results of conjoint analysis indicate that the three most preferred drivers of student choice for a marketing class are: 1) it employs a flipped classroom, 2) its class sessions are interactive and hands-on, rather than lecture-based and 3) it has a moderate, rather than a heavy workload. Latent class cluster analysis was conducted, and four preference-based segments were identified. These segments highlight the different preferences of students and add more insight into the results. The discussion section addresses student preferences along with student learning of these different instructional methods. Overall, instructional methods with the highest preference also deliver the highest levels of student learning.
This study presents a replicable student-run business model that strategically applies a retail communication mix through mask donations to five local non-profit organizations. The problem-solving approach, which applies Kolb’s (1984) Experiential Learning Theory, has had a significant positive impact on the community’s vulnerable population and their health. This study administered a paper-based survey utilizing the Benefits of Academic Community Engagement (BACE) instrument at the end of the retailing class. Among the four components measured by the BACE instrument, benefits to the community and intended social responsibility both yielded higher mean scores, indicating relatively strong agreement among participants. This student-run initiative, embedded within the curriculum of a retailing course offered by the College of Business, provides students with experiential learning opportunities that positively impact the community’s well-being. The structured planning process enhances skills in leadership, effective communication, collaboration, and team building, thereby preparing students for complex, real-world business environments.
As companies increasingly invest in data analytics, there is a growing demand for marketing students with skills in this area. For many marketing students, who often choose their major based on a preference for topics other than mathematics and analytics, the prospect of taking a marketing analytics course can be intimidating. This study introduces the Student-Empowered Flipped Classroom (SEFC) as a solution to the challenges faced in teaching marketing analytics. Within a marketing analytics course, traditional instruction is complemented by the SEFC approach where students choose an emerging analytics topic, study it in-depth, and teach their peers using relevant software tools. Results suggest that this approach promotes higher student satisfaction, better understanding and fosters a supportive learning environment. By aligning the flipped classroom approach with principles of empowerment, this research contributes to the ongoing discussion on innovative instructional models that enhance student learning and engagement.
## Purpose of the Study In today's diverse marketplace, embedding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in marketing education is essential. Current curricula often lack DEI, a gap this research addresses. ## Method/Design and Sample Using transformational learning theory, we propose a DEI-integrated introductory marketing course based on interviews with DEI-focused marketing professionals. ## Results Key findings include: 1) Business education needs a broader, more inclusive marketing perspective; 2) Integrating DEI into traditional marketing enhances systems thinking. ## Value to Marketing Educators This study offers a comprehensive toolkit with assignments, readings, cases, and reflection exercises, equipping educators to effectively incorporate DEI while emphasizing transformative learning's role in inclusive marketing education.
## Purpose of the Study The study addresses a disconnect between university curricula and social media-related job requirements. ## Method/Design and Sample Data collection included gathering responses from U.S. social media marketing educators and social media management job descriptions. ## Results Exploratory findings suggest that educators and practitioners are aligned on several core concepts and skills. However, a number of core concepts and skills that are vital in the industry are currently not prioritized by educators. ## Value to Marketing Educators The findings allow educators to assess the ways in which their courses align with industry needs and the areas that they can adjust to better prepare students for successful careers in SMM.
Purpose of the Study: This research supports the importance of teaching personal branding through a blueprint for marketing faculty to advance how students can create and communicate a personal brand on LinkedIn using a well-established theory of impression management and related behaviors. Method/Design and Sample: This research used a mixed-method approach, including focus groups with an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) and an online survey. This study analyzed perceptions and experiences using personal branding strategies. Results: The findings reveal the relevance of branding as emerging business professionals use different strategies to advance their careers. Different themes emerged, including personal branding and four impression management behaviors. Value to Marketing Educators: Marketing faculty can contribute value by developing a module to teach personal branding earlier in a business program so students can develop their brand strategically by engaging in impression management behaviors when creating and managing their personal brand with a LinkedIn profile.
Purpose of the Study: The recent trend of digitalization, online class enrollment, and remote work is adding more complexity to an already challenging digital marketing teaching environment. However, this trend also presents an opportunity to adopt online service learning (e-SL), a pedagogical approach that can effectively address these challenges. This research aims to highlight the benefits and challenges of e-SL by designing and implementing it in a digital marketing course where service components are delivered online. Methods/ Design and Sample: We used a mixed-method research design to investigate e-SL in a digital marketing course. By design, the e-SL project incorporates three digital marketing pedagogical approaches: technical tools, knowledge, and experiential learning with a live community partner in an online environment. At the end of the project, students take an optional survey (n=52) and write a reflection report (n=61) describing their experiences. We analyze surveys, reflection reports, and evaluations from the community partner to get first-hand insights. Results: E-SL is an effective pedagogical tool for enhancing meta-skills and preparing work-ready graduates with remote work skills. The effectiveness of e-SL in enhancing meta-skills is a testament to its potential, instilling confidence in its application. Communication, collaboration, and scheduling with teammates and the service partner are being identified as challenges that can be resolved using technology, establishing structured communication modalities, and emphasizing regular communication in an online environment. Further analyses provide a primer on differential efficacy and challenges between the two variants of e-SL. The data demonstrates that hybrid e-SL (in-person classes, online services) and extreme e-SL (online classes and online services) are effective, hybrid e-SL facilitates higher confidence in critical thinking, overall satisfaction, and industry involvement. Counterintuitively, the differential perceived efficacy of extreme e-SL is not significantly higher than that of hybrid e-SL for remote work experience in the present data. Students of the extreme e-SL report more group conflicts and communication challenges in their reflections. Value to Marketing Educators: This research will significantly enhance educators’ understanding and implementation of e-SL in a novel context, equipping them with practical insights. The research provides actionable knowledge that can be directly applied in the classroom, empowering educators to enhance their teaching methods. While the quantitative results reconfirm the effectiveness of the e-SL in a new context, the rich narrative and in-depth qualitative findings inform interested educators and provide a roadmap for successful implementation. Finally, the differential efficacy and challenges of two distinct approaches to e- SL may inspire marketing educators to study e-SL and its variants further, ensuring they are well-prepared for the evolving digital marketing landscape.
Purpose of the Study. This study offers marketing educators an outline of an innovative approach to teach introductory marketing concepts through the use of 15 original marketing songs. The songs, which correspond to key topics of the 15 chapters of a standard marketing principles textbook, were created by one of the authors and used in both online and in-person courses. Gardner’s (2011) theory of multiple intelligences provides a conceptual foundation to explain why and how these songs facilitate learning. Method, Design, and Sample. The study classifies as an exploratory research design that derives insights from the use of these songs in an undergraduate marketing principles course, including both online and in-person sections. The study presents and discusses student evaluation comments, data from an in-person examination, and the instructor’s personal experience of using these songs in lectures, discussions, and assignments. Results. Student comments about the songs were overwhelmingly positive, and the correlation between students’ ability to recall song lyrics and their grasp of concepts was statistically significant. These results suggest that the marketing songs create an engaging learning environment that enables students to learn marketing principles on a deeper level. Value to Marketing Educators. The study provides marketing educators with a model for how to use the 15 marketing songs to teach basic marketing concepts. This includes access to music videos, and descriptions for assignment ideas. The study also discusses how instructors might enhance their own engagement and satisfaction with the teaching profession by embracing their individuality and applying their own unique talents to their pedagogy.
## Purpose of the Study Many functions in marketing analytics are premised on database management skills. New graduates are increasingly expected to possess these skills. However, students often shy away from database management because they lack confidence with what they perceive as math-based learning in isolation. However, they can develop self-confidence from active learning classroom exercises where they work on their own and are motivated to excel. ## Method/Design and Sample In-class exercises (ICEs) were conducted in two sections of an in-person graduate marketing database management course (*n* = 73) and assessed to determine their usefulness. ## Results Survey results provide evidence that the ICEs fostered autonomy and motivation for building self-confidence and a sense of belonging. A significant increase in final exam scores compared to sections that did not utilize ICEs also provides evidence as a direct measure of student learning. ## Value to Marketing Educators Marketing educators can have greater confidence in using ICEs to encourage continued marketing analytics skills attainment.
Purpose of the Study: Elevator pitch competitions are increasingly common as an experiential learning tool in collegiate competitions. In this research, we discuss the different elevator pitch competition formats and the benefits associated with a large-scale multi-day elevator pitch competition for student performance. Method/Design and Sample: Using a mixed-effects model, we analyze elevator pitch performance from more than 130 students (700 elevator pitches) competing in a national sales competition. Results: Our results show evidence that large-scale multi-day elevator pitch competitions allow students to improve their performance over time. We also find that large-scale multi-day elevator pitch competitions allow less experienced students to reduce the performance gap relative to more experienced students. Value to Marketing Educators: This research contributes to marketing education by identifying and discussing different formats of elevator pitch competitions. This research also provides empirical evidence on the benefits of large-scale multi-day elevator pitch competitions for student performance. Finally, this research offers recommendations for educators who aim to organize elevator pitch competitions as part of the experiential activities provided by their schools.
## Purpose of the Study As online learning plays a greater role in graduate education, there is concern amongst instructors in terms of increasing student engagement with content. This apprehension is further exacerbated in the case of asynchronous, online learning. Previous research has discussed the importance of instructor-generated videos in engaging students with learning material. ## Method/Design and Sample This research investigates how interactive instructional design by embedding videos within reading material helps enhance student engagement and assessment in asynchronous online learning compared to providing videos and reading material separately. ## Results Results demonstrate that instructional design using a rich media blend by embedding instructor-generated videos amongst various reading material and interactive content may help students remain focused on course content and may use different ways to understand different facets of a concept and apply them. Interestingly, while student engagement was different in the two different types of instructional design, the results suggested that the final letter grade performance of students was not different. **Value to Marketing Educators:**
