Experiential learning and assessment in first-year undergraduate marketing units: An exploratory study

Abstract The trend toward more active, experiential learning pedagogies has found increasing interest. With its emphasis on creating solutions to consumer problems, such as through the marketing plan, the marketing discipline offers an ideal context for these pedagogies. This paper examines the extent to which experiential learning assessments have been adopted in fifteen Australian universities' first year undergraduate marketing units within a Business program. Results of the analysis show that developing a marketing plan is the most commonly used experiential task to assess student learning outcomes. However, the relative contribution of these assessments is low. Further, only in half of cases does it involve collaborative learning. More emphasis on carefully designed experiential learning and assessment is suggested as a means to achieve more employable graduates

Transforming marketing education: Historical, contemporary and future perspectives

Welcome to this Special Issue on Marketing Education. From the initial call for papers associated with the 2017 ANZMAC conference, this special issue grew to attract international authors to tackle the topic of the future of marketing education. Marketing education is at an intersection where digital technologies, wide-scale social and financial disadvantage, industrial demands and the opening of educational systems to market dynamics are changing the practice and promise of higher education–and the very nature of operations (Levine, 2018)

Battling the onslaught of junk food marketing

Marketing in Asia uses an active-learning approach to bring traditional theories and contemporary concepts to life. It provides the most up-to-date, comprehensive, engaging, and integrated learning experience for marketing students and marketers in today’s challenging world. Based on the best-selling U.S. text Marketing, Marketing in Asia is written with the Asian student in mind, with illustrations and case studies focused on companies in Asia to help the student understand the applications of marketing concepts by seeing these companies in action

Learning with concept maps: a study to measure change in learning in undergraduate Chinese marketing students

This paper explains the use of a novel method for assessing the extent to which student learning occurred during instruction. Concept maps were used to measure the change in learning following a two-week intensive undergraduate Marketing Principles course delivered to 162 Chinese students undertaking a Bachelor of Business Administration program in China in 2010. Using four scoring procedures (breadth of knowledge, relational quality, structural quality and holistic quality), student learning is assessed in terms of prior and new knowledge, as well as improvement in knowledge structure. Further, concept map scores are correlated with traditional measures of overall student performance. The results provide strong evidence for improvement in students’ ability to externalise new learned concepts resulting from intensive instruction

How academics in undergraduate business programs at an Australian University view sustainability

This article explores conceptualisations of sustainability and perceptions of its importance in curriculum held by business subject and program leaders. Results are reported from an empirical study of the first-year Bachelor of Business program at an Australian university. Research data was collected in 16 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with subject and program leaders over two teaching periods in 2011. Interview transcripts were analysed through the identification of key themes. The results reveal that teaching academics believe sustainability is something more dynamic and complex than they are able to feature in their subjects, reflecting the difficulty in appropriately conceptualising sustainability, as well as differences between the academics’ beliefs, intentions and actions. Few studies explore the conceptualisations of sustainability held by subject and program leaders. If business schools are to produce sustainability-savvy graduates, the teaching academics need to have a clear and, ideally, shared view of sustainability

Developing and testing a model of cooperative interorganisational relationships (IORs) in product innovation in an Australian manufacturing context: a multi-stakeholder perspective

As fast-growth economies, such as China and India are dominating export markets, innovation in the manufacturing industries of slower, developed economies, such as Australia is a survival issue. Particularly small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMMEs) with limited internal innovation resources and capabilities are suffering. Corresponding with this development, academic interest in analysing the relationship between innovative performance of small firms and their recourse to external resources, especially through interorganisational relationships (IORs) has been growing over the last ten to fifteen years. To date the emerging literature has given limited attention to the systematic empirical assessment of the relationship and innovation inputs and outputs of cooperative product innovation. Furthermore, most of the literature focuses on cooperative innovation IORs with customer stakeholders, ignoring the potential role played by other external stakeholder groups, such as suppliers, industry partners and research/advisory organisations. To this end, this thesis investigated the following research question: What are the relationships between IOR- and innovation-oriented antecedents and consequences of cooperative product innovation and how effective for overall firm performance is product innovation cooperation with multiple stakeholders? A six-factor multi-stakeholder model of cooperative IORs in product innovation for Australian manufacturers was developed from a strategy-structure-performance-based model of marketing channel relationship structure. It synthesised and built upon prior models of cooperative product innovation and incorporated concepts and measures drawn from the IOR and product innovation literatures. The central, structure-based construct (measurement model) developed was stakeholder involvement in product innovation (SIPI). Two factors were used to predict SIPI: Stakeholder orientation (SO) and Product innovation orientation (PIO). A further two factors represented outcomes of SIPI: Relationship quality (RQ) and Product innovation performance (PIP). A sixth factor - Overall firm performance (OFP) - was also measured to assess the broader implications of the model. Two objective, single-item variables were also included in the model – relative Product innovation spending (associated with PIO) and Sales growth (associated with OFP). To address the multi-stakeholder perspective, four external stakeholder groups most likely to be involved in a manufacturer’s product innovation (customers, suppliers, industry partners (competitors) and research/advisory organisations) were assessed. Eight hypotheses positing associations between the six constructs were developed. As strategic data was required, the research method for primary data collection was a survey of CEOs/General Managers of Australian machinery and equipment manufacturers, predominately SMMEs. A questionnaire was designed to measure their opinions about the firm’s relationships with each of the four stakeholder groups in product innovation as well as their views on the firm’s product innovation orientation and performance. Following extensive pre-testing of the questionnaire, it was distributed by mail and online to the senior managers. Data obtained from 120 respondents was used in the research. Using a two-step structural equation modelling (SEM): confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) approach, examinations of parameter estimates, fit and residuals were used to test the individual constructs for validity. Composite reliability and average variance extracted were used to test for construct reliability. An overall (multi-stakeholder) structural model, as well as four single-stakeholder models, of key relationship- and innovation-oriented antecedents and consequences of cooperative product innovation were then tested using SEM AMOS software. Meaningful modifications of the hypothesised model were undertaken to improve model fit. The four modified single-stakeholder models and the overall (multistakeholder) model were found to provide a satisfactory fit. Statistically significant standard coefficients for each of the latent constructs provided evidence of the importance of each element as an input or outcome of cooperative innovation. The results indicated that, as posited, a firm’s Product innovation orientation (PIO) was positively associated with its Stakeholder orientation (SO). SO, in turn, was a valid antecedent of cooperative product innovation (SIPI). The hypothesised direct path from SIPI to RQ was, however, not supported. Instead, SIPI was found to partially mediate the SO-RQ association, further strengthening that positive link. Surprisingly, PIO did not appear to significantly influence cooperative innovation SIPI. Instead, PIO was found to be a strong and direct antecedent of market- and technical-oriented PIP, whereby the cooperative innovation construct SIPI did not materially impact Product innovation performance PIP. Product innovation spending directly influenced technical-oriented PIP only. RQ was a valid predictor of Sales growth, but not of Overall firm performance OFP. While market-oriented PIP was found to lead to stronger assessments of OFP, increased technical-oriented PIP negatively impacted on OFP. Consequently, seven of the eight hypotheses relating to the research model were accepted in part or full, and one hypothesis was rejected. Overall, qualified support was found for the central proposition: Higher (sales) growth manufacturers tend to pay more attention to their relationships with the top firms in each of four stakeholders groups (customers, suppliers, industry partners and advisory/research firms), involve these firms more in product innovation activities and perceive their relationships to be of higher ‘quality’. Firms with sound overall firm performance (return on investment, net profit, market share and overall business performance) tend to be more product innovation focused (in terms of strategy and spending) and achieve product innovations, which are successful both technologically and market-wise. However, stakeholder involvement in product innovation is not as good a predictor of product innovation outcomes as is the firm’s product innovation orientation (strategy)

An exploratory study on assessment of creativity in first-year undergraduate marketing units

Marketing is perceived as an innately creative discipline, one which offers creative solutions to consumer problems. Yet little attention has been given by researchers into how students acquire knowledge of creativity and how it assessed in introductory marketing units. This paper examines how creativity is assessed as a learning outcome in fifteen Australian universities’ first year undergraduate marketing units within a Business program. Results of the analysis of unit statements showed no that university had achieved an aligned course design with respect to creativity learning outcomes, curriculum and assessment. Integrating the creative problem solving process in a marketing task, such as a group-worked marketing plan, is suggested as a way forward