Organizational Learning and Market Orientation in International Marketing Education

SUMMARY

This study develops and tests a series of relationships between organizational learning and market orientation as it pertains to international marketing education. The focus is on the activities and relationships between the students, faculty, and staff in the international marketing/business program at three schools in the north, midwest, and south United States. Based on a sample of 193 undergraduate and graduate international marketing students, the results suggest that organizational learning (class and major area-based learning)-team orientation, systems orientation, learning orientation, and memory orientation-positively influences market orientation learning outcomes (i.e., intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination, and responsiveness). The major implication of the study is that the education provided to the students in an international marketing course (i.e., upper-division university course) can be enhanced by focusing on organizational learning tools as a means to increase the shared knowledge level among the Students.     

Master's Level Education in Business Marketing: Quo Vadis?

ABSTRACT

Given the paucity of knowledge on the state of business marketing education at the master's level, we conducted an exploratory survey of instructors at selected universities in North America and Europe. We supplemented results from this survey with discussions with our colleagues who teach business marketing at the master's level, and a review of articles on master's level programs.

Through our investigations, we discovered that there is a shortage of management cases that address contemporary issues in business marketing. We learned that nearly half of survey participants do not use a textbook and that the remaining participants use a wide variety of textbooks. We observed that many instructors still teach business marketing courses from a traditional functional perspective. Instead, we believe that business marketing courses must address a host of emerging issues such as value and its assessment, business process reengineering, global marketing, working relationships and business networks, and cross-functional coordination issues, among other things.

We believe that scholars can rejuvenate the discipline by tailoring business marketing courses to the new generation of accelerated master's programs, by creating a network for sharing information on new cases and teaching materials, and by writing more relevant and timely business marketing cases. Finally, we believe that the time is right for a faculty consortium on teaching business marketing.     

Strategically Assessing International Business Course-Specific Learning Aims

Abstract

During the past 30 years, there have been calls for universities and business schools to internationalize curriculum, students and faculty. As most U.S. business schools have added international components to their respective programs, the assessment of these programs was subsequently recommended from accreditation and competitive perspectives. To sustain competitiveness, business schools must expand their program assessment activities and rigorously conduct assessment at the course level as well. We propose a model of international business course assessment that links learning aims to delivery methods and reviews two separate approaches based on that model.     

A Commentary on “Business Marketing in Master's Programs: A Part of the Fabric”: Cut from the Same Cloth?

ABSTRACT

The authors of this article and their colleagues at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario are to be commended not only for this well-crafted article but also for their efforts to elevate and incorporate essential knowledge of business marketing into the fabric of their school's master's program. The provocative argument that the authors make is that business marketing behaviors, concepts and topics should not be the focus of just one elective course but that they should serve as a foundation of a school's entire master's program. According to the authors, that foundation can be built around four pillars or business marketing essentials-organizational buyer behavior, relationship marketing, customer value, and business markets. In this article, they present not only a process and guidelines for imbedding these pillars into a master's program but also recommend specific topics and cases for various master's level courses. For these reasons, this article is a “must read” for marketing scholars who seek not only to create and/or improve elective courses business marketing but also to enhance the prominence of the study of business marketing at their respective universities.     

Internationalization of China’s Shanxi Province New Merchants: Implications and Use in Teaching IB

ABSTRACT

The Jin (Jin refers to Shanxi Province) merchants have a very important position in the history of Chinese business. The Jin merchants is a business course that investigates Shanxi businessmen and their business activities. As a local characteristic of the business curriculum of China, this course is taught in a number of universities. Taking the development of the new Jin merchants in Toronto as a breakthrough point, this article expounds the necessity of teaching the internationalization of the Jin merchants and puts forward the corresponding development strategies from the aspects of teaching objectives, curriculum, and the building of an international cooperation platform of teaching and scientific research. This study can promote teaching the internationalization of the Jin merchants and provide a chance for more people to understand the teaching of the Jin merchants.     

The Domains of Undergraduate International Business and International Management Courses in Accredited Schools of Business

ABSTRACT

This study compared undergraduate international business and international management course syllabi from 190 management departments at accredited U.S. business schools. Comparisons revealed considerable overlap in topic areas in the two courses. The findings indicate the need for greater domain clarity and differentiation in objectives, topic areas covered, and textbooks used. Domain clarification could lead to more truthful representation of the two courses, better training and disciplinary grounding of course instructors, more appropriate hosting of the courses in business school departments, and enhanced skill-sets among students in these courses. Finally, clear domain definitions are necessary for reliability and validity in international business research.     

Internationalizing the Assessment Criteria to Build Cross-Cultural Competency

ABSTRACT

International business programs, universities with international students, and educators who seek to internationalize their teaching need to make informed decisions about teaching, testing, and assessment criteria. The infusion of American business curricula throughout the world as well as the need to train American business students for leadership roles in global contexts calls for teaching and assessment practices which explore a plurality of cognitive, affective and behavioral pedagogical strategies. This article considers traditional education and assessment in China in light of American educational practices currently used for assessment in business training. It explores how an understanding of modern Confucianist values can shape assessment choices in both American and overseas programs as an example of developing cross-cultural awareness. The authors call for an assessment process in business education which draws from a plurality of methods adapted to teaching, learning and testing for global awareness.     

Using International Virtual Teams in the Business Classroom

Abstract

Given the growing use of virtual interaction in international business activities, business schools must provide students with experiential learning opportunities that prepare them to work in virtual organizations. This paper uses multiple case study methodology with analysis at the transaction level to analyze the dynamics of the virtual teams, and to compare international and domestic virtual team behavior. The paper also identifies the challenges of implementing international virtual teams for teaching international business and provides practical advice for faculty.     

Designing and Delivering Business Ethics Teaching and Learning

The recent corporate scandals in the United States have caused a renewed interest and focus on teaching business ethics. Business schools and their faculties are reexamining the teaching of business ethics and are reassessing their responsibilities to produce honest and truthful managers who live lives of integrity and ethical accountability. The authors recognize that no agreement exists among business schools and their faculties regarding what should be the content and pedagogy of a course in business ethics. However, the authors hold that regardless of one’s biases regarding the content and pedagogy, the effective teaching of business ethics requires that the instructor in designing and delivering a business ethics course needs to focus particular attention on four principal questions: (1) what are the objectives or targeted learning outcomes of the course? (2) what kind of learning environment should be created? (3) what learning processes need to be employed to achieve the goals? and (4) what are the roles of the participants in the learning experience? The answers to these questions provide the foundations for any business ethics course. The answers are major determinants of the impact of a business ethics course on the thinking of students and the views on the ethical and professional accountabilities and responsibilities of managers in the workplace.     

Course-Specific Motivated Learning and Outcomes: The Role of the Perceived Task Value of Course-Specific Assignments

Although the internationalization of curricula has increased steadily over the past 30 years, most universities and business schools have concentrated their efforts on program assessment activities, leaving course-level assessment as a gap in most international business assessment portfolios. To address the gap in aligning course-specific designs with course-specific learning outcomes, the current study focuses on a specific course domain. This study (1) assesses how students' subject-specific motivational beliefs and learning behavior affect their perceived learning outcomes, and (2) examines how students' perceptions of the task value of subject-specific assignments strengthen or weaken the effect of motivated learning on learning outcomes. The results highlight the critical roles of group-based term projects and individual-based IT tasks in strengthening the effect of self-efficacy and deep learning behavior on learning outcomes. International business educators are thus advised to manage students' perceived task value with regard to outcome and effort expectancy. Practicable recommendations are provided for building up students' expectations about desirable learning outcomes in relation to project-specific assignments, and fostering students' beliefs about return-on-efforts through project-specific assessment rubrics.     

The Global and Regional Dispersion of Publishing in the Field of International Marketing

ABSTRACT

This paper empirically examines the research productivity of academic institutions in the leading international marketing journals, leading generalist marketing journals, and leading international business journals between the years 1999 and 2003 from a regional and country-specific perspective. The research found that across the three groups of journals, the majority of works were authored by academics at institutions located in North America, although North Americans contribute significantly less in the international marketing and international business journals than leading generalist marketing journals. The findings suggest that there is a broadening of non-U.S. influence within the international marketing and international business journals, which should lead to a broadening of international marketing theory.     

Business Marketing Education: A Distinctive Role in the Undergraduate Curriculum

ABSTRACT

By extending their knowledge of markets beyond the consumer-goods domain, by deepening their understanding of how organizations make buying decisions, by strengthening their grasp of cross-functional processes, and by providing them with decision-making skills in this important area of marketing, the business marketing course makes a special contribution to undergraduates and the undergraduate marketing curriculum. Moreover, the content and focus of the business marketing course are closely tied to important themes that are transforming business practice. This article isolates the distinct contribution of business marketing education and examines important trends that are reshaping this domain. The central knowledge areas that comprise the undergraduate business marketing course are detailed and linked to specific course design strategies that can be pursued to strengthen the skill set of marketing students and respond to the needs of important constituents.     

The Founding of a Nonprofit Organization as a Teaching/Learning Experience: A Case Study in Service Learning

ABSTRACT

The present case study describes how the founding, by faculty, of a nonprofit organization has aided marketing instructors (and instructors other disciplines) in teaching students to understand and apply marketing (and other business) theories in a “real-world” environment. To that end, the case study is organized as follows. First, it offers a short discussion on the pros and cons of working with for-profit versus nonprofit organizations to add value to the learning experience for students. Second, it describes the benefits and drawbacks instructors and/or students have experienced from starting their own nonprofit organization as a teaching or learning tool to help translate marketing theory into marketing application.     

Distribution of Marketing Research Material to Universities: The Case of Archive of Market and Social Research (AMSR)

ABSTRACT

The aim of this note is to understand how content relating to marketing and market research is distributed to and within universities. The focus of the study includes the behavior of all those in this market for information, namely suppliers (whether content generators, aggregators, packagers, or distributors of content) of marketing research, university staff, and students. The case study method was implemented to collect data. The case study focuses on UK Higher Education. Specifically, the authors use the case study of the newly developed Archive of Market and Social Research (AMSR) to explore how content relating to marketing and market research is distributed to and within universities. The research involved personal interviews with 15 librarian senior managers selected from 14 universities.

The interviews with librarians provided insight into how AMSR could be distributed to university libraries and how it could be accessed. The findings highlight the role of university academics in specifying the content of marketing and market research. They focus on ‘real world’ management problems to deliver research with impact and relevant teaching. Therefore, they need company and industry information and are more likely to use current sources. The study maps the process of acquisition of marketing and market research content by universities and identifies the different roles involved in this process. The study is in line with the emerging literature that focuses on the role of education in explaining the relevance gap in marketing research. The study contrasts between the situation in the university market and industrial buying and adds to our understanding of the complexities associated with the distribution of the marketing research material. The result is expected to be a much sharper focus for the marketing of the archive material, leading to greater use of recent high-quality market research by marketing educators, and changes to marketing and market research syllabuses.

This note provides insight into how suppliers (whether content generators, aggregators, packagers, or distributors of content) of market and marketing research should market to universities and ensure the use of their information resources by students and teachers and how they should. The findings of the study contribute to understanding customer needs and shaping a new service product proposition. In addition, the study provides insight into how university students and staff access and should access commercial research on marketing from the market research industry (in particular from the Archive of Market and Social Research) and use it in their learning, so that their knowledge will be more up to date and their employability will be increased. Adding several insights to the issue of distribution of marketing research material to universities. The paper relates to the marketing of information resources to universities, specifically to the work of the Archive of Market and Social Research, in marketing their information assets to universities, and more specifically the relationship between the “push” of suppliers, libraries, journal and textbook suppliers and information aggregators (such as EBSCO and JISC) and the pull coming from academic researchers and lecturers, who might use this information in their teaching and research. The present study can be seen as a classic case study of understanding buyer behavior, but in a modern world of information platforms, aggregation, and the digital economy.     

Learning needs of growth-oriented entrepreneurs

As firms increase in size and complexities, the entrepreneurs managing them face a number of unique problems. Often the entrepreneurs lack the experience to address these challenges. Further, finding the best method to acquire the needed information has proven elusive for both entrepreneurs and educators.The existing entrepreneurship education literature related to teaching and/or learning skills to grow a business does not significantly address the problems brought on by growth. Most studies have examined students in an academic environment, away from realworld problems, in a relatively structured setting of a specific duration and with similar levels of competency and knowledge. Practicing entrepreneurs do not fit this educational mold.The results of this study show that entrepreneurs prefer learning experiences that are short, to the point, content oriented, and taught by practicing professionals. This study also identifies the priority learning needs and preferred delivery methods of fast growth entrepreneurs. These findings could be used to develop a series of courses or modules that could enhance the management efficiency and effectiveness of fast growth entrepreneurs.This study contributes to the general knowledge of entrepreneurship education in the following areas:

• 1.1. It identifies the learning needs and preferred instructional methods of practicing, fast growth entrepreneurs.
• 2.2. It provides market information on course offerings for executive education programs.
• 3.3. It provides a model of curriculum content for universities that wish to bring their courses more in line with the needs of practicing entrepreneurs.
• 4.4. It provides a teaching approach that can help bridge the gap between academe and the business world by focusing on learning needs common to both students and entrepreneurs.

     

Does a Student’s Personality Influence Global Attentiveness and Internationalism in an International Business Course?

Learning outcomes for international business (IB) courses are designed to do more than simply impart IB knowledge. However, past studies have had mixed results on the impact of learning in IB courses. This study examines whether a student’s personality may affect learning outcomes. The results suggest that after completing an IB course, students become more interested in keeping up with important international issues (i.e., global attentiveness) and also benefit from a stronger global outlook (i.e., internationalism). The Big Five personality trait, openness to experience, partially affected these learning outcomes. Students in our study with a high degree of openness to experience were the most global attentive before and after taking the IB course. However, openness to experience levels did not significantly influence levels of internationalism. Implications of this study and suggestions for future research are also discussed.     

Teaching International Business Concepts Through the Exchange of Cultural Metaphors

Abstract

The objectives of this paper are (1) to review the concept of cultural metaphors, (2) to propose a specific application of cultural metaphors in the teaching of international business concepts and (3) to report two situations in which this application was used. The paper concludes with recommendations for further development of this teaching methodology. The applications involved the exchange of metaphors between students at a French university and students at a university in the United States, in 2001 and 2004, which they had developed to describe their respective cultures. The courses were in the field of international business management.     

Perceived Effectiveness of Simulations in International Business Pedagogy

Abstract

This paper examines the perceived effectiveness of simulations in teaching international business. A survey of third and fourth year Canadian students who participated in a web-based international business simulation was conducted using a structured questionnaire. Factor analysis was used to understand the underlying relationships in the resulting data. The study finds that, compared to traditional approaches, e.g., textbooks and cases, students viewed the simulation as a more effective learning tool. The game stimulated interest and participation among students and was effective in fostering teamwork. The simulation was also viewed as being effective in providing students with an appreciation of the international context and complexity of cross-national decision-making.