Innovating Marketing Undergraduate Curriculum: How Integrating Courses at the Undergraduate Level Enhance Skills and Competencies for New Hires Entering the Workplace

Abstract

[EN] The marketing field continues to evolve as the functions within organizations are constantly changing. New hires are finding that along with the evolving landscape they need to be able to master their field of expertise to work well with others both inside and outside their respective organizations. This dynamic environment is increasing pressure on how universities prepare undergraduate students for careers in marketing. The purpose of this study is to investigate how revisions to marketing undergraduate curriculum better prepares student career readiness. Based on field interviews, managers note that gaps exist in undergraduate curriculum as it is intended to prepare students for the workplace, more importantly as students advance their careers. While there have been many proposed changes to curriculum (e.g., Bridges 2020; McCollough and Shook 2017), we take a broader look at how curriculum can be adapted and be made adaptable to the dynamic environment. Our study focuses on two areas. First, we explore the knowledge new hires need to be successful in their roles in marketing. For domain knowledge, we investigate specific marketing expertise and how marketing topics integrate (thus bolstering cross-functional expertise) from a marketing knowledge standpoint. Second, we study how integrative curriculum better provides new hires the skills and competencies essential for when working with others in the workplace. Similar to previous research considering skills and competencies of undergraduate students (e.g., Zekeri 2004), we use the The Tailored Design Method to administer a survey to gather data in order to investigate these research questions further.