A comparison of marketing teaching methods in North American and European universities

摘要

Purpose - To compare marketing education methods in Europe and North America, and analyse the opinions about effectiveness underpinning educators' choices among available options. Design/methodology/approach - E-mail questionnaires distributed to a sampling frame extracted from the worldwide directory of the Academy of Marketing Science were completed by 93 marketing academics in North America and 42 in Europe: a 26 per cent overall return rate. Data were analysed by χ~2, ANOVA and correspondence analysis. Findings - Three teaching-and-learning methods are most common in both environments: practical exercises, case studies and lectures. Europeans tend to rely on lectures and other traditional methods, while Americans make more use of technology-based alternatives. The approach to the subject in Europe favours practical exercises, for their connection to the real world. Practice in North America reflects a cultural predisposition to personalised teaching, by emphasising face-to-face small-group tutorials and one-to-one distance learning interaction. Teaching methods popular in the business world are little used across the sample, a somewhat paradoxical finding in a business-school environment. Research limitations/implications - The sample is comparatively small, and the European sub-sample is not further broken down into cultural sub-groups. Because the research instrument was adapted from one previous Spanish-language survey, terminology may have influenced the responses. Practical implications - The findings could be a useful input to planning of teaching and learning strategies, particularly in the international and distance-learning contexts. Originality/value - A rare comparative study of marketing education, suggesting fruitful directions for future research.