In a globalized world, it is essential for business courses to adapt to the current economic climate by integrating cross-cultural and transnational approaches while remaining focused on the mission of the curriculum.

Mission-Driven Approaches in Modern Business Education provides innovative insights into the ways that mission values can be seamlessly, efficiently, and effectively integrated into the core of any business course to inspire and influence quality business education. The content within this publication represents the work of educators in finance, management, marketing, international business, and other fields. It is designed for business managers, academicians, upper-level students, researchers, administrators, and organizational developers, and covers topics centered on mission as it relates to teaching, leadership, experiential learning, mission statements, sustainability, cultural engagement, and several other topics.

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Topics Covered

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The many academic areas covered in this publication include, but are not limited to:

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• Business Policy

• Finance Teaching

• Leadership Development

• Learning Assessment

• Management Theory

• Mission Values

• Multiple Identity Organizations

• Service Learning

• Social Entrepreneurship

• Strategic Decision-Making

• Transnational Education

In this chapter, the author provides quantitative readability assessments of mission statements belonging to collegiate business schools and programs within the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU). These assessments can help higher education's internal stakeholders discern the skill, ability, and effort required for various audiences to read and understand a given mission statement. The author finds that the institutions vary somewhat in how well they articulate their chosen “enduring statement of purpose” for public engagement in terms of tone, gender, reading ease, and other factors. Readability measures are presented for business schools and programs for which a mission statement could be located. These measures include, for example, word count, syllable count, grade level, and a variety of readability indices. This chapter's contents may be useful to business schools planning to develop, review, or revise their mission statement for internal and external audience engagement.

Store-based retailers face constant challenges in trying to lure shoppers, extend shopping visits, and convert patrons. With shopping options galore (e.g., native online sellers, mobile commerce, automatic replenishment), experts might inquire whether store-based retailers still offer enough value for today's consumers. Some stores have found success through format diversification, self-checkout, in-store pickup, and so on. In this study, we assert that store-based retailers could find success via in-store salespersons capable of satisfying the social needs of consumers experiencing loneliness. Despite purported “connections” to friends, followers, and devices, consumers of all demographics feel undesirable shortcomings in their personal relationships. Delving into this largely unexplored area, we find that two varieties of loneliness—social and emotional—influence the degree to which consumers use in-store sales personnel for social interaction. We also ascertain that consumers' predisposition to comply with salesperson input affects their trust in the salesperson, purchase intention, and retail store patronage.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how social loneliness, emotional loneliness and social isolation relate to Indian consumers’ enjoyment of social interaction with an in-store salesperson.

Design/methodology/approach

Over 300 Indian respondents are surveyed about personal disposition, shopping experiences and other factors. The research model and hypotheses are evaluated utilizing partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Findings

As posited, Indian consumers dealing with loneliness and social isolation tend to enjoy in-store shopping experiences involving personal interactions with salespersons. Further, salespersons’ adaptive selling relates positively to consumers’ predisposition to comply with salesperson input and three outcomes (i.e. trust in salesperson, purchase intention and retail patronage).

Originality/value

This study fills a void in current marketing and retailing literature, providing one of the first known empirical investigations of consumers’ experiences with loneliness and social isolation. Overall, the study shows that store-based retailers within culturally collectivistic emerging markets can capitalize on their unique ability to attract and retain shoppers through in-store salesperson interactions.

Purpose

Scholarship in the entrepreneurship and marketing literatures has helped advance thinking about how health care organizations create value for companies and consumers. However, there is an ongoing need for empirical research; hence, the purpose of this paper is to examine how entrepreneurial orientation and customer orientation influence healthcare (retail pharmacy) industry performance.

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Design/methodology/approach

Using a sample of the US retail pharmacies, the study applies partial least squares structural equation modeling to identify the direct and indirect effects of the entrepreneurial orientation constructs on company performance. The study also includes importance–performance analyses to prioritize for managers which orientations, dimensions and respective manifest items merit the most critical attention as contributors to pharmacy performance.

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Findings

We find that the entrepreneurial orientation has a significant impact on customer orientation and company effectiveness. We also find that three dimensions – innovation, risk-taking, and proactiveness – exhibit stronger importance and performance than autonomy and competitive aggressiveness.

Research limitations/implications

While the present study employs data from firms of various sizes, it is limited to firms in the pharmacy industry. Although this study included established EO measures, one of the risk taking items was dropped from the final analysis. In certain research contexts, this result may or may not be consequential. Finally, this study employed nonfinancial measures for measuring performance. Using such measures is not uncommon and can offer insightful linkages to long-term organizational strategies in ways not afforded by conventional financial measures (Ittner and Larcker 2000); however, future research should, if possible, aim to capture financial and nonfinancial data.

Practical implications

In the dynamic healthcare environment, entrepreneurial pharmacies that have the ability to innovate, take risks and be proactive can provide superior customer orientation and hence better performance.

Social implications

Health care industry in general and pharmacies in particular have to be entrepreneurial to meet customer needs and hence the wellbeing of the society With the aging population and growth of complex diseases, pharmacies can provide better access to care delivery if they have entrepreneurial orientation.

Originality/value

In this study, partial least square modeling technique along with importance performance analysis was adopted for first time in this literature to identify key factors that contribute to EO. The findings will aid pharmacy managers to focus their initiatives on the three key dimensions to succeed in their retail pharmacy business.

Historically, scholarship on ethics in sport has focused almost exclusively on practices of athletes, coaches, and leagues. In this study, we highlight a serious void in the existing empirical literature on morality—ethical ideology and intention—of sport fans. Applying “bracketed morality” sport fans sometimes enact or accept behaviors otherwise regarded as problematic in everyday situations—insulting athletes, cursing at officials, celebrating riotously, and/or intimidating fans of rival teams. Only some fans actually sanction (oppose) these kinds of behaviors, suggesting that they are questionable but not necessarily problematic, and, thus, worthy of closer investigation. Here, with the aid of four scenarios, we find that sport fans’ ethical ideology influences ethical intention. We also find that this influence is mediated two-fold by ethical perception of moral problems and trivialization of observed situations, with trivialization exhibiting greater influence. Hence, while ethical ideologies and perceptions are important, they may be bracketed in evaluations of sport-fan behaviors.

A successful marketing department has the power to make or break a business. Today, marketing professionals are expected to have expertise in a myriad of skills and knowledge of how to remain competitive in the global market. As companies compete for international standing, the value of marketing professionals with well-rounded experience, exposure, and education has skyrocketed. Global Perspectives on Contemporary Marketing Education addresses this need by considering the development and education of marketing professionals in an age of shifting markets and heightened consumer engagement. A compendium of innovations, insights, and ideas from marketing professors and professionals, this title explores the need for students to be prepared to enter the sophisticated global marketplace. This book will be invaluable to marketing or business students and educators, business professionals, and business school administrators.

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Chapter contributors are from USA, Portugal, Spain, Thailand, Mexico, and other countries.

This chapter considers the appropriateness and importance of including the natural environment (i.e., nature and geography) as part of the external business environment featured in marketing textbooks. Based on myriad examples from industry, the natural environment is regarded as an uncontrollable force that constantly affects decisions about markets and marketing activities. Thus, it deserves some (greater) mention next to economic, competitive, regulatory, and other variables typically featured in most marketing textbooks. Based on a review of business news, industry concerns, and marketing textbooks, this chapter considers the current listing of uncontrollable environment forces typically discussed within twenty-five popular marketing textbooks. It is observed that nature and geography, common priorities for business decision makers, are conspicuously absent from mention within most of these textbooks. This chapter shows that the natural environment is mentioned in only five of twenty-five marketing textbooks: two introductory marketing; one marketing management; and two international marketing. Based on scholarly definitions and industry examples, nature and geography are, in fact, uncontrollable influential forces that affect markets and marketing activities. Consequently, there is reasonable cause for including them in more marketing textbooks. Textbook authors and instructors can provide students a more complete picture of how domestic and international markets and marketing activities are affected by the natural environment. In practice, business people acknowledge that the natural environment affects and is affected by markets and marketing activities in virtually all industries. Alas, marketing textbooks seldom little, if ever, acknowledge that nature and geography (e.g., topography, climate, weather, solar flares, natural disasters) affect how companies think about their markets and marketing mix. This chapter offers simple, actionable steps for discussing the natural environment in marketing textbooks and courses.

This article details a sport business project intended to provide students with an opportunity to analyze critically the convergence of business, cultural, and social justice issues associated with the controversial name of the Washington Redskins football franchise. In the context of a mock debate, three teams of students represented separate interests—the Native American community, the Washington Redskins management, and Washington, D.C. government—to advocate for and against a recently proposed name change. Taking up this real topic in contemporary sport business, students received intensive exposure to self-directed learning, cultural competence , simulated debate, and spontaneous questions. Students reported in their personal reflections that the project helped improve their critical analysis of stakeholders' positions, cultural awareness, and sensitivity to factors that can help and hinder brand meaning.

This chapter provides an exploration of female sex tourism, or romance tourism, a global consumer phenomenon that has evolved over several decades. Amidst forward strides in their social and economic empowerment, many women in advanced countries still experience marginalizing constraints to their freedom, mobility, and expression in many aspects of life. Yet, scholarly research and anecdotal evidence suggest that some women have utilized sex tourism as a means to escape such domestic constraints and find entrée to myriad social and cultural privileges at certain destinations abroad. Moving beyond tenured, clichéd stereotypes that typically associate sex tourism with male consumers, this chapter brings to light the rationale, justifications, criticisms, and cultural issues pervading this institution. Despite its liberating potential for women, female sex tourism does, at least somewhat, rely upon and reinforce historically entrenched national and cultural demarcations that tend to marginalize the people (partners, families, communities) of targeted destinations in the developing world.

Purpose of the Study: Academic dishonesty is endemic in business education, and research suggests strongly that marketing students are frequent culprits. In this study, the authors investigate (a) what students think of various cheating behaviors, (b) whether students perceive cheating as a serious ethical problem, and (c) whether students exhibit ethical intentions (e.g., not cheat, report on peers) in response to problematic situations. Method/Design and Sample: A sample of 235 marketing students completed a self-administered questionnaire that included items dealing with personal ethical ideologies, perceptions of cheating behaviors, and reactions to four academic dishonesty scenarios. Data were analyzed using frequencies, analysis of variance, and regression. Results: Overall, students have mixed perceptions about cheating behaviors. They recognize that cheating is an ethical problem and exhibit ethical intentions not to cheat; however, they are reluctant to report, or snitch, on other students. Female students are less likely to view cheating behaviors as trivial and more willing to report them. Value to Marketing Educators: The article's findings should encourage marketing educators to specify clearly for students the characteristics, problems, and outcomes of cheating. Educators should work with students to nurture their understanding of ethical decision making as it relates to cheating. With regard to students' potential responses to cheating, marketing educators should be aware that ethical intentions could involve distinct choices (not) to cheat and/or (not) to report cheating behavior.

Purpose of the Study: Teaching highly motivated marketing students can be rewarding, yet efforts to serve them effectively can be undermined by the drag of unmotivated, uncommitted, or free-riding students. Perceived increasingly as an industry, higher education has integrated broad interpretations of customer concepts that could help or hinder the teaching-learning experience. Hoping to expand and update narratives about treating student as customers, the author invites students to ponder whether and how the business practice of firing customers should be applied in class settings. Taking cues from professional service providers that may fire/replace problematic customers, the author asks, for discussion and reflection, " If students are customers, then what might happen if faculty, as service providers, could retain the most engaged (drop the least diligent) students from a class? " Method/Design and Sample: 120 marketing students were asked to review Mutual Drop/Add (MDA), an idea that would allow faculty (service providers) to drop/add a number of less/more academically engaged students (customers) in a class. Students discussed, critiqued, and evaluated basic tenets of MDA, ultimately providing favorable and unfavorable reactions to it. Results: Survey results – descriptive statistics and open-ended responses-show that students generally support the MDA idea, finding that it could improve individual performance, barriers to free-riding, overall learning experience, school reputation, and other outcomes. Ultimately, students' responses indicate that there may be room for a future paradigm shift in how to manage class enrollment and engagement.

What's In today's more diverse sales organizations, sales managers face important interpersonal challenges to achieving high-quality relationships, which result in better performance within their sales force. In this article, it is argued that cultural distance can negatively influence sales manager and sales subordinate relationships. The quality of these relationships ultimately influences the level of effort that sales subordinates exert toward achieving organizational sales goals. However, despite the potential obstacle of cultural distance, sales managers can utilize transformational leadership as a means to mitigate its adverse effects on one-to-one relationships with members of the sales force. this item about? What makes it interesting? Write a catchy description to grab your audience's attention...

Today’s young marketers transition from schools and into the workforce with a variety of career options in sales, advertising, and general marketing after graduation. Beyond their discipline-specific knowledge of market research, consumer behavior, and marketing communications, these individuals bring along their own set of personal values and ideologies that may influence how they engage the people, personalities, and priorities of the business organization. As new generations of young professionals enter the publicly scrutinized fields of sales and marketing, they are expected to make morally grounded decisions that may be informed by these values and ideologies. This study frames this state of affairs by examining the inquiry “Who Shall Lead Us?” whereby young marketers evaluate the fitness of a leadership climate in which they would potentially work. Here, individual cultural values and ethical ideologies are posited to influence evaluations of transformational leadership.

As today's marketing graduates formally enter the business profession, they are expected to demonstrate the fruits of their ethics-intensive education. Hence, their professors and future bosses may call upon these graduates to discern and deal with ethical situations that affect various aspects of company and consumer relations. However, students enter the classroom and business environment with their own individual orientations and ideology that help them determine when an issue is ethical and requires a certain response. Here, I examine the influences of the marketing student's personal cultural orientation and ethical ideology on ethical perception and ethical inclination within the context of two hypothetical marketing/sales scenarios. The findings contribute to the ongoing debate about whether or how much business ethics can really be taught.

Many marketing educators and students have come to understand business competition through metaphors of marketing as war. Such metaphors are useful, but like any metaphor, their effectiveness is inherently contingent upon students' familiarity with the underlying contexts (e.g., warfare or military situations). Hence, such metaphors may fall short in helping students understand competition and the players involved in it. In this paper, I present a simple teaching approach based on a five-creature metaphor—gazelle, lion, hyena, vulture, and worm. This approach can serve as an adjunct or alternative to the conventional perspective of marketing as war. Here, I provide qualitative data revealing student preconceptions about my approach and quantitative data reflecting their evaluations of its educational enjoyment and utility. The findings suggest that marketing students understand the semantic context of my metaphor, recognize its applications, and perceive its lessons as being relevant to their other business courses.

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It has been nearly 30 years since business schools began providing formal courses in business ethics to their students.

In that time, the public has witnessed countless cases of business misconduct, often performed by these students. Scholars and researchers agree that ethics education is important, yet they disagree about how it should be taught, what specific content themes should comprise it, and what students should take away from their training. Compounding this matter, students may be expected to grasp, retain, and apply on-demand various ethical theories and rules, which ultimately make them less intuitive, interesting, and practicable. In response to these issues, the AISA model was developed to serve as an ethics educational takeaway that students can easily comprehend and apply across a variety of situations dealing with ethics and social responsibility. An introduction to the AISA model and its applications are presented here.

Changes in social demographics, legislation, and wealth distribution have prompted modern sales organizations to recognize the importance of cultural diversity within customer markets and sales forces. Some sales forces have employed multicultural salespersons to aide their pursuit of multicultural target markets. Traditionally, organizations have conceptualized cultural identity as membership in one particular category, or frame, determined by race or nationality. However, modern transnational sales organizations actually include sales managers and sales subordinates who may identify with more than one cultural frame, or meaning system. These cultural frames present important prospects and problems for today's sales managers who interface with sales subordinates having compatible or incompatible cultural frames. Within the context of the sales manager and sales subordinate relationship, we present a 2 × 2 framework explaining the cross-cultural interfaces between individuals having one cultural frame (monocultural) versus two or more culture frames (multicultural).

Today's vertically linked international marketing channel networks require effective cross-cultural communications processes. If the channel partners are to cooperate successfully they need to understand each other in spite of the potential noise that may occur in the channel across cultures. This study examines channel communications between U.S. exporters and their channel partners from countries in high and low context cultures. It was found that culture is related to certain dimensions of channel communication, while for others no relationship was found.