Susan Cadwallader

Want to, need to, ought to: employee commitment to organizational change

Purpose – This study aims to focus on the role of employee commitment in the success of organizational change initiatives. The authors seek to propose and test a model that delineates antecedents and consequences of affective, normative, and continuance commitment to organizational change.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected via online survey from employees working in a large not‐for‐profit organization. A total of 191 responses (32 per cent) were obtained. The hypothesized model relationships were tested using structural equation modeling.Findings – The results demonstrate that the antecedents: fit with vision, employee‐manager relationship quality, job motivation, and role autonomy all influence commitment to change (C2C). Notably, affective commitment, which in turn influences employee perceptions about improved performance, implementation success, and individual learning regarding the change, had the greatest impact.Research limitations/implications – Limitations that could lead to future...

Proposing Community-Based Learning in the Marketing Curriculum

Community service and service learning (CS&SL) exposes students to the business practice of giving back to society while reinforcing classroom learning in an applied real-world setting. However, does the CS&SL format provide a better means of instilling the benefits of community service among marketing students than community-based learning (CBL), a modification of client-sponsored projects using nonprofit organizations that emphasize societal benefits? A series of three studies reveals that CBL renders results that are more favorable than CS&SL by enhancing student awareness and perceived benefits of community service at the undergraduate and graduate curriculum levels.

Editors’ Corner: The “Work-Ready” Marketing Graduate

There is a growing acceptance in business schools today of the need to address the marketing industry’s demand for “work-ready” graduates. What constitutes “work-ready” and how it can be effectively developed in marketing majors remains open for debate. A particular issue is the depth and breadth of preparation that marketing programs should provide. Is it sufficient to develop graduates with the skills to obtain their first job? Or should marketing faculty prepare students not only for their first job but also to be career-ready and valuable to society at the same time? Stakeholder groups have differing expectations about what comprises a “work-ready” graduate. From the education institutional perspective, work readiness ensures that all marketing graduates have achieved at least a minimum standard in specific business-related learning goals including effective skills in communication, teamwork, ethics, and the ability to integrate the various business disciplines (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, 2013). The business perspective expands the educational perspective to include immediate (add value for the organization) and longer term objectives that encompass career goals and aspirations. Such raises the question: How can marketing faculty deliver an optimal mix of skills and knowledge that ensure that graduates have the tools to adapt to the challenges of the post-graduation marketplace and fulfill their potential? While there has been much discussion in the Journal of Marketing Education about the skills that stakeholders believe should be developed and assessed, there are benefits in expanding the conversation (Cummins, Peltier, Pomirleanu, Cross, & Simon, 2015; Finch, Nadeau, & Reilly, 2013; Schlee & Harich, 2010; Walker et al., 2009). To understand the current and the “best” possible trade-offs, we must evaluate the influence that employers and their current needs have in shaping the curriculum, the tendency for classroomdeveloped skills to be focused on employability rather than career management, and whether current specializationfocused marketing curricula effectively prepares “careerready” graduates who are often required to work in cross-cultural or multidisciplinary groups. Articles in this special edition of the Journal of Marketing Education examine and expand existing thinking about what “work-ready” presently means and what it should mean in and beyond the marketing classroom. The articles examine the issues from both the business and academic perspectives, and they challenge the value of a specialist marketing education. In the first article, Regina Schlee and Gary Karns examine how technological transformations in marketing and the need to integrate considerably large data into marketing planning have both affected skill requirements and compensation for entry-level graduates. Their analysis of job postings illustrates the dynamic nature of the knowledge, skills, and personal attributes required for entry-level positions. Schlee and Karns found that three quarters of the job listings included one or more required analytical or technological skills. They discuss several recommendations for curricular adjustments including the need to increase students’ quantitative analysis skills and their familiarity with marketing technology, and to promote cross-functional cooperation (e.g., between marketing and information systems faculty). Continuing in this vein, Ellen McArthur, Krzysztof Kubacki, Bo Pang, and Celeste Alcaraz examine job postings, focusing on employers’ descriptions of the required skill sets and attributes of graduate applicants for entry-level jobs. The most frequently required skills and attributes include motivation, time management skills, communication skills, and digital marketing experience. The authors identify two primary gaps between the content in marketing programs and requirements in job advertisements: (1) the range of digital marketing specialties and (2) effective communication skills (primarily writing). The authors raise the issue of the marketing degree’s purpose and whether marketing curricula achieve that purpose. The third article focuses on the academic perspective. Duleep Delpechitre and David Baker examine developing cultural intelligence in the classroom given today’s increasingly globalized and multicultural business environment. They examine the importance of sales students’ cultural intelligence and how it influences their adaptive selling 712411 JMDXXX10.1177/0273475317712411Journal of Marketing EducationBacon editorial2017

Affinity and Beyond: Leveraging NASCAR's Integrated Supply Network to Drive Fan Equity

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) serves as the context for a case study in which the concept of fan equity—the net present value of current and future fan revenue—is considered integral to its supply network. We posit that fan equity is driven by relationship equity created through relationship-building activities generated by the NASCAR governing body, sponsors, tracks, teams, drivers, the media, and fans themselves. This study suggests that the driving force of relationship equity is the cooperation of these entities, each of which recognizes the value of supply network relationships and leverages the investment in relationship-building and cooperative-marketing efforts to create, nurture, and grow fan equity.

Editors’ corner: The “work-ready” marketing graduate. Part II

Welcome to Part II of the special issue on “The ‘Work Ready’ Marketing Graduate.” Part I examined and expanded the existing thinking about what “work-ready” presently means and what it should mean in and beyond the marketing classroom. The articles examined the issues from both the business and academic perspectives, and they challenged the value of a specialist marketing education. In Part II, the focus shifts slightly. The first two articles examine successively how a student’s transition to a “work-ready” graduate involves a gradual change in his or her own perceived identity, and how students’ work-readiness might meaningfully be communicated to potential employers. Beyond their skill set, “workready” graduates must possess the ability to adapt their skills to meet the demands of a dynamic market place, which is the subject of the third article. The fourth article examines why many students are resistant to a career in sales and how this mindset can be changed. In the first article, Douglas Ewing and Randall Ewing consider whether marketing educators are producing successful business students rather than the “work-ready” graduates who employers seek. “Work-ready” business graduates must first transition from the classroom where they have been conditioned to succeed in an academic environment to a business environment demanding different skills. Drawing on Identity Theory, the authors propose that the traditional “business student identity” needs to be redefined to facilitate students identifying as a working professional. The authors assert that if carefully orchestrated, a curriculum and academic environment that more closely reflects the professional environment will facilitate this transition. The initiative’s potential obstacles and opportunities are identified and discussed. Heather Honea, Iana Castro, and Paula Peter examine how employers determine the competencies of job applicants, specifically how marketing practitioners evaluate different evidence items and activities as signals of marketing competencies among marketing graduates. The authors developed a survey composed of a comprehensive set of evidence items, and they surveyed marketing practitioners to determine the items that emerged as valued signals. The authors provide insights concerning how marketing curricula can be leveraged in terms of assessments and deliverables that students can use to signal their workplace readiness to employers. In the third article, Christine Ye, Jerry Van Os, Dick Chapman, and Dax Jacobson describe how they employ an online competency-based model alongside a real-world project to narrow the gap between employer expectations and student skills. While acknowledging that the initiative occurs in a small college with small class sizes and a high level of faculty–student interaction, there is much in this article that is quite useful for developing curricula in marketing departments regardless of size and funding, especially when seeking approaches that bridge the gap between students’ academic needs and the requirements of their future employers. In the final article, Paola Palanga, Silvio Cardinali, Luca Vincenzo Ballestra, and Graziella Pacelli examine the reluctance of students to consider a career in sales. Based on the findings of a survey of undergraduate students, the authors suggest that while students are partly aware of the salesperson’s role, they have only a limited understanding of the evolution that has taken place in that role, specifically the changes that have occurred in the role. A more complete understanding of the salesperson role, particularly the relational aspects, had a significant association with students’ feelings about a career in sales. The authors provide suggestions as to how marketing educators can apply their findings within the curriculum. These articles conclude the two-part special issue on the “work-ready” marketing graduate. Hopefully, the articles have encouraged your interest in this topic and provided useful information on the perspectives, how-to specifics, and challenges in embarking on this transitional initiative. 740450 JMDXXX10.1177/0273475317740450Journal of Marketing EducationFreeman et al. editorial2017