Abstract
The writing of this editor’s corner comes at a time when we are “wrapping up” many things—whether it be gifts for the holiday season, semester projects, and/or even those dreaded annual activity reports. But the writing also comes at a time when we are preparing to start anew. Each year at this time, I try to reflect on the state of educational scholarship and marketing education in particular. As evidenced by my past editor’s corners written at the end of a calendar year but appearing in the first issue of a new year, I think reflecting and sharing are critical to the ongoing advancement of our profession. At the end of 2020, I was reflecting and sharing about what I saw as a malleable normal as we were in the throes of teaching and learning during COVID (Crittenden, 2021). By 2021, I was thinking circularly and offered some thoughts on a wheel of marketing education (Crittenden, 2022). This year, my thoughts are swirling around two words—revolution and evolution.
The origin of my thinking on revolution and evolution resides clearly with my thoughts on a malleable normal and circular thinking about teaching and learning these past few years. At one point amid all the educational changes, I thought we were likely seeing a new beginning for marketing education. This thinking was enhanced at an international conference where the panel members used the metaphor of a “vortex” to talk about the changes in marketing education (Schlegelmilch et al., 2022). Highlighted changes in marketing education discussed by the panel members and audience were digitalization, the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs), the increasing role of entrepreneurship, and more interdisciplinary perspectives in our teaching and learning of marketing. But, as I later pondered these topics, I began to wonder (yet again?) if marketing educators were really beginning anew.
Like any good scholar, I decided to see what I could find in the literature about new beginnings. I will admit to going down a rabbit hole in my online search, and that is where the aforementioned “swirling” (re)occurred. An article by Dator (2014), while completely unrelated to marketing education, became the cornerstone for my thinking about new beginnings where I began to think in terms of revolution and evolution. Is marketing education suddenly, radically, and completely changing—as in a revolution? Or is marketing education gradually developing into something different—as in an evolution? Interestingly, was the marketing education vortex (Schlegelmilch et al. 2022), which might be likened to a revolution, created by a tsunami (Dator, 2014) of gradual, evolutionary changes?
The Marketing Education Vortex Created by a Tsunami in Teaching and Learning
As a preface here . . . while I did some reading about all things meteorology-related to better understand Dator’s (2014) metaphors, it is likely obvious that I was literally swimming in unknown territory. As such, advance apologies and I hope the reader can grasp my metaphorical storyline. Each issue of the Journal of Marketing Education (JME) can be likened to Dator’s (2014, p. 497) mighty set of waves where marketing educators are offered support in surfing for “survival, fun, and fulfillment” while also preparing for the possible mighty vortex. Surfing the set of waves in this current issue should be enjoyable, as the articles are a mixture of traditional marketing waves with a bit of mature undulation.
Catching the first wave in this issue, “Back to the Basics: Handwritten Journaling, Student Engagement, and Bloom’s Learning Outcomes,” Orie Berezan, Anjala Krishen, and Sara Garcera step away from technology and literally go back to the basics of handwriting. The authors’ research focuses on sensitive topics and the role of handwritten reflective journaling in enabling marketing students to experience learning in a new light. The blend of the old (handwritten instead of digital) with the new (sensitive topics) in marketing education offers critical insight on student engagement.
The next breaking wave in this issue is the article by Janneke Blijlevens, “Educating Marketing Students to Understand Designers’ Thought-Worlds.” Schlegelmilch et al. (2022) referred to the need for greater interdisciplinary perspectives in marketing education, and Blijlevens brings that perspective to the marketing shore. Through specifically chosen activities, marketing and design students make use of scaffolding to understand an intuitive, divergent, and creative thinking approach to the development of innovative marketing ideas.
Students ride the educational waves differently, and Minna-Maarit Jaskari and Henna Syrjälä examine the differences in their article, “A Mixed-Methods Study of Marketing Students’ Game-Playing Motivations and Gamification Elements.” The authors identify four clusters of students that vary in their game-motivational bases and views on gamification elements. The findings confirm earlier studies that gamification elements can be controversial and lead to reduced student motivation.
Shannon Cummins and Jeff Johnson continue riding the wave of differences among students in their article, “The Impact of Live Cases on Student Skill Development in Marketing Courses.” Although the marketing pedagogy of live classes is not a new phenomenon, the authors go below the surface to investigate the perceived educational impacts of live cases on student skill development, and they do this at a greater depth than explored previously. This research examines the immersive learning experience of live cases in terms of teamwork, conflict handling, time management, presentation, communication, and critical thinking skills.
The wave train of student differences continues with Joseph Cannon, Ritu Lohtia, and Brianna JeeWon Paulich in “Blending Learning in Principles of Marketing: The Effects of Student Differences on Student Performance.” While online learning, combined with face-to-face instruction, is becoming more popular in higher educator, little is known about factors that might influence student performance in the blended learning modality. The authors attempt to fill this gap by identifying and empirically testing individual factors influencing student performance in an introductory marketing course.
Wrapping up this issue is another breaking wave article that focuses on mitigating two major issues over the past few years—that of social isolation and perseverance. In their article, “The Pedagogy of Vulnerability and Marketing Education: Cultivating Self-Expansion in a Time of Separation,” Holly Syrdal, Brian Vander Schee, Rebecca VanMeter, and Parker Woodruff offer the Know Me Activity (KMA) to encourage connections between students and the instructor. The authors conclude that utilizing the KMA can help mitigate social isolation and encourage perseverance, two properties that have a perpetual impact on teaching and learning.
As suggested by Dator (2014, p. 503) in his thoughts on alternative futures, each of the articles in this issue of the Journal “is to be experienced, explored, savored and respected for its own sake and used as a stepping-stone toward the creation and constant re-creation of preferred futures as time goes by. . .” With that in mind, I will wrap up this Editor’s Corner by referencing that rabbit hole I went down in my online search. As Mayor (2015) said, “the only thing that separates ‘evolution’ from ‘revolution’ is an ‘r,’ the ‘r’ of responsibility.”
The Forecast
The articles that appear in all issues of the JME are written by scholars who have taken on the responsibility of shaping the beach called marketing education, one wave at a time. When we take a walk along the JME shoreline, we are able to dip our toes into a variety of educational properties. Sometimes we catch the wave, other times we do not. I do believe, however, that our tsunami of evolutionary educational topics spiral into vortex structures that have, at various points in time, revolutionary impact. As I look back over 2022, in addition to our regular issue articles, I think the social media and entrepreneurial marketing special issues are more revolutionary than evolutionary—and that is because the special issue editors and contributing authors have taken on the “r” of responsibility in advancing our discipline. Looking ahead, that “r” of responsibility is evident in our forthcoming special issues focused on the UN SDGs and the sales curriculum. My hope is that we will have many educators attempting to ride these two big waves, as others continue to navigate the incredible tidal waves of marketing educational scholarship.