Journal of Marketing Education

Misinformation in digital media is growing at an exponential rate. The rapid growth of technologies such as social media and artificial intelligence necessitates the skills to navigate through the vast amount of digital media information. Education in digital media literacy is critical to ensure students do not fall prey to easily manipulated features, yet obtaining these skills is not core to business schools’ learning objectives. This article proposes the use of digital media literacy modules within marketing courses to inoculate students from misinformation tactics. Our findings indicated that if students undergo this intervention, they can combat misinformation by applying information literacy, media literacy, and technological literacy techniques. Through exposure to misinformation tactics and the strategies for assessing information, students will strengthen their defense against misinformation and increase their digital media literacy. Information on these modules, learning objectives, and specific course topics for integration are provided and discussed.

Marketing education has undergone a significant shift toward experiential learning and interactive pedagogical approaches. This article demonstrates the potential of educational escape rooms (EERs) as a novel and innovative tool for enhancing student engagement in marketing education. Building on the literature on experiential learning, game-based learning, and EERs, this article presents a step-by-step guide for the design and implementation of a digital EER using Canvas, a learning technology platform. The digital EER is used for a cumulative concept review in a graduate marketing strategy course, leveraging technology to deliver an immersive and interactive learning environment. Student interviews were conducted to gain insights into the effectiveness of the digital EER, highlighting its impact on their learning experience, engagement, and motivation. The findings suggest that digital EERs have the potential to transform student learning, encouraging active participation, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. This research contributes to the growing body of scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) research in marketing education, offering valuable guidance for marketing educators seeking to integrate innovative teaching methods into their courses and paving the way for adoption and further exploration of digital EERs as an immersive pedagogical tool in marketing education.

Data-driven marketing analytics courses are integral to modern business management degrees in universities, yet many graduates focus solely on single, separated data analysis techniques during their learning process, hindering effective integration and practical performance. This study proposes that employing the Fishbowl method, which divides students into “fish” or “observers” to facilitate active problem-solving and analytical reflection, can effectively empower students to augment their learning and performance in marketing analysis by strengthening their metacognition. This research also explores the moderating effects of task complexity and students’ divergent thinking. Two field experiments (41 Cohort 22/23 students in Study 1; 39 Cohort 23/24 students in Study 2) were implemented. The results revealed that the Fishbowl method significantly enhances students’ metacognition, which affects their task-solving performance. Furthermore, students with higher (lower) divergent thinking perform better and are better suited to the observer (fish) roles. This moderating effect was strengthened when the task complexity was high. This study bridges the use of the Fishbowl method with the enhancement of metacognition in the context of marketing analytics courses. Appropriate utilization of the Fishbowl method during marketing analytics courses, along with grouping students based on their thinking traits, can significantly enhance learning effectiveness and performance.

This special issue responds to the call for renewed attention to sales curriculum design by examining three intersecting trends: the rapid transformation of the sales profession, the evolving characteristics of today’s college students, and the widening gap between traditional university teaching methods and the demands of contemporary sales practice. We encourage teacher–scholars to continue reimagining sales education—drawing on cross-disciplinary insights and experiential approaches—to better align with both industry needs and student aspirations in an increasingly dynamic and human-centered marketplace.

Sales education has experienced significant growth recently, both in the number of schools offering sales programs and in the amount of pedagogical attention dedicated to advancing the field. However, one area that has not been given adequate attention is the sales curriculum. To date, few scholarly articles have examined sales curricula from a broad perspective. More concerningly, the field of sales has changed significantly due to recent technological, generational, and pandemic-related shifts in the market. Accordingly, in the present article, we examine the current state of sales curricula by reviewing the existing curricula of the 70 member schools of the University Sales Center Alliance (USCA) in the United States. Furthermore, we conduct focus groups with former sales students now working in sales, as well as hiring personnel affiliated with USCA schools, to address how sales curricula should be evolved to reflect the modern sales role. In addition, we triangulate and validate these insights with data gathered from sales academics. Our findings suggest sales educators should rethink the composition of the standard sales curriculum.

Sales education has evolved significantly due to trends such as sales transformation, hybrid sales, and the growing relevance of sales in complex digital markets. However, there is a lack of comprehensive educational research that can propose curriculum designs based on the most relevant competencies for the industry and help respond to recent challenges in competitive and technological terms. This study adopts a competence-based and multi-stakeholder perspective to investigate emerging competencies in complex selling and implement a curriculum design model for sales. It examines the literature and gathers insights from both sales scholars and business stakeholders to put forward a comprehensive set of competencies and a curriculum content proposal for universities. The results reveal that sales professionals should have strategic value creation, advanced business negotiation, and advanced interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies. The findings of our study and the proposed curriculum content provide a basis for future research on sales education and applications in universities.