{"id":1163,"date":"1994-06-01T08:44:48","date_gmt":"1994-06-01T12:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jagsheth.net\/?p=1163"},"modified":"2019-02-11T15:05:39","modified_gmt":"2019-02-11T20:05:39","slug":"developing-a-curriculum-to-enhance-teaching-of-relationship-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jagsheth.com\/marketing-research\/developing-a-curriculum-to-enhance-teaching-of-relationship-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"Developing a Curriculum to Enhance Teaching of Relationship Marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"
Joseph P. Cannon and Jagdish N. Sheth | Criticism of the relevance and process of business school education and research continues to mount. At the same time, academics and practitioners have become increasingly dissatisfied with traditional marketing theory and practice\u2014with growing importance being placed on relationship marketing. This article describes a new MBA curriculum developed by the faculty at Emory Business School at Emory University, designed to meet the needs of students, faculty, and the business community.<\/h5>\n
Business schools have increasingly become targets of criticism from students and the business community. These criticisms have focused on curriculum content (Byrne 1993; Mason 1992; Porter and McKibbin 1988; Sheth 1988), teaching methods and pedagogy (Hatch 1992), and the relevance of academic research (Behrman and Levin 1984; Byrne 1990; Stanton 1988; Walle 1991). In response to these criticisms, many business schools have radically changed their curriculum (Bongiorno 1993; Byrne 1992; Mason 1993).<\/p>\n
During this same time period, a rapidly changing competitive environment, the total quality management (TQM) movement, advances in information technology, and increasing globalization of industries have changed the way firms market their products. Many firms are changing their attention from single-mindedly acquiring new customers to placing greater focus on retaining current customers (Liswood 1990; Vavra 1992). These trends point to the emergence of a new paradigm or school of marketing thought \u2014 relationship marketing (Kotler 1992; McKenna 1991; Parvatiyar, Sheth, and Whittington, Jr. 1992; Sheth, Gardner, and Garrett 1988).<\/p>\n
The purpose of this article is to describe an innovative curriculum being developed at the Emory Business School at Emory University. The curriculum at Emory is being revised to address the concerns of its customers (students and business) and to place a greater emphasis on relationship marketing. The enhanced curriculum and supporting structures create a three- way partnership between students, faculty, and the business community. These changes create an environment that enhances the relevance and quality of teaching and research in relations hip marketing.<\/p>\n
The article begins by briefly expanding upon the criticisms of teaching and research in graduate management education. The second section describes and discusses relationship marketing. Given the shortcommings of current business education and the emergence of relationship marketing, we develop a set of objectives governing curriculum development. These are elaborated in the third section. A description of the proposed curriculum and its supporting structures follows. The last section discusses the implications of the program for students, faculty, the business school, and business practice, then proposes directions for future development.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Criticisms of Business Schools<\/span><\/h2>\n
Business schools have come under attack for failing to teach students the subject matter and skills needed to be effective managers and for spending too much time conducting \u201cfuzzy\u201d and\/or \u201cIrrelevant\u201d research (Byrne 1990). Critic lam of the education and research provided by graduate business schools falls into three general categories (see Exhibit). Some have criticized the content of management education, noting the lag in bringing leading edge management practices to the classroom (Byrne 1990; Hotch 1992) and failure to focus on the cross- functional nature of business practice (Mason 1992; Sheth 1988). Others indict the pedagogy or process of management education. Typical teaching methods have not helped students develop requisite shills (Byrne 1993) or provided students with adequate real world experiences (Hotch 1992).<\/p>\n
Besides knowledge dissemination, a key role for faculty is to develop knowledge relevant for managers (Berry 1993). Yet business school research does not tackle problems important and relevant to today\u2019s manager (Byrne 1990; Chonko and Caballero 1991; Stanton 1988). Furthermore, relevant research takes too long to get into the classroom (Economist 1991). The lengthy journal review and publication process means that research conceptualized and conducted now may not be in print for two to three years, or more. It might take two more years before such findings make it into textbooks.<\/p>\n
The criticism outlined in this section suggest that business schools need to balance research and education among three criteria: relevance, process and rigor. Managers (current and future) require faculty to provide them with knowledge that is relevant and able to guide their decisions. Students desire that the pedagogy help them to develop skills and provide them with hands-on experience. Faculty value research and education that is rigorous and. therefore, valid. The criticisms of business and marketing education outlined above suggest that in some ways we have gotten away from these criteria. The following section describes how relationship marketing provides a relevant umbrella for our curriculum.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Relationship Marketing<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
The development of marketing theory and practice is undergoing a paradigm shift from a transactional to a relationship orientation (Arndt 1979; Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh 1987; Kotler 1992; McKenna 1991; Sheth, Gardner and Garrett 1988). The curriculum described below places a great emphasis on the role of marketing in building and managing relationships with a company\u2019s many stakeholders, which could include suppliers, competitors, governments, and employees, as well as customers (Morgan and Hunt 1994; Webster Jr. 1992). This section briefly describes the emergence of relationship marketing in marketing research and practice.<\/p>\n
Relationship marketing reflects a strategy and process that integrates customers, suppliers, and other partners into the company\u2019s design, development, manufacturing, and sales processes (Sheth and Parvatiyar 1993). Relationship marketing emerged from dissatisfaction with existing paradigms. In evaluating different schools of marketing thought, Sheth, Gardner and Garrett (1988) suggest the need to focus on ongoing, collaborative \u201cexchange that creates value (win-win) for both parties (see Figure 1). Indeed, many marketing theories tend to focus on exchange as ad hoc transactions, based on conflict (zero\u2014sum, win\u2014lose).<\/p>\n
Observing that theory does not match up with current practice, the orientation of academic research in marketing has begun to place greater attention on ongoing relationships. Drawing on theories from economics (for example, transaction cost analysis, Williamson 1985), social psychology (for example, social exchange Theory Thibaut and Kelley 1957), sociology (Macaulay 1963), and law (for example, relational contracting, Macneil 1980), many marketing scholars have started to focus their attention on ongoing buyer-seller relationships (Anderson and Narus 1984; Arndt 1979; Crosby, Evans, and Cowles 1990; Dwyer, Schurr and Oh 1987; Hskansson 1982; Heide and John 1990; Kaufmann and Stern 1988).<\/p>\n
The practice of relationship marketing is spreading across many markets and industries. Manufacturing organizations build closer relationships with their suppliers to better manage total quality and inventory costs and to facilitate new product development (Burt 1984; O\u2019Neal 1989; von Hippel 1988). Several packaged goods firms have built closer relationships with retailers to mutually reduce costs and increase sales (Tosh 1993). Many organizations are now seeking methods for building closer relationships with consumers through managing brand equity (Keller 1993) and database marketing (Copulsky and Wolf 1990; Shaw and Stone 1990)- Firms are discovering that directing more marketing resources toward consumer retention (as opposed to acquisition) may prove more efficient (Liswood 1990).<\/p>\n