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The aim of this study was to determine the impact of oral communication in improving the marketing and financial management skills of sweet potato farmers.

The study used a quasi-experimental design with a pre- and post-test approach. The sample was 540 sweet potato farmers that were randomly assigned to training (n = 270) and no-training groups (n = 270) with analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) as the method of data analysis. While the training group received oral training sessions for three farming seasons beginning in 2019, 2020 and 2021, the no-training group did not receive any intervention.

Before the training sessions, all the sweet potato farmers scored low on marketing skills like advertising, sales promotion and sales forecasting. Both groups also scored low on financial management skills like budgeting, investments, saving and controlling expenditures. Their annual income level was also low and both groups did not significantly differ. However, after the training and during the follow-up evaluation, the participants in the training group reported a significant improvement in their marketing skills and financial management skills. There was also an improvement in their income level from $238 (N109,480) at baseline to $523 (N240,580) after the training and $782 (N359,720) after the follow-up evaluation. On the other hand, the no-training group reported a staggered fluctuation in their income of $241 (N110,860) at baseline, $371(N170,660) during post-training evaluation and $214 (N98,440) at follow-up assessment.

The first limitation is that the study examined only one crop. There is a need to pay attention to farmers of other crops for better understanding. Another limitation of the study is that the researchers examined only oral communication. There is a need to compare more than one training to understand which is more effective. Finally, the current study did not consider the moderating effect of other factors like the source of labour and expenses.

This study has shown that oral communication is an effective tool for promoting the acquisition of marketing and financial management skills and enhancing agribusiness.

This study aims to examine individual-specific market orientation as an innovative approach and its relationship with marketing skills among artisan entrepreneurs in India.

The study adopted an in-depth interview to explore variables, a questionnaire survey to understand their latent dimensions through exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test the relationship between constructs under study.

The interview result indicates that 20 variables explain factors affecting individual-specific market orientation with four latent dimensions: customer orientation, competitor orientation, external coordination orientation and personal selling orientation. There is a significant and positive relationship between customer orientation and personal selling orientation with the marketing skills of artisan entrepreneurs in India.

The study is confined to three southern states of India and weaving villages known for their endemic product specifications.

The study found significance in orienting artisan entrepreneurs of developing countries and equipping them with desired skills to meet the changing dynamics of the market and meet their livelihood needs. The study further supports policymaking in strengthening the capability of artisans to enter the market without mediators.

The model provides insight into other unorganized sectors to formulate innovative approaches to strengthen marketing skills and entrepreneurial ability.

As an exploratory study, examining individual-level market orientation as an innovative approach and their relationship with marketing skills among artisan entrepreneurs was unexplored in several unorganized sectors, including handlooms.

This paper sets out to identify the knowledge and skills that marketing practitioners need to possess and use, to improve marketing management and firm performance.

The data from a survey of marketing managers, academics and senior students in New Zealand, relating to the skills essential to work as a marketing manager, were analysed by analysis of variance to assess the extent of convergences or divergence among the responses of the three groups.

The essential skills are an ability and willingness to learn about product‐markets, to solve marketing problems, to communicate with internal and external stakeholders, and to work in teams, plus the knowledge of a wide range of marketing subject areas needed to set these skills in context. To progress from junior to senior posts, marketing graduates need to develop strategic thinking, leadership and management skills, and must demonstrate knowledge of strategic planning, product and brand management, communication and promotion, and consumer behaviour.

This study extends previous research by incorporating the views of three stakeholder groups about a broad range of knowledge and skills. Further, research is required to assess the generalisability of the results from these relatively small samples located in only one institution (albeit large and influential), and to investigate whether experience alone is a sufficient basis for junior marketers to acquire the knowledge and skills to become effective marketing managers and planners, or whether academics should help them to fast‐track their careers by means of targeted courses for intending practitioners.

Broad agreement between practitioners and academics suggests that relevant knowledge and skills are probably being taught. However, the differing view of students suggests that the effectiveness of university courses must be questioned.

The study reports the opinions of three stakeholder groups on a vital aspect of marketing education.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how students in a Malaysian context, as a result of their experience of a Higher Education Institution (HEI) undergraduate teaching and learning experience in the subject of Marketing, perceive the knowledge, skills and competencies required of a practicing marketer and, conversely, what curriculum developers need to do if there is a “shortfall”.

Based on a total sample of a UG student population from an Accountancy, Finance and Business Faculty, the primarily descriptive, positivist, cross-sectional study used inferential statistics to measure the relationship between the four components of marketing knowledge, skills and competencies (the marketing mix, performance, social and emotional competencies, and responsible decision making).

Quantitative results revealed that all student perceptions of the requirements to be a “fit for purpose” marketer were highly correlated with requirements from the literature, subject benchmarks and practice with few exemptions.

The findings are based on one institution. Moreover, knowledge, skills and competency requirements by students’ level of study and practitioner experience may vary by type of HEI, organisation and geographic location.

Recommendations are made for curriculum development to address both employability and career development, particularly in terms of interdisciplinary co-operation and the teaching and learning of concepts.

Using the student perceptions of the requirements for being a practicing marketer, HEIs can adjust/add to their curriculum by comparing these to documented sources from academia and practice and by making any necessary adjustments by course of study.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of a group of undergraduate students undertaking marketing research consultancy projects for employers. The projects are informed by action learning. The intention is to demonstrate that this method of learning facilitates a level of student skill development that more traditional marketing courses find difficult to achieve.

The study is underpinned by an interpretivist approach. Research involved students taking part in two focus groups during the consultancy and the completion of pre‐ and post‐consultancy open‐ended questionnaires.

Findings suggest that the marketing consultancy project represents a way to help develop the general skills required by novice marketers. Students show an understanding of the importance of acquiring communicative, interpersonal, creative and team‐based skills. These assist them in developing a practical knowledge neglected by much existing marketing teaching.

The findings although based on a small sample, indicate that marketing education if based on action learning, positively engages learners. The emphasis on practice suggests that experience, work place socialisation and tacit knowledge, are essential components of learning about marketing that often get overlooked in more traditional marketing courses.

This paper suggests that much established marketing education does not take sufficient account of experiential based learning and instead, is wedded to a model of teaching that sees marketing as being mainly about the transmission of administratively based knowledge. This paper argues that relying overly on the latter will not provide tomorrow's marketers with an appropriate skill set for employment.

Despite the widespread interest in self-marketing, scant research has been published about students’ self-marketing skills. The purpose of this paper is to address this research gap and develop a framework for self-marketing brand skills specific to business students.

Aaker’s Brand Identity Planning Model (2002) was used to construct personal-brand-identity elements. Empirical data were gathered from interviews with 17 students from two business schools in Finland, who were selected using a snowballing sampling technique.

Branding-related elements, together with empirically grounded themes, emerged and were developed into a framework for developing self-marketing brand skills. Self-marketing brand core, self-marketing brand goals and self-marketing brand activities were suggested and further divided into sub-topics, becoming the content of the new framework.

The study provides a starting point for further research on self-marketing skills from a branding perspective.

The paper discusses several important practical implications for business students who wish to improve their job-seeking success.

Rather than adopting a knowledge or activity perspective on self-marketing skills in job searching, the study extends the current knowledge by taking a complementary view, i.e. a branding perspective, and highlights students’ mental preparedness and drive.

The purpose of the research is first, to understand, explain, and evaluate the nature and extent of marketing skill development in MBA programmes relative to the needs and desires of practitioners and students, and second, to present findings and recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of skill development in MBA programmes for the benefit of both marketing practitioners and academics.

The research design/methodology is based primarily on survey research on skill development in MBA programmes from the perspectives of both graduates and marketing practitioners.

This research suggests that six important skill weaknesses – decision making, leadership, problem formulation, persuasion, creativity, and negotiation – need to be developed among future marketers and that a marketing education framework should be based on the pillars of a project and dissertation, classroom debate and discussion, and oral presentations.

Future research should focus on understanding and explaining to an even greater extent how marketing education can make more effective use of interactive, hands‐on learning approaches typified by a project and dissertation, classroom debates and discussions, and oral presentations.

Implications for practice include the suggestion that practitioners must also assume responsibility for developing initiatives that facilitate marketing skill development as well.

The new and original value and contribution of the research is that it extensively characterises and quantifies the extent of a marketing skill development gap – the gap between what marketing skills are being developed in MBA programmes and what practitioners want and need in marketers of the future in addition to providing recommendations to close the marketing skills gap.

Although a great deal of research has focused on global marketing strategy development and implementation, little research has focused on the global marketing managers charged with the responsibilities of developing and implementing such strategy. The aim of this paper is to develop a model that identifies a set of soft skills that have the ability to increase the effectiveness of global marketing managers in making the tactical adaptations necessary to develop and implement global marketing strategy in an increasingly complex and dynamic marketplace.

A conceptual model is developed with coinciding propositions.

The model developed theorizes that the ability of global marketing managers to make tactical adaptations to the firm's global marketing strategy (and thus enhance performance) is driven by the soft skills of tacit knowledge, experience, learning, unlearning, intuition, self‐confidence, flexibility, prioritization of problems, working under pressure and ambiguity tolerance.

The model highlights the specific soft skills that firms can work to foster in their global marketing managers and educators can work to incorporate within a curriculum. Through the development of these soft skills within a firm's global marketing managers, the firm can achieve a competitive position within the marketplace.

This study is one of the first to conceptualize a specific set of soft skills that enhance a global marketing manager's ability to make tactical adaptations to the firm's global marketing strategy by which the firm can be more competitive. As such, this study provides for a better understanding of how soft skills relate to the development and implementation of global marketing strategy and how firms can be more competitive by not only employing unique human capital, but by developing global marketing managers who are more effective at adapting to constantly changing global market conditions.

To investigate the skills and abilities that MBAs who study marketing, those occupying marketing positions, and companies that hire marketers regard as important; the level of competency required to perform on the job; and areas that need improvement, whether through on‐the‐job training, continuing education, or changes in MBA curricula.

Large‐scale international longitudinal and cross‐sectional surveys used to assess skill development, skill requirements, and the need for additional education provides the foundation of this paper. The data are obtained from three surveys conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council: Global MBA Graduate Survey, MBA Alumni Perspectives Survey, and Corporate Recruiters Survey.

Understanding the perspectives of different constituencies provides an in‐depth and comprehensive view of the skills and abilities needed by those who work in marketing. Without the assistance of a crystal ball to peer into the future, an empirical investigation is required into the relationship between skill development in the classroom, practical use of skills in the field, and the requirements of hiring companies for graduates. The paper identifies a thinking‐doing divide, discusses why it exists, and suggests how it may be corrected.

The research, although consisting of large international samples, is limited to students and alumni of graduate business schools and companies that hire MBAs. Even though the scope of the samples is limited to more advanced practitioners, the information is useful to faculty, students, and companies at all levels to assist in developing marketers of the future.

This paper presents data from three viewpoints that taken together yield a comprehensive picture of graduate education for marketers as it exists today, and clearly suggests directions for graduate education of future marketers.

This paper aims to explore expanded uses for LinkedIn.com as a teaching tool, beyond introductory assignments, for in-demand and emerging marketing techniques.

This paper reviews the current use of LinkedIn as a teaching tool for marketing educators and presents sample assignments that can be used to introduce students to content marketing, SEO, and online reputation management.

Marketing educators have found LinkedIn to be a valuable resource for teaching professional development in the business curriculum. But the site can also provide a platform for the exploration of emerging specializations including content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO).

As a general review, this paper provides an overview of techniques. Research is needed to test and further explore the use of these techniques.

This paper provides rationale and recommendations for marketing educators who wish to better prepare students for a competitive job market, in which employers expect students to be well versed not only in social media but also in emerging techniques like content marketing and SEO.

Researchers have explored the use of various social media platforms for marketing education, including LinkedIn. This paper addresses the future potential of LinkedIn to teach various marketable skills and shows the versatility of social media platforms as pedagogical tools.