Enhancing entrepreneurial marketing education: the student perspective

This paper aims to report the findings of a large‐scale multinational study of students in a marketing organization that investigates the need to expand entrepreneurship education in the marketing curriculum. Key questions include what is the entrepreneurial mindset of students interested in marketing, what do they think they need to know, should they some day decide to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities, and how satisfied are they with their current exposure to entrepreneurial marketing experiences?

Via e‐mail, a major international collegiate marketing association headquartered in the USA sent the online questionnaire to a random sample of 4,300 students. Content areas included entrepreneurial mindset, desired entrepreneurial marketing learning and experiential activities, and demographics. A total of 605 students participated in the study.

The findings show that there is a large segment of marketing students who desire to be an entrepreneur and feel strongly about entrepreneurial education. Exposure to entrepreneurial marketing tools, experiential learning activities, and networking opportunities were deemed to be especially important.

The study focused on students in marketing organizations. Additional research is needed at the course level.

The findings suggest that entrepreneurial marketing education is needed in the business curriculum. Training in entrepreneurial marketing will better prepare students interested in being an entrepreneur or small business owner.

Entrepreneurial marketing has received little attention in the business education literature. The study is the first of its kind to study entrepreneurial marketing curriculum needs from the perspective of students in a nearly 11,000 strong international marketing organization.