期刊名称：Journal for Advancement of Marketing Education
印刷版ISSN：2326-3296
电子版ISSN：1537-5137
出版年度：2013
卷号：21
期号：2
页码：53
出版社：Marketing Management Association
摘要：Purpose of the Study: Teaching highly motivated marketing students can be rewarding, yet efforts to serve them effectively can be undermined by the drag of unmotivated, uncommitted, or free-riding students. Perceived increasingly as an industry, higher education has integrated broad interpretations of customer concepts that could help or hinder the teaching-learning experience. Hoping to expand and update narratives about treating student as customers, the author invites students to ponder whether and how the business practice of firing customers should be applied in class settings. Taking cues from professional service providers that may fire/replace problematic customers, the author asks, for discussion and reflection, “If students are customers, then what might happen if faculty, as service providers, could retain the most engaged (drop the least diligent) students from a class?”Method/Design and Sample: 120 marketing students were asked to review Mutual Drop/Add (MDA), an idea that would allow faculty (service providers) to drop/add a number of less/more academically engaged students (customers) in a class. Students discussed, critiqued, and evaluated basic tenets of MDA, ultimately providing favorable and unfavorable reactions to it.Results: Survey results – descriptive statistics and open-ended responses -- show that students generally support the MDA idea, finding that it could improve individual performance, barriers to free-riding, overall learning experience, school reputation, and other outcomes. Ultimately, students’ responses indicate that there may be room for a future paradigm shift in how to manage class enrollment and engagement.Value to Marketing Educators: The findings should encourage marketing educators to brainstorm ideas on addressing students’ motivation, engagement, and performance. Students’ reactions to MDA suggest that they (a) welcome opportunities to discuss academic performance standards, (b) want prescriptions to protect and enhance the co-created learning environment, and (c) desire alternative approaches that can stimulate and sustain overall academic quality
关键词：higher education; students as customers; peer performance; metaphors
