Doreen Shanahan, Lynda Palmer, and Jim Salas Publish Research Paper in the Journal of Marketing Education

Doreen Shanahan, Lynda Palmer, and Jim Salas recently published Achieving Scaled and Sustained Use of Client-Based Projects in Business School Marketing Education: A Proposed Suprastructure in the Journal of Marketing Education. Through critical participatory research, Shanahan, Palmer and Salas explore the use of project management and business development processes as a framework for effective scaled use of client-based projects (CBPs) in business marketing education. 

The paper provides guidance on identifying and adopting roles within CBPs to support use of a suprastructure as a means of achieving economies of scale, including description of roles and relationships. CBPs provide students with a unique opportunity to gain real-world experience through projects that bring together real companies, products or services, competitors, and decision makers. CBPs can also enhance business marketing education through targeted curriculum that provides an interactive experience central to the learning process whereby students are able to learn what strategies are most effective in problem-solving, and as a by-product, have the potential to provide value for the client, business community, university, and the instructor. 

Business scholars believe that experiential learning like CBPs may improve the hard and soft skills students need to excel in today’s business environment.

The full research paper is available in The Journal of Marketing Education.