Implementing Service Learning in the Principles of Marketing Course

Abstract

Service learning—a pedagogical technique combining academic learning with community service—offers many benefits to students, faculty, educational institutions, and the community. Relative to social sciences and liberal arts faculty, however, business faculty have been slow to incorporate it into their coursework. Service learning may be particularly relevant to marketing courses, given marketing’s interest in social causes. At the same time, implementing service learning into the Principles of Marketing course may be challenging because of students’ limited marketing background. This article addresses the implementation of service learning in the Principles of Marketing course. Based on the authors’ experience, the article recommends an approach to effectively implement a service-learning component into the introductory marketing course. The authors also provide an assessment of outcomes from their approach, critical success factors for instructors who wish to alter this approach, and key challenges as we move forward with service learning in the Principles of Marketing course.