Marketing Courses in a Graduate School of Business

Abstract

SINCE I have been assigned the section of this round table relating to marketing courses in a graduate school of business, it might be well in the very beginning to clarify the term graduate. As I understand it, a graduate school of business simply designates a professional school offering its training after the four-year college course. Whereas in a graduate school of arts and sciences, one may assume a preliminary undergradate training in a particular field of interest, in a graduate school of business one does not presuppose anything more than that its entering students have a maturity of mind. The only technical requirement for entrance to a graduate school of business is attainment of the bachelor's degree, and that degree may have been in economics, biology, engineering, or any other field. In discussing the teaching of courses in marketing in such a school, one may assume either that the term advanced applies to those courses offered subsequent to a basic course in marketing, such as those in retailing, sales management or advertising, or that all marketing courses offered in a graduate school of business are advanced by virtue of their being offered to graduate students. Merely that I may have a basis of discussion, I am choosing to handle the problem from the second point of view. The courses in marketing at Stanford are currently offered in the last four quarters of a six-quarter or two-year graduate course leading to the degree of Master of Business Administration. They consist of two quarters of Marketing required of all students, and one quarter devoted to each of the following electives: Retail Store Management, Sales Management, and Advertisi . These courses are preceded in the first year's work by directly related material in courses in Business Organization, Sources of Business Information, Geographical Asp cts of Business, Psychological Aspects of Bu iness, Accounting, and Statistics. They are supplemented in the second year by courses in Industry Study and Research Methods, Executive Control, Business Pol cy, International Trade, and Individual Research.