The evolution of social marketing and social entrepreneurship education in business and management schools: conceptions, misconceptions and trends

Abstract

This study examines how social marketing and social entrepreneurship courses have evolved over the last ten years (2004-2014) and predicts for the next three years the shape of these courses in the future. Data from courses taught in social marketing/entrepreneurship were collected from 62 universities in 11 countries for the past ten years. In order to investigate the four research questions, hierarchical cluster analysis was adopted for an exploratory analysis based on the single-linkage clustering method to reveal the two natural 'social' and 'marketing' clusters of the 20 key concepts within a data set of word counts that were not apparent and then multiple linear regression analyses were conducted. Trend analyses based on the frequency word counts indicated prospects for increasing the focus on specific topics. The study innovatively uncovered interesting trends in social entrepreneurship and social marketing education.