The Need for Franchising Curriculum to Deliver Value to Underrepresented Groups: An Abstract

Abstract

For the fall of 2017, females were the majority with about 11.5 million attending colleges and universities compared to 8.9 million males (Institute of Education Sciences 2018). In addition, the enrollment of Hispanic and black students increased from 21.7% in 2000 to 36.6% in 2015 for Hispanics, and 30.5% to 34.9% for blacks for that same time period (Institute of Education Sciences 2018). With the expanding enrollment of female and minority students in higher education, colleges and universities have to discover new ways to market to and satisfy this varied demographic in order to survive in the competitive education marketplace (Penaloza and Gilly 1991). This is a challenge for many U.S. institutions who are not accessing and understanding the needs of the diverse market (Penaloza and Gilly 1991). Institutions must work towards developing a multidisciplinary curriculum that specifically benefits not only female and minority students but also provide benefits to businesses and industry (Mikitka and Stampfl 1994). We suggest a franchising curriculum as one such way to reach this goal. This research proposes that a course curriculum dedicated specifically to the study of franchise business provides three essential benefits:P1: A franchising course is interdisciplinary, covering subjects such as marketing, management, economics, finance, and accounting—all functions that franchisers and franchisee encounter.P2: A franchising course positively impacts both minority and female students with additional education, providing greater support as they enter the field of business.P3: A franchising course positively enhances the creativity, self-confidence, and self-efficacy of students in their ability to manage their own business This paper heeds the call to develop marketing curriculum that provides comprehensive mastery over various business topics, while boosting self-confidence and self-efficacy of all students. Providing students with a real-life business scenario of running a franchisee seamlessly incorporates the major business subjects while refining their strategizing, analyzing, negotiating, and communication skills. These are skills that are essential for any career in marketing or business, not just franchising. Specifically, affording franchising courses provides an opportunity to expose underrepresented groups to avenues of small business ownership that they naturally gravitate towards in the marketplace. Students can gain great takeaways from this course curriculum that will resonate with them in boosting their confidence and self-efficacy as they embark on careers in business.

Department(s)

Marketing

Document Type

Article

DOI

10.1007/978-3-030-39165-2_180

Keywords

Creativity, Curriculum, Entrepreneurship, Females, Franchise, Minority, Self-efficacy

Publication Date

1-1-2020

Journal Title

Developments in Marketing Science Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science

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