Sales Education for Engineering Students: What Drives Interest and Choice?

Universities increasingly make their sales curriculum available for groups other than dedicated sales students. This study investigates engineering students’ drivers that predict interest in sales certification, as well as drivers that predict actual choice for a sales curriculum. We focus on engine...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of marketing education 2020-12, Vol.42 (3), p.324-338
Main Authors: Scott, Joseph I., Beuk, Frederik
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Ability
Business Administration Education
Certification
College Students
Comparative Analysis
Curricula
Decision Making
Engineering
Engineering Education
Epistemology
Gender Differences
Grade Point Average
Personality Measures
Personality Traits
Prediction
Salesmanship
Self Efficacy
Social Cognition
Social Influences
Student Attitudes
Student Interests
Students
Teaching Methods
Universities
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Summary:Universities increasingly make their sales curriculum available for groups other than dedicated sales students. This study investigates engineering students’ drivers that predict interest in sales certification, as well as drivers that predict actual choice for a sales curriculum. We focus on engineering students (n = 204) and contrast our findings with business students (n = 179). Based on social cognitive theory, we investigate how personality (Big Five personality factors and Trait Competitiveness), ability (ACT, GPA, and Academic Self-Efficacy), and social factors (role models, and perception of salespersons) affect interest and choice. Our results indicate that although the regression models explain a reasonable amount of variance, models that work for business students do not work equally well for engineering students. Also, our analysis reveals that factors that explain interest do not explain actual choice, and vice versa. In addition, we uncover subtle gender difference when it comes to actual choice for a sales curriculum. Finally, the benefits that engineering students perceive of sales certification differ primarily based on whether students are taking sales classes, and not on degree sought.
ISSN:0273-4753
1552-6550
DOI:10.1177/0273475320906427