Contributions from Macromarketing for Training Managers – Can We Improve Marketing Education in Undergraduate Business Administration Courses?

Abstract

Undergraduate education for Business Administration students in Brazil is found to be strictly focused on managerial aspects of marketing. Because of this, many managers seem to be unable to deal with the complexity of the exchange system. In a world in which markets are increasingly affecting people's lives, it becomes essential to broaden the understanding of the discipline that deals with the relationships between markets and society: macromarketing. In the present paper, we have collected data through in-depth interviews with nine marketing professors of Business Administration undergraduate courses in order to present their visions about the teaching of the discipline and its gaps, as well as their understandings of macromarketing, its concepts and possible contributions to the training of future managers. The data allowed us to identify three gaps in marketing education, related to the superficiality of the treatment of the market concept, the discipline’s disconnection from social issues and local perspectives, and an uncritical view of the field. The interviews also brought potential contributions from macromarketing to improving the education of administrators through the inclusion of discussions on marketing systems, social consequences of marketing and a more critical view of the discipline.