Using stakeholder marketing and social responsibility for new product development in higher education: a business Spanish model

ABSTRACT

Higher education administrators are often faced with difficult choices in allocating limited resources for the creation of new programs. The purpose of this article is to explore the suitability of a new product, an integrated business Spanish major, by applying stakeholder marketing. In so doing, it provides a framework for the application of stakeholder marketing to other curricular decisions. The advantage of this approach is that it takes into account that US universities are accountable to multiple stakeholders. The research methods employed include secondary data analysis and a content analysis of the websites of universities that enroll over 5000 students, as well as a survey of students at a representative college in order to gain a better understanding of what motivates them in their academic choices. Our findings indicate that universities may be missing an important opportunity to better engage with the growing Hispanic population and with expanding Latin American markets abroad. Universities that fail to adopt stakeholder marketing are running a risk of failing to provide students and businesses with the skill sets they need for success in the twenty-first century.

KEYWORDS:

• Business Spanish
• stakeholder marketing
• new product development
• language studies for specific purposes
• socially responsible marketing
• professional Spanish

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.