Corporate-Academic Partnerships: Creating a Win-Win in the Classroom

Abstract

For instructors seeking ways to provide sales students with experiential learning projects designed to develop and enhance skills in an authentic environment, corporate-academic partnerships offer a viable option. The author describes a unique and innovative corporate-academic integrated project, including course content, role plays, and corporate partner involvement, implemented in the sales management course. After reviewing the experiential learning literature and outlining the project, assessments of the project's efficacy are conducted. Based on the quantitative and qualitative results reported, implications and considerations for the classroom are offered.

Keywords:

• corporate-academic partnership
• experiential learning
• integrated project
• role plays
• sales management