Technology in Marketing Education: Insights from Sales Training

Company training programs provide insights for university classrooms, particularly those in schools and colleges of business. This research shows an increase in usage of technology based training among successful firms, but it is not growing as quickly as consumer use of self-service technologies because some firm goals require more personal training modes. The present findings regarding business adoption of training technology are consistent with consumer research that suggests satisfaction increases with experience in use. Also, selected technology must be congruent with learning goals–technological tools are more effective when students are learning related material–and results of training suggest increased efficacy when this is true. In this regard, university learning environments focused on business should utilize technology as appropriate to learning goals, but should not gratuitously replace traditional classroom learning activities.