Digital Marketing Trends and the Curriculum

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships among academic research, marketing practice, and marketing education as a result of the emerging consumer behaviour in digital environments. Subsequently, the proposed conceptual framework would set the basis for the examination of specific aspects of the above relationships through an empirical study. A review of special issues, a sample of publications, and a content analysis, indicate the increasing interest of researchers in digital marketing applications within different contexts. Practitioners increasingly recognize the impact of digital marketing developments on their marketing strategies; however marketing education may not equip graduates with what businesses want in order to implement effectively such strategies. A sample of marketing programmes also shows that the response of marketing educators would rather be the introduction of new or modified courses focusing on digital marketing. The need for further research is indicated.