Case development: An innovative approach to case studies and experiences from a graduate marketing ethics course

Abstract

Ethics has become increasingly prominent in business education and educational research. With a prolific research stream developing in the area of business ethics teaching, our understanding of related approaches and issues has deepened. While researchers focus on the holistic approach to teaching business ethics, specific knowledge about teaching methods in this area remains sparse. This paper discusses an innovative approach to the case method, called case development, and its preliminary assessment in a postgraduate marketing ethics course. Groups of students were asked to research a chosen marketing ethics topic, develop a case study as part of their assessment and to subsequently analyse and present it to the class. Based on an initial assessment by means of a student survey, case development emerged as beneficial in terms of student learning and experience. Following a discussion of the approach and related results, the paper concludes with recommendations and directions for future research.