My teaching philosophy can be summarized as making a decision supported by analysis and learning through active learning. This philosophy is reflected in the things I do to help students succeed in the classroom, using experiential learning through the involvement of local or area businesses, case studies, and/or simulations. I discuss this philosophy in greater detail throughout my teaching philosophy.
 
Managers make decisions that should improve or maintain a firm’s positional advantage in the marketplace to enhance or maintain the firm’s financial performance. To illustrate this concept to students, I incorporate a variety of models from accounting (e.g., financial statement, balance sheet), finance (e.g., markup chain, margin in the channel), marketing (e.g., buyer behavior, competitive matrix), and statistics (e.g., regression, cluster analysis). These models provide support for deciding on a possible course of action.
 
In such instances, I follow an I Do, We Do, You Do approach. First, I show the students how to develop a model and then link the results to support a managerial decision. Second, we work on a similar model before determining a decision. Third, the students demonstrate their mastery of the model by applying it to a managerial issue such as product development, target market, or price point.
 
For example, in my Principles course, we develop a margin model in the channel as part of a semester-long simulation experience. Using Interpretive Simulations’ Market Share title, the students take on the brand manager role for an over-the-counter cold medicine (e.g., Zyrtec). This model helps students determine how well their brand is meeting the needs of its customers (i.e., retailers) compared to competitors’ ability to meet those needs.
 
First, I showed them how to build the model in a spreadsheet, explaining the sources of the numbers needed to generate the model and the interpretation of each figure for the focal firm. Second, we extend the model to examine competitors’ actions. We discuss the required assumptions as well as the interpretation of the results. Third, students apply the model during the simulation and incorporate it in their weekly progress reports to determine if they meet or exceed customers’ needs relative to competitors. I perform similar exercises in Retail Management (e.g., markup, markdown, margin), Sales (e.g., customer lifetime value to segment customer groups), and MBA Marketing (e.g., conjoint analysis and cluster analysis to determine pricing and product attributes for a customer segment).
 
My Marketing colleague, Dr. Yiyuan Liu, and I discuss this preparation for future business practitioners by teaching them a theory to frame a managerial decision as part of the Journal of Marketing Theory & Practice’s special issue devoted to Resource Advantage theory. While this manuscript centers on our Principles of Marketing course, the same zeal for teaching how to make and support a decision remains a fundamental component of all my classes, including the non-marketing courses.
 
Using this approach and teaching theory about firm behavior in the market, I help students develop their decision-making ability. This approach also helps students develop critical thinking, presentations, writing, and listening skills. In a broader sense, these skills make them better employees and, more importantly, citizens.