Employers ’ Importance Ratings of Student Characteristics: A Conjoint Analysis Approach

Importance ratings of student characteristics by employers are derived through the use of conjoint analysis. The relative benefits of conjoint analysis as compared to more typical methods of deriving importance characteristics are discussed. Implications for marketing education and the marketing curriculum are also presented. &dquo;The question of the type of role higher education should play in preparing individuals for work has aroused increasing concern among persons in both academic and work worlds. Most recently, this concern has surfaced in matters of curriculum design&dquo; (Uehling 1979, p. 24). &dquo;The specific discipline selected by the stu-dents is often taken as a reflection of interest and commitment to a particular career&dquo; (Benson and Chasin 1976, p. 73). These quotes, along with many articles in the popular press, suggest that in the current economic and social milieu, many students are pursuing academic degrees in the professional undergraduate programs, rather than the more traditional fields, because of the perceived availability of job openings. Given this phe-nomenon, it is certainly relevant to raise the issue of what the objectives of marketing educa-tion and the marketing curriculum should be. We suggest that one approach to this ques-tion is to look at the characteristics that em-ployers are seeking in recent business graduates. While studies reported in the literature have looked at these characteristics, most research conducted in the past attempted to identify the importance of employment criteria by relying on the respondents to give accurate and mean-ingful responses to direct inquiries; i.e., re-spondents were asked directly to indicate the importance of pre-specified criteria by evaluatin