Proposing Community-Based Learning in the Marketing Curriculum

Community service and service learning (CS&SL) exposes students to the business practice of giving back to society while reinforcing classroom learning in an applied real-world setting. However, does the CS&SL format provide a better means of instilling the benefits of community service among marketing students than community-based learning (CBL), a modification of client-sponsored projects using nonprofit organizations that emphasize societal benefits? A series of three studies reveals that CBL renders results that are more favorable than CS&SL by enhancing student awareness and perceived benefits of community service at the undergraduate and graduate curriculum levels.