The Development of Disruptive Innovators in Business/Marketing Education

Abstract

Employers recognize innovation as a crucial trait in employees (Mumtaz & Parahoo, 2019). Innovative individuals are those who actively contemplate positive changes for the organization, share their ideas, communicate the company's vision, and inspire others. Research has led to the identification of five discovery skills of a disruptive innovator: associating, questioning, observing, networking, and experimenting. Disruptive innovators are people who want to change the status quo, take smart risks, and refuse to live by others predetermined agendas (Dyer et al., 2011). This research study was designed to investigate whether disruptive innovators are being prepared in middle/junior high, secondary, and postsecondary Business/Marketing Education classrooms. Analyses were conducted to determine the perceived level of Business/Marketing teacher’s discovery skills, extent of teachers integrating discovery skill teaching strategies in the classroom, correlation between the level of a Business/Marketing teacher’s perceived discovery skills and the extent to which the teacher integrates discovery skill teaching strategies in the classroom, and differences among Business/Marketing teachers perceived discovery skills level considering their demographics (highest degree, teacher certification, race/ethnicity, number of years teaching, type of school, state of employment, and gender). Of 583 surveys emailed to Southern Business Education Association members, 100 Business/Marketing teachers completed the study, which was a return rate of 17.2%. Data results were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 28 using the following statistical procedures: Descriptives, Pearson correlation, and one-way ANOVA. The highest number of participants held a master’s degree (52%) and (46%) of participants indicated having a class A certification. The largest percentage of participants by race/ethnicity were identified as White or Caucasian (67%). Of the total number of participants, (35%) percent of the participants indicated having 11-15 years of teaching experience, and (60%) indicated having teaching experience or having experienced teaching in a secondary school setting. The majority of participants who completed the survey reported Alabama as their state of employment (31%). Most of the participants were female (64%). Overall, the average mean score for discovery skills perception was (M = 2.66, SD =.87) suggesting that, on average, participants viewed themselves as rarely engaging in innovative thinking. This finding reflects a moderate to low and moderate high self-perception of innovative thinking. If teachers do not believe in themselves to teach the students discovery skills, the preparation for middle/junior high, secondary, and postsecondary students to become disruptive innovators will be delayed. The results indicated that Business/Marketing teachers integrated the discovery skill teaching strategies “sometimes”, on average (M = 3.72, SD =.54). Also, the results revealed that participants’ knowledge base plays a vital role in preparing students to be disruptors.