Cultural Narratives in Marketing Education: Teaching Students to Decode and Create Meaning across Cultures
Cultural Narratives in Marketing Education: Teaching Students to Decode and Create Meaning across Cultures
Author(s): Denisa Dumitrașcu VersteijnenSubject(s): Social Sciences, Economy, Education, Psychology, Vocational Education, Adult Education, Higher Education , Educational Psychology, Individual Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Organizational Psychology, Marketing / Advertising, Sociology of Education, Pedagogy
Published by: Editura Pro Universitaria
Keywords: cultural studies; marketing education; cultural narratives; intercultural competence; decoding; representation; case-based learning;
Summary/Abstract: Marketing education in business programmes frequently relies on international case studies to illustrate branding and communication across cultural contexts. These cases are typically approached through managerial lenses that emphasise evaluation and effectiveness. This paper argues that marketing case studies can instead be read as cultural narratives that construct and circulate meaning. Drawing on intercultural competence research (Byram, 1997; Deardorff, 2006), cultural studies theories of representation and meaning-making (Hall, 1980, 1997; Barthes, 1957), and interpretive approaches to marketing education (Hackley, 2003), the paper develops a conceptual framework for treating marketing cases as cultural texts. It then demonstrates how sustained decoding practices, using familiar marketing communication cases (De Pelsmacker et al., 2020), can foster intercultural learning without introducing additional curricular content.
Journal: Crossing Boundaries in Culture and Communication
- Issue Year: 16/2025
- Issue No: 2
- Page Range: 225-237
- Page Count: 12
- Language: English
