Quantitative Anxiety and Insights for Preparing Students for Data-Driven Marketing Jobs: An Abstract

Marketing students often experience quantitative anxiety (QA) despite the industry needs and trend for data-driven decision-making. In the past marketing students may have selected their major to avoid extensive engagement with numbers, however, due to the large opportunity and market demands for graduates possessing greater comfort and ability with numbers and demands on marketing practitioners to financially justify their decision-making, this aversion to numbers is no longer a recommended approach. It is, therefore, more important than ever to understand what alleviates quantitative/statistical anxiety in students taking marketing courses that emphasize quantitative analysis. Quantitative reasoning and mathematical understanding will play a major role in the marketing curriculum for the foreseeable future. The role of QA in marketing education, other than anecdotal observations of students, has not been studied extensively. Based on Self Determination Theory (SDT), our goal is to investigate the drivers/inhibitors of both student intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to be successful in quantitative topics within the field of marketing. Of all the predictors of QA, only peer support was significant such that the increased level of peer support reduced QA amongst students. Self-efficacy, perceived usefulness, and desire to succeed increase the level of effort in the classroom. Our study suggests that, even though faculty support did not directly reduce quantitative anxiety, the instructors may still encourage students to self-select into more quantitative courses and also to put in extra effort by highlighting extrinsic rewards for marketing analytics (and other quantitative) careers. Recommendations for the instructors including peer-teaching methods and encourage team work to reduce QA that can inhibit their future success, as peer support appears to critical. Upper-level, strong, analytically-inclined students could serve as tutors encouraging that peer to peer support which underclassmen may be more receptive to. Additionally, as more and more courses move to online delivery, online study groups could be organized by instructors or guidance provided to students on how to self-organize these online groups or learning communities.