Facilitating creative problem solving in the marketing curriculum in response to the demands of the networked information society

This paper describes a systems approach to creative problem solving designed to better prepare marketing graduates for the uncertainties of the networked information society. This is in response to the growing need for future graduates to be able to make effective use of participatory Web 2.0 technologies for building customer relationships and harnessing their creative potential to collaboratively influence and improve product development, and to market products more effectively. The paper outlines alternative marketing paradigms, describes the attributes required of graduates to be able to maximize the potential of Web 2.0 technologies, and the role that creativity plays in developing graduates‘ ability to think critically, identify and solve problems, and communicate effectively. The failure of traditional approaches in teaching and learning to facilitate student creativity is discussed and a systems approach to creative problem solving designed to address these identified challenges is proposed. Illustrative examples of the use of the approach in graduate and undergraduate courses are presented and the potential for integration within the marketing curriculum is discussed.