The need for continuous improvement in a marketing curriculum requires periodic outcomes assessments. Part of the process includes a monitoring of the relevance of a marketing curriculum to a graduate's work environment. This article describes a process for conducting an outcomes assessment and the results of an actual alumni assessment encompassing skill and knowledge areas. Specifically, a gap analysis approach was employed in which the importance of key skill and knowledge areas to one's current employment were contrasted with perceptions of their own academic preparation in these areas. Our results indicate that marketing alumni perceive that they are underprepared in skills and overprepared in designated knowledge areas. The implications of the findings are discussed as well as the utility of the gap analysis in outcomes assessment.The continuous improvement process for a marketing major calls for an examination of marketing curricula in several respects-coverage of theory, application, currency of information, and relevance to the careers of marketing alumni. The relevance aspect of curriculum improvement can be assessed in part by asking marketing graduates about the extent to which their marketing education prepared them for their marketing careers. This article examines the relevancy of marketing curriculum through a gap analysis applied to marketing alumni.Gap analysis is a concept that has received much attention since it was presented in the services marketing literature by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1985). These authors described a gap as a divergence between either an expected service and a perceived (delivered) service from a customer's point of view or the difference between a service provider's specified level of service and the service actually delivered. Overall, measurement can be made objectively in terms of "what the consumer receives as a result of his interactions with a service firm" (Lewis and Klein 1986, p. 33). In the context of our study, we measure the difference between the service that was delivered-marketing curriculum-and the students' or consumers' perceptions of the relevance of that service to their careers. The variables that we employ encompass skill and marketing knowledge areas.
GAP STUDIESGap analyses may take several forms. To illustrate, Nordstrom and Sherwood (1997) compared undergraduate and graduate perceptions of the adequacy of skills and characteristics required by the work environment. Winer (1998) described a gap analysis approach to assessing the administration of a business school, including the design of curricula to meet employers' expectations. Giacobbe and Segal (1994) also used a gap model to explore the performance interrelationships that existed between marketing students, marketing research educators, and marketing research practitioners. Their study examined perceptions of performance skills and abilities desired by practitioners relative to the extent of their delivery. Lundstrom and White (1997) also used a gap analysis to measure perceptual ...