Author(s): Nail T. Israfilov, Elena A. Shnyreva, Elena E. Panfilova, Lesya M. Bozhko, Viktor A. Konstantinov
This article investigates the market knowledge competence of students and teachers in entrepreneurship education and their ability to make marketing decisions. The urgency of the research is explained by the fact that market information services in the countries with transition economies are far-reaching, but they have not been fully understood. The importance of such services in making management decisions in entrepreneurship education increases with the growth of globalization and digitalization of the economy. This study uses both a student and teacher surveys to measure students' readiness to interpret and use market information services (MIS) and to assess student competency of market knowledge. There were five experts to assess the level of knowledge of students and teachers in marketing analysis. Additionally, an entrepreneur survey was conducted to study how much they are interested in competent employees possessing the competency of market knowledge. It should be noted that both teachers and students use market information in the educational process. The findings show that students learn about market information through the use of modern teaching methods and when attending modern academic disciplines, developed with due regard to modern data. In this case, their decision was based entirely on market information. The survey shows that 55% of respondents are able to analyze market information, 35% have the general idea, and 10% never used it. Among that, 65% of teachers possess the knowledge of market information at a high level and can teach students to use it for marketing purposes. Moreover, 45% of entrepreneurs are interested in having employees able to make marketing decisions based on market information.
The study recommends paying more attention to current economy development trends and expand the entrepreneurship curriculum with the concept of market information as a decision-making tool.