In response to the Journal of Marketing Education special issue on teaching turmoil and triumphs in times of crisis, we develop and test a student anxiety, preparation and learning framework for responding to external crises. We use structural equation modeling to assess how COVID-19 anxiety impacts classrelated anxiety, class preparation, and class learning, and how these then affect class satisfaction and intent to pursue a sales career. Using three sequential virtual sales competitions, we test our model in the immediate aftermath of the transition from live in-class learning to virtual learning brought on by COVID-19, offering an ideal setting for investigating marketing education in a time of crisis. The findings are unique, and show that how crises are managed impacts the deleterious effects of anxiety on education and learning. While anxiety had the greatest influence on class preparation, class preparation in turn was not related to class learning, class satisfaction, nor intent to pursue a sales career. However, when digital self-efficacy was considered as a moderator, the expected effects of class preparation emerged. Our findings contribute to multiple theoretical contexts, including anxiety, crisis management, self-efficacy, marketing education, and virtual sales role-plays.

Purpose While the support for organ donation and registered donors continue to increase, next of kin consent remains a critical issue for the organ donation community. Despite the increased usage of social media campaigns for organ donor registration, there is a lack of understanding of how social media can be used to motivate individuals to socially declare their support for organ donation and encourage them to engage in personal discussions about organ donation with their next of kin. The purpose of this study is to better understand the link between social and personal discussions and organ donation consent rates. Design/methodology/approach The study uses structural equation modeling to examine the precursors to activating organ donor registration social media advocacy that leads to increased support for organ donation and motivates personal discussions about organ donation. Findings The results provide the organ donation and transplant community insight on the value of using social media to increase social advocacy, support for donation and social declarations and personal discussions on organ donation to improve next of kin’s consent rates. Practical implications Social causes similar to organ donation increasingly turn to social media for grassroots marketing efforts to engage others in the cause and motivate action. Originality/value The authors proposed an omni-channel IMC Framework and a research agenda for advancing the field. As this is a new area of inquiry, the authors argue for the development of other comprehensive frameworks, both for general omni-channel IMC conceptualizations.

Since their inception, university sales competitions have been key learning and educational components of university sales education. Over the past two decades, the oldest and one of the largest sales competitions in the United States has been held in a face-to-face format. However, due to the educational environment created from the COVID-19 pandemic, this competition was forced to convert to a virtual format over a 16-day period. This research outlines the steps taken to convert this event to virtual format and presents insights for other universities endeavoring to produce virtual sales competition events. Finally, research implications and direction for future research are presented.

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