Excellence in Research Award

By Lindsay Anderson ‘04

Half of Accounting graduates will go into public accounting firms after they graduate. With that in mind, Bradley’s graduate accounting program offers a course that shows how students can market their services to clients.

Co-taught by Accounting Instructor Shondra Johnson and Marketing Professor Emerita Dr. Donna Hill, the Marketing Professional Services course brings two worlds together.

“The worlds of marketing and accounting are quite distinct,” Hill said. “Students frequently don’t see the need to understand and apply marketing tactics at the individual and firm level. I saw my job as getting the students to understand how important marketing really is to their success, then getting them started in implementing a personal marketing plan.”

Additionally, students had to respond to a request for a proposal and present that proposal. That gave them practice working as teams, researching and responding to clients, developing presentation skills, and competing to win business.

Hill and Johnson received an Excellence in Research award from the Clute Institute for their research on interdisciplinary learning. Their primary manuscript on the topic, published in the first 2014 issue of the American Journal of Business Education, is the most-downloaded article in that edition of the publication.

“The fusion of accounting and marketing is academically unique to Bradley University but common in the public accounting world,” Johnson said. “I’m delighted that people regard our work as both interesting and useful.”

“The work done by Shondra Johnson and Donna Hill shows the value of collaboration between academic departments,” said Accounting department Chair Dr. Simon Petravick. “Shondra's accounting expertise combined with Donna's expertise in services marketing gave our students a unique understanding of what an accounting firm must do to remain in operation and grow. Through the large number of downloads, it's great to see that many others are also using their work.”