Drivers for Choosing Sales Curriculum and Sales certification among Engineering Students

Abstract

In India it is very rare that Universities have a sales curriculum for engineering students but increasingly today Universities are very seriously thinking of offering the sales curriculum to engineering students as it inculcates a sense of entrepreneurship among students. This research study focusses on what are the key drivers for choosing a sales curriculum among the engineering students  as well as predicting interest levels for sales certification .The sample size is n = 134 engineering students  and business students n = 118. The following theory has been used for this study Social Cognitive theory, this theory has three major constructs Personality (Big Five personality factors and Trait Competitiveness) ability(Academic Self – Efficacy , GPA ,ACT) . ACT stands for a composite score in English, reading, mathematics and science) the third construct is social factors ( perceptions about sales persons and role models) .the results show that the regression models used in this research explain a moderate amount of variance and the regression models that work for business students actually do not work well for engineering students .The research study also reveal that various factors which explain about the reasons for having an interest in sales curriculum does not actually explain well enough the choices made and also vice versa. Also one very important insight we get from this research is the differences in gender in the area of selection for sales curriculum and one more important insight we derive from this study is  the perception among engineering students  with respect to sales certification is influenced not by his degree but by his taking or not taking  sale classes.