An Exploration into Faculty and Practitioners’ Views Concerning Business Forecasting

The purpose of this research is to compare faculty and practicing business forecasters’ views on selected aspects of business forecasting. Data from a study of marketing faculty and data from a study of business forecasters were combined. The combined data set allowed for direct comparison of some attributes. The results show commonality between faculty and practitioners regarding forecasting skill requirements. On the issue of the desirability of having a forecast certification the two groups are far apart. We found a good match, between business forecasters and marketing faculty as to the functional areas of business most involved in forecasting. Business forecasters rated all forecast methods more important for new hires to know than faculty rated the methods based on the importance in their teaching.