The School of Marketing of the Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman has been creating and strengthening its research potential for decades under the guidance and influence of the founders of the Ukrainian school of marketing and higher education institutions of Ukraine. During the period of its formation and development, the national school of marketing has faced the processes of significant socio-economic transformations in the country, the difficulties of transformational processes of the economic system and the challenges of wartime. 

 The history of the KNEU School of Marketing dates back to the early twentieth century, when the Kyiv Higher Commercial Courses and then the Kyiv Commercial Institute were established. The professional training of graduates provided an opportunity to engage in trade and industry, and ensured the ability to establish partnerships and business relationships. This was a historical prerequisite for the emergence of the theory and practice of modern marketing.

The formation of the school of marketing is also associated with the names of the founders and first heads of the department (at that time — the Department of Economics of Procurement), PhD in Economics, Professor A.F. Pastukhov and PhD in Economics, Associate Professor A.O. Hes Under the planned economic system in the country, special attention was paid to maintaining and increasing production volumes, which was possible only if the enterprises of various sectors of the economy received the necessary material resources without interruption. This required a high level of organization and management of the logistics sector. At that time, the department trained specialists who were able to solve these issues both at the level of large industrial enterprises, supply and sales organizations, and at the level of state authorities of the State Planning Committee.

With Ukraine’s independence and the active introduction of market-based economic mechanisms, there was an objective need to reform its economy. The country was in dire need of qualified specialists capable of working in a market environment that would combine general economic knowledge with the ability to apply it creatively to solve a wide range of management tasks. In fact, it was a question of creating new management structures at the enterprises focused on meeting the needs of consumers in a free competition. Marketing has become a new philosophy of doing business.

And the department took up this challenging task, having already made the first enrollment in the Marketing specialty in 1992. In an extremely short period of time, fundamentally new curricula were developed, which had no analogues in the national higher education system at that time; new approaches and methods of teaching were introduced that met the specifics of the professional orientation of future marketing specialists. All these tasks were successfully solved by the KNEU Department of Marketing under the guidance of experienced scholars and teachers, turning into the cradle of domestic marketing. During this time, thousands of graduates have been trained who work in various sectors of the national economy, taking care of customer satisfaction and building customer-oriented management systems for enterprises, institutions, and organizations. This contributed to the image and recognition of significant achievements not only of the KNEU School of Marketing, but also of domestic marketing in general. 

  The founder of the national school of marketing in Ukraine is Doctor of Economics, Professor Anatolii Pavlenko — Head of the Department of Marketing (from 1981 to 2016), Rector of the Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman from 1987 to 2016, Hero of Ukraine, Academician of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, Member of the Presidium of the Higher Attestation Commission of Ukraine, Honored Science and Technology Professional of Ukraine, first President of the Ukrainian Marketing Association. Under the leadership of A. F. Pavlenko in 1993 the first PhD thesis in marketing in Ukraine (N. V. Kudenko, thesis topic: “Organization of Marketing at Enterprise”) was defended.

The creation of the Ukrainian Marketing Association, a Ukrainian NGO, on the basis of KNEU in 1997, was significant for the further active development of the school of marketing, in which leading scholars of the department took an active part, and its head, Doctor of Economics, Professor A.F. Pavlenko, became its first President. A significant contribution to the development of national marketing theory and practice was made by Doctor of Economics, Professor A.V. Voichak, founder of a new academic field of marketing management at that time; Doctor of Economics, Professor N.V. Kudenko — a leading scholar in strategic marketing; PhD in Economics, Professor V.Ya. Kardash — the founder of the academic area of systematic product quality assurance, improving the efficiency of marketing commodity policy of enterprises, innovative marketing; PhD in Economics, Associate Professor T.I. Lukianets — a well-known researcher in the field of marketing policy of communications and advertising management; PhD in Economics, Associate Professor M.H. Hrebniov — a well-known scholar in the field of marketing theory and practice; PhD in Engineering, Associate Professor V.I. Motiazhev — a leading scholar of the Department of Commodity Research; PhD in Engineering, Associate Professor V.M. Malchenko — a specialist and developer of the theory of service marketing, etc.

An essential confirmation of the significant academic contribution of the representatives of the KNEU School of Marketing was the award to the team of authors of the department consisting of Professors A.F. Pavlenko, A.V. Voichak, and V.Ya. Kardash with the 2011 State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology for a series of marketing textbooks published in 1997–2006. They were the first Ukrainian-language publications on marketing topics that served as the basis for the development of the marketing science platform in Ukraine.

Modern marketing is a key paradigm for doing business in a dynamic market environment, focused on the comprehensive satisfaction of consumer needs by creating consumer value chains and increasing customer loyalty. Its use provides a powerful analytical basis for making diverse management decisions in the saturated information field of an enterprise. The key focus is on strengthening the customer focus of business, establishing partnerships, developing service marketing, etc. Ukrainian scholars are active developers of this theory. They pay considerable attention to topical issues of marketing concept development and make a significant contribution to the international scientific community, taking into account the peculiarities of the national economic situation.  

The School of Marketing of the Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman has its own fundamental approach to researching relevant theoretical and applied issues. It forms the basis for practical testing of marketing strategic decisions in the Ukrainian economy. Thus, further directions of research activity are based on the need to implement and adapt marketing management tools to the conditions of national economic development. The agenda includes fundamental and applied research in marketing, including interdisciplinary research that meets the current level of scientific research results in this area.

Based on this, in 2011, the University’s Academic Council established the Institute of Marketing. The purpose of its activities is to organize and conduct research and carry out scientific and educational activities in the field of marketing, develop scientific and practical recommendations to ensure high competitiveness of domestic enterprises and organizations, and conduct innovative activities. The Institute carries out research and development, provides conditions for in-depth scientific and technical training of marketing specialists in accordance with the priority areas of development of its theory and practice.

Students majoring in Marketing are actively involved in research. International student conferences are held annually, and the proceedings are used to publish collections of research papers by students and young scholars. Students majoring in Marketing have repeatedly become winners and prize-winners of Ukrainian national student academic contests, Ukrainian national contests of student research and diploma papers in marketing and other academic contests for gifted students. One of the main forms and a significant manifestation of the achievements of the school of marketing is the training of academic personnel of the highest category. Over the past ten years, representatives of the faculty of the Department of Marketing, O.K. Shafaliuk (2009), A.V. Fedorchenko (2010), O.O. Dyma (2016), O.P. Savych (2018), have defended their doctoral theses. During the same period, their PhD theses were defended by: O.V. Tkachuk (2008), I.Ye. Ravikovych, Yu.B. Remez (2010), A.V. Serzhuk, O.V. Okunieva (2012), O.V. Kudyrko (2014), I.M. Basha, N.V. Ovsiienko, O.V. Buchynska (2016), O.V. Kudenko (2019), Yu.O. Punin (2019), V.O. Pidhurska (2023), V.O. Bereziuk (2024). In the future, other representatives of the KNEU School of Marketing are scheduled to defend their PhD and doctoral theses, which will form a significant human resource potential for its further development.

In recognition of the traditions and achievements of the school of the Department of Marketing, in January 2018 it was awarded the name of its founder, Professor Anatolii Pavlenko.

Currently, the Department of Marketing named after А. F. Pavlenko employs highly qualified scholars and teachers, continuing the tradition of training highly competitive specialists in the field of marketing and maintaining a leading position in terms of enrollment and quality of training of future marketing specialists. The creative present of the school of marketing is associated with the research achievements of the department’s faculty. Many of its representatives are widely known in the national educational and academic fields: Doctor of Economics, Professor O.K. Shafaliuk, PhD in Economics, Professor A.V. Fedorchenko, Doctor of Economics, Professor Ya.S. Larina, PhD in Economics, Professor V.P. Pylypchuk, Doctor of Economics, Associate Professor O.P. Savych, Doctor of Economics, Professor L.F. Romanenko, Doctor of Economics, Professor О. О. Yerankin, PhD in Economics, Professor N. О. Yevtushenko, PhD in Economics, Associate Professor M. Yu.  Antonchenko, PhD in Economics, Associate Professor T. V. Arkhypova, PhD in Economics, Associate Professor О. V. Buchynska, PhD in Economics, Associate Professor N. V. Vasylkova, PhD in Economics А. M. Holitsyn, PhD in Economics, Associate Professor I. V. Lylyk, PhD in Economics, Associate Professor О. О. Sievonkaieva, PhD in Economics, Associate Professor O. L. Shevchenko et al. 

The School of Marketing is constantly evolving, adapting to changes in the economic environment, constantly searching for new ideas and areas of activity, improving and developing the latest approaches, methodology, tools of modern marketing activities, as well as their implementation in the educational process. The traditions of the department encourage freedom of creativity for everyone: from engaging gifted applicants and postgraduates in research to training researchers of the highest qualification standards. Particular attention is paid to issues that meet the high level of relevance of research, their compliance with modern trends in global marketing theory and practice. 

Adhering to high standards of activity, the Department of Marketing named after A. F. Pavlenko introduces them into the educational process, ensuring the training of modern specialists who are competitive in the labor market. The economic and marketing environment is characterized by many systemic changes, which requires a quick response and reaction to them in the form of continuous improvement and search for the latest directions in the development of marketing science and practice. The department’s staff is actively working to optimize the curriculum for bachelors and masters, develop and improve academic programmes. 

Looking to the future, we can be sure that the galaxy of representatives of the school of domestic marketing will continue to successfully work on promising fundamental and applied research in the field of modern marketing. They will be manifested in the training of highly qualified marketing specialists, which will contribute to both strengthening the competitiveness of the school of marketing in the modern academic space and increasing the competitiveness of KNEU marketing specialists in the labor market.