Ph.D. in the Marketing Area

Requirements 

Marketing research addresses marketing problems using foundational expertise in one of two different areas: (1) Consumer Behavior / Psychology, or (2) Economics / Quantitative Methods. The marketing doctoral program allows the applicant to choose between these two areas. A student must then take courses not only in JGS, but also in psychology or economics departments, depending on which of the two above-mentioned areas the student has chosen. An example of research that relies on consumer behavior / psychology is the study of positive affect on consumer decision-making in service environments. An example of research that relies on economics / quantitative methods is the study of the effects of sales promotions on sales of complementary products.
 
For doctoral students who have chosen marketing as their area, the Ph.D. degree requirements are as follows.

1. During the student’s first two years, he or she must take a minimum of four doctoral-level courses per semester. The chosen courses must be approved by the marketing area faculty advisor.
2. The student is expected to attend all research seminars organized in the marketing area during the student’s tenure in the Ph.D. program.
3. During the second and third years, the student must formally register for the marketing research seminar and attend presentations of faculty members from other business schools who visit JGS to present their research. The student must write a short summary and critical comments on two papers presented in the research seminar during the semester. These reviews should be submitted to the area advisor and will be graded by a subset of area faculty for a Pass/Fail grade.
4. Students must successfully complete the summer research paper requirements during the first two years. This requires working with a marketing faculty member during summer, getting the faculty member’s approval of the resulting paper, and then presenting the paper at a marketing research seminar no later than the spring semester of the following academic year.
5. Students must successfully pass a comprehensive exam administered by marketing faculty at the end of the second year. The exam will be jointly administered and graded by marketing faculty, under the supervision of the marketing area advisor. The exam is focused on the coursework taken in marketing and also measures the student’s knowledge of the area as a whole. A successful performance in the exam will demonstrate the student’s competency in marketing and provide the foundation from which he or she begins the research that will form the basis of the dissertation.
6. Students are expected to successfully defend their dissertation proposal by the end of the third year.
7. Complete and defend dissertation within a maximum of 7 years from the time of matriculation.

Sample Course Sequence 1: Economics and Quantitative Methods 

Here is a sample course sequence for a doctoral student in Marketing whose foundational expertise is in Economics / Quantitative Methods.

Year One (Fall) 

ECON 501 - Microeconomic Theory I

ECON 504 - Advanced Economic Statistics

ECON 507 - Mathematical Economics I

BUSI 501 - Pro-Seminar in Marketing – I

Year One (Spring) 

ECON 440 - Advanced Game Theory

ECON 510 - Econometrics I

ECON 523 - Dynamic Optimization

BUSI 502 - Pro-Seminar in Marketing – II

Year Two (Fall) 

ECON 511 - Econometrics II

ECON 514 - Industrial Organization and Control

STAT 622 - Bayesian Data Analysis

BUSI 503 - Econometric Models in Marketing

Year Two (Spring) 

ECON 577 - Topics in Economic Theory

STAT 540 - Practicum in Statistical Modeling

STAT 640 - Data Mining and Statistical Learning

BUSI 504 - Game Theory Models in Marketing

Sample Course Sequence 2: Consumer Behavior / Psychology 

Here is a sample course sequence for a doctoral student in Marketing whose foundational expertise is in Consumer Behavior / Psychology.

Year One (Fall) 

PSYC 502 - Advanced Psychological Statistics I

PSYC 511 - History and Systems of Psychology

PSYC 507 - Research Methods

BUSI 501 - Pro-Seminar in Marketing – I

Year One (Spring) 

PSYC 503 - Advanced Psychological Statistics II

PSYC 550 - Foundations of Social Psychology

PSYC 602 - Psychometrics

BUSI 502 - Pro-Seminar in Marketing – II

Year Two (Fall) 

PSYC 601 - Multivariate Statistics

PSYC 520 - Foundations of Cognitive Psychology

STAT 581 - Mathematical Probability I

BUSI 505 - Seminar in Consumer Behavior I

Year Two (Spring) 

ECON 510 - Econometrics I

STAT 540 - Practicum in Statistical Modeling

STAT 582 - Mathematical Probability II

BUSI 506 - Seminar in Consumer Behavior II

Doctoral students will continue taking doctoral-level marketing courses beyond their second year as well. Given below are descriptions of doctoral-level marketing courses that will be offered in JGS.
 
BUSI 501: Graduate Proseminar in Marketing Research – I (Fall)
 
This course will be taught collectively by the marketing faculty members. It is designed to expose Ph.D. students to cutting-edge research in marketing in order to help students to define and advance their research interests. This course will offer in-depth discussions on important substantive topics in marketing by faculty experts, along with tools and methodologies required for conducting research in those areas. The course will offer broad exposure to JGS faculty members and their proven research styles.
 
BUSI 502: Graduate Proseminar in Marketing Research – II (Spring)
 
This course will be taught collectively by marketing faculty members. It is designed to expose Ph.D. students to cutting-edge research in marketing in order to help students to define and advance their research interests. This course will offer in-depth discussions on important substantive topics in marketing by faculty experts, along with tools and methodologies required for conducting research in those areas. The course will offer broad exposure to JGS faculty members and their proven research styles.
 
BUSI 503: Econometric Models in Marketing (Fall)
 
This course (taught for teaching credit by one or two marketing faculty) deals with promotional mix models, brand switching models and competitive response models. Econometric methods to deal with binary, count and continuous outcomes are discussed.
 
BUSI 504: Game Theory Models in Marketing (Spring)
 
This course (taught for teaching credit by one or two marketing faculty) deals with prescriptive marketing mix decision-making of firms in competitive channel contexts. Issues such as Bertrand-Nash pricing, collusion, double marginalization etc. are discussed.
 
BUSI 505: Seminar in Consumer Behavior – I (Fall)
 
This course (taught for teaching credit by one or two marketing faculty) deals with applied psychology models of consumer behavior.
 
BUSI 506: Seminar in Consumer Behavior – II (Spring)
 
This course (taught for teaching credit by one or two marketing faculty) deals with experimental techniques used in consumer behavior research.
 
Courses in the statistics department may be appropriate for students of either leaning.
 
For example, substantive topics may include the following: (1) Bob Westbrook – Customer Satisfaction, (2) Vikas Mittal – Customer Divestment, (3) Seethu Seetharaman – Variety Seeking, (4) Randy Batsell – Consumer Choice Behavior, (5) Utpal Dholakia – Online Auctions, (6) Amit Pazgal – Dynamic Pricing, (7) Sharad Borle – Retail Assortments, (8) Siddharth Singh – Customer Lifetime Value, (9) Andrew Perkins – Brand Attitudes.