Courses

Marketing Ph.D. Courses and Research Seminars

A. Credit Hours Requirements

The Ph.D. Program requires a minimum of 64 semester hours beyond a Masters degree or 96 semester credit hours beyond a Bachelors degree if the student does not have a Masters degree at the time of admission. To ensure students are well trained in their areas of study, most students take classes beyond the 64 credit hour minimum. For example, it is not typically feasible to write a dissertation proposal, conduct the research, write the final dissertation, and defend it in 18-28 credit hours. Each of the areas identified in the summary below are discussed in the following subsections.

The minimum requirements for a Ph.D. in Business Administration with a major in Marketing (for students entering the program with a master’s degree) are:

B. Tracks

The Ph.D. Program has two tracks: (1) quantitative and (2) consumer behavior. These tracks only differ in the elective coursework that the students take. All other requirements and program milestones are identical across the two tracks. Students are admitted into a specific track and may not change tracks during the program.

C. Coursework

The Ph.D. Program coursework consists of four departmental seminars plus supporting coursework (i.e., Research Method and Elective Courses) in economics, statistics, psychology or other related fields. If necessary, as determined by the Ph.D. Program Director, students may be asked to take a preparatory Math for Economics and Introductory Econometrics course, typically offered in August.

Marketing doctoral level courses are offered on a rotating basis with each course offered every other year. The Department of Marketing offers the following level required doctoral courses (each course is equivalent to 3 credit hours):

• MKTG 687 (Seminar in Marketing Models)
• MKTG 688 (Seminar in Multivariate Statistics)
• MKTG 682 (Seminar in Marketing Strategy)
• MKTG 680 (Seminar in Consumer Behavior)

In addition, from time to time, the department may offer other doctoral seminars. All regularly scheduled or one-time departmental seminars are mandatory for all students.

Typical course schedule for a student in the Doctoral Program in Marketing:

D. Seminar Series

The Department of Marketing sponsors a Distinguished Visiting Scholar Series. Through this series, we expose our doctoral students to some of the thought-leaders in the field. The following is a selective list of recent Distinguished Visiting Scholars:

• Mike Ahearne (University of Houston)
• Barry Bayus (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill)
• Hai Che (Indiana University)
• Utpal Dholakia (Rice University)
• Rex Du (University of Houston)
• Shantanu Dutta (University of Southern California)
• Mrinal Ghosh (University of Arizona)
• Liang Guo (HKUST)
• Dominique Hanssens (UCLA)
• Elizabeth Honka (UT Dallas)
• Ajay Kalra (Rice University)
• Ajay K. Kholi (Emory University)
• Praveen Kopalle (Dartmouth)
• Robert F. Lusch (University of Arizona)
• Vijay Mahajan (University of Texas at Austin)
• Leigh M. McAlister (University of Texas at Austin)
• Peter McGraw (University of Colorado at Boulder)
• Robert Palmatier (University of Washington)
• A. Parasuraman (University of Miami)
• Amit Pazgal (Rice University)
• Arvind Rangaswamy (Penn State University)
• Siddarth Singh (Rice University)
• Sivaramakrishnan Siddarth (University of Southern California)
• Bernd Skiera (Goethe University)
• Raji Srinivasan (University of Texas at Austin)
• Catherine Tucker (MIT)
• Barton A. Weitz (University of Florida)

E. Research Camp

In addition to the regular seminar series, the department organizes a flagship research event every year. The faculty and doctoral students spend a day with the brightest minds in the field and learn the latest findings in the most promising areas of research.