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Marketing Requirements 2009-2010

I. Preparation in Quantitative Methods

As preparation for the general program requirement, some marketing students, depending on their previous preparation, find it useful to complete the course below or equivalent in the summer prior to the first year or during the first year. Questions concerning what constitutes adequate preparation should be directed to the doctoral liaison.

Topic	Course Level
Probability	STATS 116: Theory of Probability (Quantitative Students)
Mathematics	ECON 50M: Mathematical Preparation for Economics (Behavioral Students) Math 115 Real Analysis (Quantitative Students)

Students specializing in quantitative marketing are expected to have adequate computer programming skills (C++, Matlab, or equivalent). If students do not have adequate computer programming skills, they may learn this material on their own or take the Stanford Computer Science course CS106A "Programming Methodology.''

II. General Program Requirement (GPR)¹

All students are encouraged to fulfill the general program requirement during their first year of study, unless extensive remedial preparation in quantitative methods is necessary. Each course must be passed with a grade of P or B- or better. Interpretation of the LP grade will be determined on a case by case basis.

Note: Any changes to the General Program Requirement (GPR) or Field Course Requirement (FCR) will be "grandfathered." Students are responsible for fulfilling the requirements in place at the time they entered the program.

Courses

Economics Either take one of the following five courses: (revised Mar-07)
MGTECON 600: Microeconomic Analysis I or MGTECON 601: Microeconomic Analysis II or ECON 202: Core Economics I / or ECON 203: Core Economics III / or MS&E 241: Economic Analysis
Or take the following course: (revised Nov-06)
MGTECON 200: Managerial Economics (MBA Core)
You must take the following courses: (revised Sep-07)
GSBGEN 698: Practicum in Training
GSBGEN 699: Practicum in Research
Plus one of the following three courses:
HRMGT 302: Incentives and Productivity or ECON 149: The Firm in Theory and Practice or ECON 157: Imperfect Competition

 

Econometric Methods Take one of:
ECON 270: Intermediate Econometrics I / MGTECON 603: Econometric Methods or ECON 271: Intermediate Econometrics II / MGTECON 604: Econometric Methods II or GSBGEN 641: Advanced Empirical Methods or STATS 203: Regression Models and Analysis of Variance

 

Or take two of the following courses (preferably a sequence): (Revised Mar-07)
PSYCH 252: Statistical Methods of Behavioral and Social Sciences PSYCH 253: Statistical Theory, Models, and Methodology EDUC 251B: Statistical Analysis in Educational Research: Analysis of Variance EDUC 251C: Statistical Analysis in Educational Research: Applied Multivariate Analysis EDUC 257A or B: Statistical Methods for Behavioral and Social Sciences EDUC 257C: (same as SOC 257): Casual Inference in Quantitative Educational and Social Science Research
Organizational Behavior/Psychology Take one of:
OB 671: Social Psychology of Organizations or OB 672: Organizations and Environment or OB 676: Seminar on Social and Political Processes in Organizations or GSBGEN 646: Behavioral Decision Theory or PSYCH 212: Social Psychology

In rare cases, the Director of the PhD Program may waive a general program requirement for a student based on similar PhD-level coursework completed elsewhere.

III. Field Course Requirement

MKTG 641: Behavioral Research in Marketing: Methodology1

MKTG 642: Behavioral Research in Marketing: Conceptual Foundations

MKTG 644: Quantitative Research in Marketing II

¹ This course can be waived for quantitative students in Marketing.

Each course must be passed with a grade of P or B- or better. Interpretation of the LP grade will be determined on a case by case basis.

IV. First Year Field Examination

The marketing field examination is administered in late June (subject to change) of the first year in the student's area of specialization, either behavioral or quantitative marketing. It is an open-book, open-notes exam. The student is to work on the exam independently over five days.

V. Research Papers

First-year Proposal and Paper:  Students will submit a proposal for the first-year paper by the end of the Spring quarter of the first year.  After the proposal is approved by the faculty, students will submit a paper complete with data analyses by the end of the Autumn quarter of the second year.  The first-year paper should also be presented to the faculty by the end of that Autumn quarter of the second year.  If sufficient slots are not available during the Autumn quarter (e.g., owing to faculty recruiting), the first-year paper should be presented to the faculty by the end of January of the Winter quarter.  The first-year paper can be under the guidance of a faculty member, but the student ought to have contributed about two-thirds of the effort that goes into this paper.

The primary goal of the first year paper is to give students the experience of going through the entire process of a research piece, including data analysis.  For quant students, this is the time to learn programming and also start thinking about working with data.  One offshoot from this experience is for the students to understand that research ideas and data go hand-in-hand.  The proposal can be an extension of a published piece or a work-in-progress.  However, it is critical that the student spells out in the proposal the data-set(s)/experimental procedures s/he will be using for the first year paper.  In this regard, for quantitative students, it would help if the student works on an extension of research being conducted by one of the GSB marketing faculty due to the ready availability of data.

Second-year Paper:  All students will submit a draft of their second-year paper by the end of the second Summer.  This paper can be under the guidance of a faculty member, but the student ought to have been the major contributor (around 90%) of the effort that goes into the paper.  A revised and final draft of the second-year paper is due by the end of the Autumn quarter of their third year.  The second year paper should also be presented to the faculty by the end of Autumn quarter.  If sufficient slots are not available during the Autumn quarter (e.g., owing to faculty recruiting), the second-year paper should be presented to the faculty by the end of January of the Winter quarter.  Any failure to meet these requirements will put the student under probation until the end of the Winter quarter, by which time the student needs to have fulfilled these requirements.

Overall evaluation of each paper (and the proposal in the case of the first-year paper) will be judged by two faculty members, one of whom could be the collaborating faculty member (if any), as High Pass, Pass, Marginal, or Fail. This evaluation will take into account the student’s strengths and weaknesses related to research, and whether the student evidences enough ability to continue in the program.

VI. Candidacy

Students who have completed the general program requirement, the field course requirements, the field examination, and the second-year research paper requirements are considered for admission to candidacy.

VII. Dissertation Research

The faculty strongly recommends against students entering the academic job market without first completing a thesis proposal acceptable to the dissertation chairperson.

VIII. Supplementary Requirements

Each student is expected to participate regularly in the weekly research seminars organized by the marketing faculty. The following programs are examples of possible course schedules; university scheduling of these courses may fluctuate across quarters.

IX. Example of a Course Schedule with a Quantitative Emphasis

First Year: Quantitative

Second Year¹: Quantitative

Field exam the end of June.

The first-year paper should be presented to the faculty by the end of the Autumn quarter of the second year. 

¹ During the second year, students usually take some elective courses and concentrate on the second-year research paper requirements.

Recommended Elective Classes:

- Advanced Game Theory in Econ Dept

- Bayesian Econometrics

- Bayesian Statistics

- STATS 217 & 218: Introduction to Stochastic Processes

- MSE 211: Linear and Non-Linear Optimization

- MGTECON 609: Applied Econometrics & Economic Research

- Multivariate Analysis, Bootstrap, and the Stochastic Processes 2-course sequence

- Econ course on uncertainty which will have some advanced Game theory

Third Year: Quantitative

Preliminary draft of the second-year paper due at the end of summer quarter.

Autumn	Winter	Spring
(Final draft of the second-year paper due at the end of the Autumn quarter or student will be on probation until end of the Winter quarter) Second-year paper presentations to the full faculty (if sufficient slots are not available, the presentation requirement should be completed by the end of January of the Winter quarter.	Work on sending the second-year paper to a top-tier journal and to the Marketing Science conference Work on dissertation	Work on dissertation

Fourth Year: Quantitative

Summer	Autumn	Winter	Spring
Students on a 4-year program: Potentially On Job Market with completed 2nd Year Paper and with a dissertation in progress	Campus visits for students on 4-year program Work on dissertation	Work on dissertation	Work on dissertation

 

Fifth Year: Quantitative

Summer	Autumn	Winter	Spring
Students on a 5-year program (On Job Market hopefully with an accepted or soon-to-be accepted Curriculum paper and nearly completed dissertation)	Campus visits for students on a 5-year program Work on dissertation paper for submission to a top-tier journal	Work on dissertation paper for submission to a top-tier journal Work on future research projects	Work on dissertation paper for submission to a top-tier journal Work on future research projects

 

 

X. Example of a Course Schedule with a Behavioral Emphasis

First Year: Behavioral

Second Year¹: Behavioral

Field exam the end of June.

The first-year paper should be presented to the faculty by the end of the Autumn quarter of the second year. 

¹ During the second year, students usually take some elective courses and concentrate on the second-year research paper requirements.

There are many other courses taken by PhD Students that are offered in departments outside the GSB, such as Computer Science, Economics, Management Science and Engineering, Mathematics, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, and Statistics. Descriptions of these course offerings can be found in the Stanford Bulletin, published by the Registrar's Office.

Third Year: Behavioral

Preliminary draft of the second-year paper due at the end of summer quarter.

Autumn	Winter	Spring
(Final draft of the second-year paper due at the end of the Autumn quarter or student will be on probation until end of the Winter quarter) Second-year paper presentations to the full faculty (if sufficient slots are not available, the presentation requirement should be completed by the end of January of the Winter quarter.	Second-year paper presentations to the full faculty Work on sending the second-year paper to a top-tier journal and to a conference (e.g., ACR, SCP, SJDM, BDRM) Work on dissertation	Work on dissertation

Fourth Year: Behavioral

Summer	Autumn	Winter	Spring
Students on a 4-year program: Potentially On Job Market with completed 2nd Year Paper and with a dissertation in progress	Campus visits for students on 4-year program Work on dissertation	Work on dissertation	Work on dissertation

 

Fifth Year: Behavioral

Summer	Autumn	Winter	Spring
Students on a 5-year program (On Job Market hopefully with an accepted or soon-to-be accepted Curriculum paper and nearly completed dissertation)	Campus visits for students on a 5-year program Work on dissertation paper for submission to a top-tier journal	Work on dissertation paper for submission to a top-tier journal Work on future research projects	Work on dissertation paper for submission to a top-tier journal Work on future research projects

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