Marketing Requirements: Behavioral Track

I. Preparation

As preparation for the program requirements, some marketing students, depending on their previous preparation, find it useful to complete the courses below or the 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 Courses
Probability Econ 50M: Mathematical Preparation for Economics

II. Course Requirements

All required courses must be taken for a grade (not pass/fail or credit/no credit).  Exceptions are made if the required course is offered pass/fail or credit/no credit only. Each course must be passed with a grade of P or B- or better. Substitutions of required courses (typically sought because a required course is not offered in the quarter of choice) require approval from the faculty liaison. Waiving a course requirement based on similar doctoral level course completed elsewhere requires the approval of the course instructor, faculty liaison, and the PhD Program Office.

Requirement Courses
Required
(9 courses)
  • MKTG 641 Behavioral Research in Marketing I
  • MKTG 642 Behavioral Research in Marketing II: Consumer Behavior
  • MKTG 611 Motivation Science
  • MKTG 661 Attitudes and Persuasion
  • GSBGEN 646 Behavioral Economics and the Psychology of Decision Making
  • PSYCH 252 Statistical Methods of Behavioral and Social Sciences
  • STATS 266 Advanced Statistical Methods in Observational Studies
  • MKTG 644 Quantitative Research in Marketing
  • One Psychology course (selected in consultation with the Faculty Liaison)

III. Practicum

Students are required to sign up for either research or teaching practicum each quarter of enrollment. Below is a description of the practicum requirements for behavioral marketing students.

Year 1: Regularly attend and participate in the marketing seminar. Work with a different marketing faculty in autumn, winter, and spring quarters for initial research exposure.

Years 2 - 5: Regularly attend and participate in the marketing seminar. Continue research work with faculty of student’s choice.

IV. Summer Research Papers

The student will submit a Proposal Paper by the end of the fall quarter of the second year, and present this work in the winter quarter of the second year. The proposal paper should thoroughly review relevant literature and propose a new hypothesis. An excellent proposal paper will demonstrate both a good understanding of the topic area and what the student can potentially add to that topic area. Thoughtful conceptualization (e.g., identifying meaningful gaps in literature and leveraging those to develop the hypothesis) is key. Data is optional; no more than one study.

The student will submit an Empirical Paper by the end of the winter quarter of the third year, and present this work in the early spring quarter of the third year. The empirical paper should propose a new hypothesis and provide comprehensive empirical evidence for that hypothesis. An excellent empirical paper will demonstrate both the student’s expertise in the topic area and what the student will contribute to that topic area. This paper will be used as part of the materials to evaluate the student’s eligibility to advance to candidacy.

V. Field Exam

Students take the field exam in the summer after their second year. The students will receive two field exam assignments at the beginning of summer and will need to submit their responses by the end of the summer quarter: 

(1) Review and write a thoughtful critique on a paper. The paper will be assigned when the field exam begins.

(2) Write a 25-30-page (double spaced, excluding citations) review paper. Identify a common theme or a core question that arises across multiple courses/domains/disciplines in our field. An excellent review paper will provide a comprehensive discussion of this theme or question, drawing from multiple literatures or research domains, and identify similarities, overlaps, differences, and/or conflicts to ask critical questions and draw meaningful insights and conclusions across domains (e.g., what you make of the similarities and differences you have noted, what new insights you can generate about them, what framework you would propose to integrate them, etc.). Consider also what is missing. Are there gaps in the literature, promising avenues suggested by adjacent literatures, or unexplored mechanisms worthy of attention? In short, identify a big theme, idea, or question that emerges across different research areas and offer a critical discussion of it. Your reference list should be approximately 40-80 citations. You may discuss the potential topic and scope of your paper with faculty before you begin.

VI. Teaching Requirement

One quarter of course assistantship or teaching practicum. Requirement must be completed prior to graduation.

VII. Candidacy

Admission to candidacy for the doctoral degree is a judgment by the faculty of the student’s potential to successfully complete the requirements of the degree program. Students are required to advance to candidacy by September 1 before the start of their fourth year in the program.

VIII. University Oral Exams

The oral examination is a defense of the dissertation work in progress. The student orally presents and defends the thesis work in progress at a stage when it is one-half to two-thirds complete. The oral examination committee tests the student on the theory and methodology underlying the research, the areas of application and portions of the major field to which the research is relevant, and the significance of the dissertation research. Students are required to successfully complete the oral exams by September 1 before the start of their fifth year in the program.

IX. Dissertation

The doctoral dissertation is expected to be an original contribution to scholarship or scientific knowledge, to exemplify the highest standards of the discipline, and to be of lasting value to the intellectual community. The marketing faculty defer to the student’s Dissertation Reading Committee to provide general guidelines (e.g. number of chapters, length of dissertation) on the dissertation.

Typical Timeline

Year Three

Year Four