Marketing PhD Information
Content
Contents
The purpose and outline of our PhD programme .................................................. 2 Do you have the appropriate talents to be successful on a Marketing PhD programme? .............................................................................................................. 4 Reasons to choose London Business School ....................................................... 5 The selection criteria ................................................................................................ 6
The purpose and outline of our PhD programme
The main purpose of the programme is to train the future marketing faculty of the world's top business schools. As part of this process, London Business School PhD students are expected to take courses on marketing research and theory, to collaborate with Marketing Area faculty on projects of mutual interest, and to produce a dissertation that focuses on an original research idea. The PhD is a once in a lifetime opportunity to make an important new discovery. Although it is only the beginning of a research career, the freedom from distraction and the space to explore your own interests is unlikely again to extend over such a long period. A Marketing professor at one of the world's top business schools needs two kinds of excellence: research and teaching. Why not see for yourself what these look like? Top academic Marketing publications include The Journal of Marketing Research, The Journal of Consumer Research, The Journal of Marketing, and Marketing Science. You are unlikely to grasp fully the methods and the analysis reported in these journal articles, but you will get a sense of the questions they are trying to answer. And you are probably well suited for a PhD in Marketing if you find at least some of these questions interesting. And if you have more interesting questions, good for you. We like to be challenged. If you have an MBA, you are already well familiar with what is expected from Marketing professors in the classroom, so you are in a good position to judge whether or not that sort of work is for you. If you do not have an MBA, we recommend that you sit in on an MBA-level marketing course, preferably at a top business school. The MBA admissions offices of most schools – including London Business School – will be glad to arrange for you to sit in on a class. The PhD Process, Year by Year The average LBS Marketing PhD student takes four to five years to complete his or her degree. The First Year The first year is mostly devoted to courses which bring you up to date with research in marketing across a broad range of topics. We also include the necessary training in research methods. For this reason we suggest that you do not lock into a thesis topic until you have had a chance to assimilate the spectrum of topics that are available to you. Understanding the spectrum not only will help you pick the thesis topic that's right for you, but also will provide you with a broad understanding of the field of marketing research, which is essential for success as a marketing professor. The current Year 1 curriculum includes courses in Microeconomics, Probability and Statistics, Foundations of Business Research, Psychology and the Pro-Seminar in Marketing. In each of the years 1 and 2, you will also take two or three specialised doctoral seminar in marketing, taught by the marketing faculty in their area of expertise. During this time you will also choose a dissertation advisor and act as a research assistant to one or more faculty chosen on the basis of your mutual interests and projects. Research assistantship takes about one day for each week of the 10 week term. For those with London Business School funding, or associated scholarships, this activity is required as part of the funding package. Nothing develops research skills as well as practising them.
The Second Year In the second year you should select your thesis topic and develop a literature review and your hypotheses. The focus of your research assistantship will now be on literature searches and building reviews in parallel to your own. By years 3 and 4 you should aim to be writing academic papers as part of the team. You will take part in a teacher development programme to develop this part of your repertoire. In order to be eligible for an MRes (Masters in Research), students will additionally be required to write a research paper usually between 8,000 and 12,000 words in length, to be submitted on 1st April of the second year in the programme. The requirements of the research paper are: • • Presentation: Manuscripts should be logically structured. Content: The paper should pose a well articulated and interesting research question, lay out the analytical steps required to investigate it. The analysis should be coherent, original and of current interest. Students may, however, present a paper that forms part of a larger research project in collaboration with another student or faculty member, provided a significant, identifiable and independent contribution to the research has been made.
The Third Year In this year you will go through the "transfer" from the master's to the doctoral stage. This is a rehearsal for the final dissertation and you will be expected to defend your literature review and research proposal. Year 3 typically involves data collection to test your hypotheses and the subsequent analysis. This process requires considerable individual initiative. As this is your original work, you will be expected to devise the data collection and analysis strategy, and to collect and analyse the data yourself. By year 3, you will have the skills and knowledge to handle these responsibilities. And of course, throughout the process, you will be advised and guided by your dissertation committee. The Fourth Year Year 4 typically involves writing your dissertation and working on additional research projects. It is also the year when students begin interviewing for the positions they will take upon completion of their PhDs. For those interested in starting marketing professorships in September of year 5, the interviewing cycle begins in September of year 4. Whilst London Business School does not provide the opportunity to teach whole courses to our MBAs, we are conscious of our responsibility to ensure that the programme includes good teaching experience. Fortunately, there are a number of degree courses in marketing in the London area which are glad to have our PhDs as teachers. We also provide Teaching Assistantships which give lecturing and classroom experience as well as some understanding of standards, administration and best practice. Finally and importantly, we encourage PhD students, at all stages, to sit in on MBA classes both to broaden their background knowledge of these subjects and to observe teaching and classroom interaction. Participation allows you to test out your ideas.
Do you have the appropriate talents to be successful on a Marketing PhD programme?
In order to achieve the above goals and objectives, the following set of expectations applies to each student in the marketing doctoral program. These are in addition to any other requirements of the London Business School. Each student must:
• •
Make a full time commitment to the doctoral program in Marketing at LBS and not have any other occupations or work commitments. Complete successfully a set of graduate level courses in a sufficiently broad range of associated disciplines, e.g. Economics, Psychology, Statistics, Operations Research/ Management Science, Sociology or other behavioural sciences, so as to be equipped for a faculty role in a top international business school. At the minimum every student must acquire the necessary skills/ tools/ research methods required to conduct a high quality academic research in Marketing. Demonstrate via a comprehensive examination a thorough understanding of the academic research literature in Marketing and the capacity to be innovative in thinking about the research in Marketing. Complete the "transfer" from the masters to the doctoral stage of the program within the required time frame (about 24-30 months after joining the program). The "transfer" is a successful defence of a thesis or dissertation proposal and takes the form of an oral examination by a transfer committee Produce two high quality (as judged by the faculty) research papers prior to going on the job market and seeking academic employment. At the minimum, those should be completed working papers and preferably, have gone through a first round of review at leading marketing academic journals. . Complete satisfactorily the research proposal presented at the transfer examination and defend the thesis successfully at the Ph.D. oral examination (Viva).
•
•
•
•
Reasons to choose London Business School
if you are considering a business, and especially a marketing, PhD
•
We are one of the few truly international business schools, located in what many consider to be the capital city of the world. Our faculty members come from more than 20 countries and our students from more than 70. Because the number of students and faculty is small, relative to the top US schools, we can maintain an informal friendly collegiality. Faculty all give their time to PhD students and they are keen to help. You will have considerable freedom to select your own field of research although it makes sense to align that with faculty research interests. Each term you will have the opportunity to carry out research with faculty, taking your interests into account, under our Research Assistantship scheme. Our graduates go on to pursue careers at top academic institutions around the world. Being solely full-time removes the distractions experienced in part-time PhD communities. Having now tried both systems here, we are sure that full-time provides a more enjoyable environment. All places are fully and competitively funded. We select only the best students.
•
• • • •
• •
The selection criteria
Our over-riding selection criterion is whether the candidate will, on graduation, gain a faculty position in a top business school. This may be in the USA or your home country or elsewhere. The PhD programme at London Business School is tightly focused for future top academics and is not suitable for those pursuing general interests or a base for consulting. We develop those who will become outstanding both as teachers and researchers. Today you are five years away from that position and may come from any of a wide range of disciplines. Marketing is a broad subject which uses a multitude of skills so your first degree subject is not an issue. How well you performed and your natural abilities do matter. We use just five criteria to assess applications. Assess yourself and then, if you wish to apply, provide us with the evidence. No one can score alpha plus on all five and being outstanding on some is better than being average on all. The summary panel in the Application Form allows you to rate your suitability before making an application, though you should also discuss that with your referees. 1.Analytic and intellectual capability. There is no ducking the issue that intelligence is vital. Mathematics and logic are crucial but some of our stars had no maths in their first degrees. The techniques can be taught but only if the capability is already there. Analytic capability includes the critical sense to spot flaws in complex theory. Great academics listen well and think clearly. 2.English language communication (oral and written) skills. You will need to be able to cope with the nuances and subtleties of both spoken and written academic English. That should not be a problem for those educated in the English language to graduate level but we require more than verbal understanding and fluency. Native English speaker or not, we are looking for the ability to two-way communicate clearly and crisply. 3.Determination. Faculty provide help and advice but the PhD student is really on his/her own to create the research, write it up and see it through the processes of publishing in top academic journals. Self-motivation is essential and brings with it the capacity to handle ambiguity. 4.Presentation personality. A successful academic career will depend on teaching performance and the ability to communicate one's ideas in seminars, at conferences, etc. The student must have good presentation skills. At the same time, we recognise that these skills may be slow to develop for otherwise well qualified candidates. 5.Intellectual curiosity. There is not much point in aiming to become a full time academic if you do not have that turn of mind. By "curiosity" we do not mean wanting to know something about everything (usually disastrous in academic research) but wanting to know a great deal about a specific marketing topic and asking questions which others have not. So what kind of evidence would impress us? Perhaps most important are the references. We require two from academics who may be your present or past university teachers or advisers. How suitable for this programme do they think you to be? Please ask your referees to address these five criteria AFTER they have reviewed your application form and the papers you intend to submit. Please visit http://www.london.edu/phd.html for full application requirements.
The purpose and outline of our PhD programme .................................................. 2 Do you have the appropriate talents to be successful on a Marketing PhD programme? .............................................................................................................. 4 Reasons to choose London Business School ....................................................... 5 The selection criteria ................................................................................................ 6
The purpose and outline of our PhD programme
The main purpose of the programme is to train the future marketing faculty of the world's top business schools. As part of this process, London Business School PhD students are expected to take courses on marketing research and theory, to collaborate with Marketing Area faculty on projects of mutual interest, and to produce a dissertation that focuses on an original research idea. The PhD is a once in a lifetime opportunity to make an important new discovery. Although it is only the beginning of a research career, the freedom from distraction and the space to explore your own interests is unlikely again to extend over such a long period. A Marketing professor at one of the world's top business schools needs two kinds of excellence: research and teaching. Why not see for yourself what these look like? Top academic Marketing publications include The Journal of Marketing Research, The Journal of Consumer Research, The Journal of Marketing, and Marketing Science. You are unlikely to grasp fully the methods and the analysis reported in these journal articles, but you will get a sense of the questions they are trying to answer. And you are probably well suited for a PhD in Marketing if you find at least some of these questions interesting. And if you have more interesting questions, good for you. We like to be challenged. If you have an MBA, you are already well familiar with what is expected from Marketing professors in the classroom, so you are in a good position to judge whether or not that sort of work is for you. If you do not have an MBA, we recommend that you sit in on an MBA-level marketing course, preferably at a top business school. The MBA admissions offices of most schools – including London Business School – will be glad to arrange for you to sit in on a class. The PhD Process, Year by Year The average LBS Marketing PhD student takes four to five years to complete his or her degree. The First Year The first year is mostly devoted to courses which bring you up to date with research in marketing across a broad range of topics. We also include the necessary training in research methods. For this reason we suggest that you do not lock into a thesis topic until you have had a chance to assimilate the spectrum of topics that are available to you. Understanding the spectrum not only will help you pick the thesis topic that's right for you, but also will provide you with a broad understanding of the field of marketing research, which is essential for success as a marketing professor. The current Year 1 curriculum includes courses in Microeconomics, Probability and Statistics, Foundations of Business Research, Psychology and the Pro-Seminar in Marketing. In each of the years 1 and 2, you will also take two or three specialised doctoral seminar in marketing, taught by the marketing faculty in their area of expertise. During this time you will also choose a dissertation advisor and act as a research assistant to one or more faculty chosen on the basis of your mutual interests and projects. Research assistantship takes about one day for each week of the 10 week term. For those with London Business School funding, or associated scholarships, this activity is required as part of the funding package. Nothing develops research skills as well as practising them.
The Second Year In the second year you should select your thesis topic and develop a literature review and your hypotheses. The focus of your research assistantship will now be on literature searches and building reviews in parallel to your own. By years 3 and 4 you should aim to be writing academic papers as part of the team. You will take part in a teacher development programme to develop this part of your repertoire. In order to be eligible for an MRes (Masters in Research), students will additionally be required to write a research paper usually between 8,000 and 12,000 words in length, to be submitted on 1st April of the second year in the programme. The requirements of the research paper are: • • Presentation: Manuscripts should be logically structured. Content: The paper should pose a well articulated and interesting research question, lay out the analytical steps required to investigate it. The analysis should be coherent, original and of current interest. Students may, however, present a paper that forms part of a larger research project in collaboration with another student or faculty member, provided a significant, identifiable and independent contribution to the research has been made.
The Third Year In this year you will go through the "transfer" from the master's to the doctoral stage. This is a rehearsal for the final dissertation and you will be expected to defend your literature review and research proposal. Year 3 typically involves data collection to test your hypotheses and the subsequent analysis. This process requires considerable individual initiative. As this is your original work, you will be expected to devise the data collection and analysis strategy, and to collect and analyse the data yourself. By year 3, you will have the skills and knowledge to handle these responsibilities. And of course, throughout the process, you will be advised and guided by your dissertation committee. The Fourth Year Year 4 typically involves writing your dissertation and working on additional research projects. It is also the year when students begin interviewing for the positions they will take upon completion of their PhDs. For those interested in starting marketing professorships in September of year 5, the interviewing cycle begins in September of year 4. Whilst London Business School does not provide the opportunity to teach whole courses to our MBAs, we are conscious of our responsibility to ensure that the programme includes good teaching experience. Fortunately, there are a number of degree courses in marketing in the London area which are glad to have our PhDs as teachers. We also provide Teaching Assistantships which give lecturing and classroom experience as well as some understanding of standards, administration and best practice. Finally and importantly, we encourage PhD students, at all stages, to sit in on MBA classes both to broaden their background knowledge of these subjects and to observe teaching and classroom interaction. Participation allows you to test out your ideas.
Do you have the appropriate talents to be successful on a Marketing PhD programme?
In order to achieve the above goals and objectives, the following set of expectations applies to each student in the marketing doctoral program. These are in addition to any other requirements of the London Business School. Each student must:
• •
Make a full time commitment to the doctoral program in Marketing at LBS and not have any other occupations or work commitments. Complete successfully a set of graduate level courses in a sufficiently broad range of associated disciplines, e.g. Economics, Psychology, Statistics, Operations Research/ Management Science, Sociology or other behavioural sciences, so as to be equipped for a faculty role in a top international business school. At the minimum every student must acquire the necessary skills/ tools/ research methods required to conduct a high quality academic research in Marketing. Demonstrate via a comprehensive examination a thorough understanding of the academic research literature in Marketing and the capacity to be innovative in thinking about the research in Marketing. Complete the "transfer" from the masters to the doctoral stage of the program within the required time frame (about 24-30 months after joining the program). The "transfer" is a successful defence of a thesis or dissertation proposal and takes the form of an oral examination by a transfer committee Produce two high quality (as judged by the faculty) research papers prior to going on the job market and seeking academic employment. At the minimum, those should be completed working papers and preferably, have gone through a first round of review at leading marketing academic journals. . Complete satisfactorily the research proposal presented at the transfer examination and defend the thesis successfully at the Ph.D. oral examination (Viva).
•
•
•
•
Reasons to choose London Business School
if you are considering a business, and especially a marketing, PhD
•
We are one of the few truly international business schools, located in what many consider to be the capital city of the world. Our faculty members come from more than 20 countries and our students from more than 70. Because the number of students and faculty is small, relative to the top US schools, we can maintain an informal friendly collegiality. Faculty all give their time to PhD students and they are keen to help. You will have considerable freedom to select your own field of research although it makes sense to align that with faculty research interests. Each term you will have the opportunity to carry out research with faculty, taking your interests into account, under our Research Assistantship scheme. Our graduates go on to pursue careers at top academic institutions around the world. Being solely full-time removes the distractions experienced in part-time PhD communities. Having now tried both systems here, we are sure that full-time provides a more enjoyable environment. All places are fully and competitively funded. We select only the best students.
•
• • • •
• •
The selection criteria
Our over-riding selection criterion is whether the candidate will, on graduation, gain a faculty position in a top business school. This may be in the USA or your home country or elsewhere. The PhD programme at London Business School is tightly focused for future top academics and is not suitable for those pursuing general interests or a base for consulting. We develop those who will become outstanding both as teachers and researchers. Today you are five years away from that position and may come from any of a wide range of disciplines. Marketing is a broad subject which uses a multitude of skills so your first degree subject is not an issue. How well you performed and your natural abilities do matter. We use just five criteria to assess applications. Assess yourself and then, if you wish to apply, provide us with the evidence. No one can score alpha plus on all five and being outstanding on some is better than being average on all. The summary panel in the Application Form allows you to rate your suitability before making an application, though you should also discuss that with your referees. 1.Analytic and intellectual capability. There is no ducking the issue that intelligence is vital. Mathematics and logic are crucial but some of our stars had no maths in their first degrees. The techniques can be taught but only if the capability is already there. Analytic capability includes the critical sense to spot flaws in complex theory. Great academics listen well and think clearly. 2.English language communication (oral and written) skills. You will need to be able to cope with the nuances and subtleties of both spoken and written academic English. That should not be a problem for those educated in the English language to graduate level but we require more than verbal understanding and fluency. Native English speaker or not, we are looking for the ability to two-way communicate clearly and crisply. 3.Determination. Faculty provide help and advice but the PhD student is really on his/her own to create the research, write it up and see it through the processes of publishing in top academic journals. Self-motivation is essential and brings with it the capacity to handle ambiguity. 4.Presentation personality. A successful academic career will depend on teaching performance and the ability to communicate one's ideas in seminars, at conferences, etc. The student must have good presentation skills. At the same time, we recognise that these skills may be slow to develop for otherwise well qualified candidates. 5.Intellectual curiosity. There is not much point in aiming to become a full time academic if you do not have that turn of mind. By "curiosity" we do not mean wanting to know something about everything (usually disastrous in academic research) but wanting to know a great deal about a specific marketing topic and asking questions which others have not. So what kind of evidence would impress us? Perhaps most important are the references. We require two from academics who may be your present or past university teachers or advisers. How suitable for this programme do they think you to be? Please ask your referees to address these five criteria AFTER they have reviewed your application form and the papers you intend to submit. Please visit http://www.london.edu/phd.html for full application requirements.
