Ph.D. in Marketing Areas of Research

At the Eli Broad College of Business, students in the marketing Ph.D. program have the opportunity to work and publish with some of the most prolific researchers in marketing. Faculty-student collaboration is a significant part of the doctoral experience, and it leads to results. Doctoral students work with faculty to research the most compelling issues facing businesses today, and Broad provides the resources to get it done.

Focused on marketing strategy, Broad’s faculty has developed four areas of research excellence:

Marketing strategy
Product and brand management
Relationship marketing
International marketing

Research Prestige

international business research

(International Business Review, 2010)

in B2B marketing research productivity

(Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, 2019)

12th

most cited marketing department in the world

(University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management study, 2014)

Research in Marketing

The available marketing doctoral coursework covers a broad range of topics, including marketing strategy, modeling marketing problems, consumer behavior and statistics. Ph.D. students are expected to be in residence on a full-time basis during the program. While in the coursework stage of the program, doctoral students are also assigned as teaching and/or research assistants. Upon completion of coursework, students are required to pass a comprehensive exam in marketing and then complete a dissertation that demonstrates their ability to conduct an original research project.

The program curriculum is designed with a focus on research mentorship and training and includes several writing requirements to ensure our students are prepared for the job market and ready to succeed as assistant professors. The Ph.D. handbook provides details on the program requirements, and the curriculum schedule is presented below.

Centers of Research Excellence

Marketing Strategy

The anchor for this focus is our strong reputation and core faculty studying marketing strategy. Among notable faculty in this center of research excellence are Tomas Hult, Roger Calantone, Ahmet Kirca and Irina Kozlenkova.

Product and Brand Management

The Eli Broad College of Business has long been recognized for its excellence in product and brand management. In a study by Pianpain Yang and Lei Tao, MSU ranked #3 among universities for innovation management and #1 in the Big Ten. Scholarship in this area has been a long-standing strength at Broad, and its faculty has won numerous awards in this center of research excellence.

As a doctoral student, you will have the opportunity to collaborate with renowned scholars in product and brand management. The Broad faculty continually works with doctoral students in this area. Among notable faculty in this center of research excellence is Roger Calantone, who has been ranked the world’s #2 scholar in innovation management and the tenth most-cited marketing researcher worldwide. In addition to these accomplishments, he is a University Distinguished Professor, has chaired many dissertations, and has published numerous articles with doctoral students. Calantone and other faculty in this area – such as Cornelia Droge, Ahmet Kirca and Hang Nguyen – enjoy working with doctoral students and providing tutelage on research.

Relationship Marketing and Sales

Relationship marketing and sales is one of the hottest areas of marketing research today. At Broad, you’ll have access to some of the top faculty in the field. With multiple publications in leading journals, the college’s relationship marketing and sales center of research excellence is becoming one of the best in the nation. Here is but a brief list of awards in this center of research excellence:

AMA’s Emerging Service Scholar Award
AMA Sales SIG Excellence in Research Award
Winner of the 2011, 2012 and 2015 Industry Relevance Awards granted by the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research

Doctoral students who focus on relationship marketing and sales have access to some of the best faculty in the field. Among notable faculty in this center of research excellence is Douglas Hughes. Hughes is the incoming editor of the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management and an area editor for the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. His research focuses on sales force management issues and has appeared in the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Research and the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. In addition, a number of other faculty work in this area, including Roger Calantone, Tomas Hult, Irina Kozlenkova and Stephanie Mangus.

International Marketing

The Broad College of Business has been ranked #1 in international business research. Doctoral students who choose to focus on international marketing will have access to resources such as MSU-CIBER and to faculty who are thought leaders in the field. The Broad faculty regularly collaborates with doctoral students in this area and have served as committee members and chairs of several dissertations.

Among notable faculty in this center of research excellence is Tomas Hult, director of the International Business Center (MSU-CIBER), former editor of the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and one of the 50 most cited researchers in marketing. During his time at MSU, Hult has co-authored several books on international business, has chaired multiple dissertation committees, and has collaborated with doctoral students on numerous publications. In addition, Roger Calantone, Ahmet Kirca and Irina Kozlenkova also conduct research in this area.

Publications

Recent publications in each of the four core areas of research are listed below.

Marketing Strategy

Katsikeas, Constantine S., Neil A. Morgan, Leonidas C. Leonidou, and G. Tomas M. Hult (2016), “Assessing Performance Outcomes in Marketing,” Journal of Marketing, 80 (2), In Press.

Bamiatzi, Vassiliki, Konstantinos Bozos, S. Tamer Cavusgil, and G. Tomas M. Hult (2016), “Revisiting the Firm, Industry and Country Effects on Profitability under Recessionary and Expansion Periods: A Multi-level Analysis,” Strategic Management Journal, In Press.

Ozkaya, Erkan, Cornelia Droge, G. Tomas M. Hult, Roger Calantone, and Elif Ozkaya (2015), “Market Orientation, Knowledge Competence, and Innovation,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 32 (3), 309-318.

Arrfelt, Mathias, Robert M. Wiseman, Gerry McNamara, and G. Tomas M. Hult (2015), “Examining a Key Corporate Role: The Influence of Capital Allocation Competency on Business Unit Performance,” Strategic Management Journal, 36 (7), 1017-1034.

Lee, J. –Y., Kozlenkova, I. V., and Palmatier R. W., “Structural Marketing: Using Organizational Structure to Achieve Marketing Objectives,” (forthcoming), Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

Product and Brand Management

Dean, Tereza, David A. Griffith, Roger J. Calantone, “New Product Creativity: Understanding Contract Specificity in New Product Introductions,”Forthcoming, Journal of Marketing.

Sarangee, K., J. Schmidt, and R. J. Calantone (2015), “Does the Future Impact the Present during New Product Development?” Journal of Product and Innovation Management.

Vickery, S., Y. Bolumole, M. Castel, and R. J. Calantone (2015), “The Effects of Product Modularity on Launch Speed,” International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 53, Iss. 17.

Vickery, S., X. Koufteros, C. Dröge, and R. J. Calantone (2015), “Product Modularity, Process Modularity and New Product Introduction Performance: Does Complexity Matter?” Production and Operations Management, p1-20.

Bolumole, Y., R. Calantone, C. A. Di Benedetto, and S. A. Melnyk (2015), “New Product Development in New Ventures: The Quest for Resources,” International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 53, Iss. 8, p2506-2523.

Chauduri, M., R. Calantone, and P. Randhawa (2015), “New Wine from Old Grapes: Innovation in the Eco-Friendly B2C Space,” Journal of International Consumer Marketing, Vol. 27, Iss. 2, p99-122.

Ozkaya, H. E., C. Dröge, G. T. M. Hult, R. Calantone, and E. Ozkaya (2015), “Market Orientation, Knowledge Competence, and Innovation,” International Journal of Research in Marketing.

Relationship Marketing and Sales

Bolander, Willy, Cinthia Santornino, Douglas E. Hughes, and Gerald R. Ferris (2015), “Social Networks within Sales Organizations: Their Development and Importance for Salesperson Performance,” Journal of Marketing.

Kozlenkova, Irina, G. Tomas M. Hult, Donald Lund, Jeannette A. Mena, and Pinar Kekec (2015), “The Role of Marketing Channels in Supply Chain Management: A Review of the Literature and Takeaways for Future Research,” Journal of Retailing, 91 (4), 586-609.

Miao, C. Fred, Douglas E. Hughes, Keith A. Richards, and Frank Q. Fu (2015), “Understanding the Interactive Effects of Service Climate and Transactional Sales Climate on Service Quality and Sales Performance,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

Baldus, B., C. Voorhees, and R. J. Calantone (2015), “Online Brand Community Engagement: Scale Development and Validation,” Journal of Business Research, Vol. 68, Iss. 5, p978-85.

International Marketing

Kostova, Tatiana and G. Tomas M. Hult (2016), “Meyer and Peng’s 2005 Article as a Foundation for an Expanded and Refined International Business Research Agenda: Context, Organizations, and Theories,” Journal of International Business Studies, 47 (1), In Press.