At Olin, the Marketing discipline is distinguished by a demand for innovative ideas, critical thinking, and a strong emphasis on quantitative abilities. The program has two areas of study in marketing: Marketing Science and Consumer Behavior.
Marketing Science focuses on economic fundamentals, including microeconomic theory and econometrics. Using this methodology, students can examine mathematical modeling of buyer-seller interactions, consumer choices, purchase behavior, resource allocation, components of the marketing mix, and new product development.
Consumer Behavior concentrates on psychology fundamentals, including cognitive psychology, social psychology, and behavioral decision theory. These areas provide a strong foundation as students study and research consumer judgment and decision-making, cognition, culture, emotions, motivation, individual differences, perception, and social influence.
Some PhD marketing students may analyze the intersection of Marketing Science and Consumer Behavior, exploring how the interplay of these two broad areas can improve understanding and predict marketing phenomena.
Learn more about the Consumer Behavior curriculum and the Marketing Science curriculum | Collaborative Research- Marketing Faculty and Ph.D. Students
Marketing Faculty and Research
Olin’s academic research in marketing focuses on building frameworks and models to understand and evaluate marketing strategies and their impact on customers, consumers, and competitors. This research provides decision makers the ability to think beyond current practices and offers answers to significant "what if" questions.
On the Marketing Science (quantitative) side, we conduct empirical tests on the implications of these models, quantify the effectiveness of different strategies, and explore the profit implications of using alternative strategies. We identify important drivers that should govern strategic decisions and, consequently, the allocation of marketing resources.
Faculty members work on a variety of topical areas addressing important strategic issues. Current research topics include models of consumer interaction and communication; brand management; channel coordination in the presence of uncertainty; consumer value construction; bidding and regret in auctions; consumer online purchase patterns; collaboration and competition; information and inventory in distribution channels; and customer profitability patterns.
On the Consumer Behavior side, we draw from theory in psychology and marketing to understand how people make decisions. Faculty members work on a variety of topics related to judgment and decision making. Current and recent research topics include: biases in judgment and choice; choice assortments; prosocial behavior; financial decision making; branding; intertemporal choice; morality and consumption; preferences for natural products; gift giving; and metacognition.
Research papers by faculty members have recently been published in well-respected journals such as:
- Marketing Science
- Journal of Consumer Research
- Journal of Marketing Research
- Journal of Marketing
- Marketing Letters
Full-Time Marketing Faculty Members
Craig Anderson | Tat Chan | Samuel Chun | Cynthia Cryder | Fausto Gonzalez | Xiang Hui | Baojun Jiang | Ivan Lapuka | Robyn LeBoeuf | Meng Liu | Chakravarthi Narasimhan | Yulia Nevskaya | Stephen Nowlis | Hannah Perfecto | Sydney Scott | Seethu Seetharaman | Raphael Thomadsen | Michael Wall | Elanor Williams | Song Yao
