DBA in Marketing
A doctorate degree in marketing will prepare you for high-level research or consulting positions in corporations, or for teaching positions in academic institutions that do not require a PhD degree and academic research.
The completion of the DBA in Marketing program requires 72 credit hours of graduate course work in marketing-related topics. In addition, as a DBA student you must maintain satisfactory academic progress; pass examinations and paper requirements; and write, submit, and defend a doctoral thesis. All DBA students are expected to finish the program within four years on a full-time basis, or within five to six years on a part-time basis.
Quantitative Marketing Track
The DBA in Marketing Quantitative track 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.
Required Courses (24 credits)
Required courses provide you with basic knowledge in marketing research, customer and brand management analytics, and empirical methods. You will also be asked to fulfill a teaching and communication requirement.
Elective Courses (24 credits)
Elective course work includes managerial economics, industrial organization, and econometrics seminars from graduate programs at Olin Business School as well as other graduate-level Arts and Sciences courses authorized by the program director and approved by the course instructor.
View the Quantitative Marketing Curriculum
Consumer Behavior Track
The DBA in Marketing Consumer Behavior track concentrates on psychology fundamentals, including cognition, social psychology, and behavioral decision theory. Students study and research consumer judgment and decision-making, culture, emotions, motivation, individual differences, perception, and social influence.
Required Courses (19.5 credits)
Required courses provide you with foundational knowledge of consumer behavior, marketing research, and quantitative methods in psychology. You will also be asked to fulfill a teaching and communication requirement.
Elective Courses (28.5 credits)
Elective course work includes product development, memory and emotion, and communication seminars from graduate programs at Olin Business School as well as graduate-level psychology courses authorized by the program director and approved by the course instructor.
View the Consumer Behavior Marketing Curriculum
Research (24 credits) for both Quantitative Marketing and Consumer Behavior tracks
Research credits finalize the course work for your DBA degree from Olin Business School. Course work inclusive of Independent Studies, Research Assistantships, and Directed Readings will account for 12 credit units, and doctoral thesis work accounts for 12 credit units. After successfully passing the qualifying exams (or field exams), you will write an extended research paper under the guidance of a faculty member in preparation for your thesis proposal. That faculty member will advise you throughout the stages of the thesis – proposal, research, writing, and defense – as well as serve on the thesis and defense committees.
Qualifying Exams
Comprehensive field examinations should be completed within six months of the conclusion of required course work (normally within two to three years). Examination committee will be composed of the faculty advisor and two other faculty members.
Doctoral Thesis
After completion of 48 units of DBA course work and passing the qualifying exams, you will begin research for your doctoral thesis. As a DBA student, you will prepare your thesis proposal in consultation with your faculty advisor and the approval of the research advisory committee and program director. Once complete, you will defend your doctoral thesis in an oral presentation to your advisory committee. The committee will either assign a passing grade or a failing grade or ask for revisions to be made in order for you to receive a passing grade.
Marketing Faculty & 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.
On the Marketing Science (quantitative) side, Olin faculty conduct empirical tests on the implications of these models and quantify the effectiveness and profit implications of different strategies. We identify drivers that should govern strategic decisions and the allocation of marketing resources.
On the Consumer Behavior side, Olin faculty draw from theory in psychology and marketing to understand how people make decisions. Research topics include: biases in judgment, choice assortments, prosocial behavior, financial decision making, branding, intertemporal choice, morality and consumption, 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
