PhD in Marketing at University of Toronto
Joseph L. Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto
Overview
The PhD Program in Marketing at Rotman School of Management is designed to prepare students for academic careers in marketing at research-oriented universities. The success of the program is reflected in our placements. Our graduates are currently on the faculties of Berkeley, UCLA, INSEAD, Northwestern, and other top universities.
The philosophy of the program is that in order to become an effective marketing scholar, a student must develop a thorough understanding of marketing institutions and problems, the methodological capability to analyze those problems rigorously, and the ability to communicate research findings via writing and oral presentation. The PhD Program in Marketing at Rotman is structured to accomplish these objectives. It consists of a course-work component and an original research component. It can only be done on a full-time basis.
Marketing, by its very nature, is a rich field, which one can approach from a variety of perspectives, and from a variety of disciplines. For example, one can take the consumer’s perspective and ask how consumers make decisions about which brand to buy, how they respond to advertising, where they shop, etc. Alternatively, one could take the firm’s perspective and ask how firms decide what products and services to offer, and how they brand, price, and distribute them. Since these perspectives are fundamental to the field, we require every student to take a two-course sequence of marketing theory seminars, one focusing on Consumer Behavior and the other focusing on Marketing Strategy. In addition, students should take advantage of the variety of seminars offered elsewhere in the School, and in the University (for example, in the Economics and Psychology departments), to develop a broad understanding of the subject.
Besides breadth, to be successful as a marketing scholar, it is important to acquire depth of expertise in an area, so the program offers two specializations. Students interested in the psychological aspects of consumer behavior should specialize in Consumer Behaviour. Students with a quantitative background who are interested in the economic aspects of a firm’s behaviour should specialize in Marketing Strategy.
To develop a strong disciplinary base, students take minors in economics or psychology depending on their specialization. This involves taking several doctoral-level courses from the economics or psychology departments. Rotman marketing faculty have close ties with faculty in these departments, and several of them have a keen interest in marketing problems (e.g., Lynn Hasher in Psychology and Eugene Choo in Economics).
The original research component of the program consists of first and second-year papers, and a doctoral dissertation. Students are encouraged to work closely with faculty in developing these papers. Both theoretical and empirical research are encouraged. The marketing area has access to several large databases containing marketing data and maintains a behavioral laboratory for experiments involving human subjects.