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Curriculum & Coursework
Our programs are full-time degree programs which officially begin in August. Students are expected to complete their program in five years. Typically, the first two years are spent on coursework, at the end of which students take a field exam, and then another three years on dissertation research and writing.
The Marketing program draws on computer science, economics, behavioral science, and psychological methods to focus on marketing problems faced by the firm and its management. Through a combination of discipline- and field-based methods, the curriculum enables students to master concepts and research skills directly relevant to business problems. Candidates must come to understand the point of view of practicing managers and be able to bring theory and careful research to bear in illuminating important business problems.
The program requires a minimum of 13 semester-long doctoral courses. Students in the Marketing program are required to complete a year-long discipline sequence typically in microeconomics or psychology. They also complete courses in the areas of machine learning, computer science, statistics, research methods, academic field seminars, and two MBA elective curriculum courses. In addition to HBS courses, students often take courses at other Harvard Schools and MIT.
Research & Dissertation
Students in Marketing begin research in their first year typically by working with a faculty member. By their third and fourth years, most students are launched on a solid research and publication stream. The dissertation may take the form of three publishable papers or one longer dissertation.
Recent examples of doctoral thesis research include: The effects of brand extensions on the value of parent brands; Multi-method examination of the consumption of “knockoffs” of high status brands, and the counter-intuitive positive outcomes for consumer-brand relationships; Competitive analysis of pricing and quality decisions in industries with strictly complimentary products; The psychological effects of pricing, and how these affect consumers and firms; and "Choice amnesia," the motivated forgetting of difficult decisions.
Mengjie "Magie" Cheng
Ta-Wei "David" Huang
“ Finding an advisor who you really click with and who is willing to support your research interests is absolutely key. ”
Current HBS Faculty
- Tomomichi Amano
- Eva Ascarza
- Max H. Bazerman
- David E. Bell
- Alison Wood Brooks
- Julian De Freitas
- Rohit Deshpande
- Anita Elberse
- Sunil Gupta
- Ayelet Israeli
- Leslie K. John
- Elizabeth A. Keenan
- Edward McFowland III
- Navid Mojir
- Das Narayandas
- Michael I. Norton
- V. Kasturi Rangan
- Isamar Troncoso
- Jeremy Yang
- Shunyuan Zhang
Current Marketing Students
- Stuti Agarwal
- Mengjie (Magie) Cheng
- Jingpeng Hong
- Ta-Wei (David) Huang
- Jimin Nam
- Lucy Shen
- Sihan Zhai
Current HBS Faculty & Students by Interest
Recent placement, emily prinsloo, 2023, ximena garcia-rada, 2021, serena hagerty, 2022, dafna goor, 2020, byungyeon kim, 2022, grant donnelly, 2018.
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Marketing. The doctoral program in Marketing draws on a variety of underlying disciplines to research important marketing management problems centered on the immediate and future needs and wants of customers. Students in the marketing program work closely with faculty in the Marketing Unit and engage in a broad spectrum of disciplinary bases.