Marketing

PhD Application

Marketing scholars explore the societal and managerial processes by which goods, services, and information are exchanged. Research provides insights into how companies serve customers and approaches for measuring the impact of marketing efforts.

Marketing PhDs are separated into two broad sub-fields: quantitative marketing and consumer behavior. Theoretical modeling within quantitative marketing borrows from computer science, microeconomics, and statistics to offer guidelines for a firm’s marketing strategies. Experimental work in consumer behavior aims to understand the psychological and social motivations behind individuals’ responses to various stimuli.

The doctoral program in Marketing draws on a variety of underlying disciplines to research marketing management problems centered on the immediate and future needs and wants of customers.

A doctoral student explains his research to member of the faculty.

Prospective students will apply to the PhD in Business Administration and select Marketing as their area of study. Students work closely with faculty in the Marketing Unit.

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.

Program Requirements

Research & Dissertation

Students in Marketing begin research in the summer preceding their first year by working with an HBS faculty member. Over the first two years in the program, students are encouraged to explore their research interests as they complete relevant coursework. By third year, students are working on dissertation research, and by fourth year, students are launched into a solid research and publication stream, typically developing three publishable papers by the end of the program.

Recent questions students have explored 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; and

  • the psychological effects of pricing, and how these affect consumers and firms.

Faculty Advising

Students in the Marketing program frequently pursue research that is interdisciplinary in nature, often bridging multiple fields within and beyond business. To support this work, students are encouraged to collaborate with tenure-track faculty in the Marketing Unit as well as with scholars across Harvard Business School and Harvard University. Marketing students commonly work with HBS faculty in units such as Entrepreneurial Management; Negotiations, Organizations & Markets; Organizational Behavior; and Technology and Operations Management. Many also engage with faculty at the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Harvard Economics Department. Reviewing recent dissertation committees can offer insight into how students assemble interdisciplinary advising teams.

Finding an advisor who you really click with and who is willing to support your research interests is absolutely key.

Ximena Garcia-Rada

Ximena Garcia-Rada, PhD, Marketing, 2021

Student Profiles

More Profiles

Current PhD Students

Placement

Harvard Business School PhD graduates are in demand for a range of roles in academia, industry, and government. The majority of our graduates enter academia. Others work in industry in economic consulting firms, tech companies, think tanks, or in governmental roles.

Ta-Wei David Huang, 2025

Initial Placement: National University of Singapore, Marketing Department
Dissertation: Three Essays on Data-Driven Personalization and Targeting for Marketing Intervention
Advisors: Eva Ascarza (Chair), Sunil Gupta, Jeremy Yang, José R. Zubizarreta


Jimin Nam, 2024

Initial Placement: Ohio State University, Max M. Fisher College of Business, Department of Marketing and Logistics
Update: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Marketing Department
Dissertation: Communicating with consumers: How firms’ responses to societal change influence consumer behavior
Advisors: Michael I. Norton (Chair), Leslie K. John, and Elizabeth Keenan


Emily Prinsloo, 2023

Initial Placement: Rice University, Jones Graduate School of Business
Dissertation: Three Essays on Cost-benefit Trade-offs in Individual and Organizational Decision-Making
Advisors: Michael I. Norton , Leslie K. John, Elizabeth Keenan, and Joachim Vosgerau


Serena Hagerty, 2022

Initial Placement: University of Virginia, Darden School of Business
Dissertation: Who deserves what? How beliefs about fairness and inequality influence social judgment
Advisors: Michael I. Norton (Chair), Kate Barasz, and Debora Thompson


Byungyeon Kim, 2022

Initial Placement: University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management
Dissertation: Essays on Sales Management
Advisors: Doug Chung, Sunil Gupta, and Elie Ofek


Ximena Garcia-Rada, 2021

Initial Placement: Texas A&M University, Mays Business School
Dissertation: Consumer Behavior in Close Relationships
Advisors: Michael I. Norton (Chair), Leslie K. John, Ryan W. Buell, Rebecca Ratner, and John T. Gourville


Dafna Goor, 2020

Initial Placement: London Business School
Dissertation: Branding in the New World: How Accessible Information, Social Media, and Changing Values Impact Symbolic Consumption
Advisors: Anat Keinan (Co-Chair), Michael I. Norton (Co-Chair), Carey Morewedge, and John T. Gourville

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