You are right that most graduate programs will place buyer behaviour
or consumer psychology as a component of their PhD offering (e.g.
seminars, special courses, and "major areas of concentration"). At the
same time, many business schools equate Marketing with the analysis
buyer behaviour. You may therefore also want to consider such
programs.
Here are some PhD programs in consumer behaviour:
* University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (
http://gsbwww.uchicago.edu/research/mkt/Phd/phdpro.html )
"Marketing Ph.D. program specialize in one of the following three
areas.
(1) Consumer Behavior
(2) Economics
(3) Econometrics & Statistics (Quantitative Methods)
Students specializing in Consumer Behavior take courses not only in
the GSB but also in Psychology, Sociology."
* Berkeley Haas school of business (
http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/~market/program.html )
"each marketing program is designed to provide a broad exposure to the
advanced literature in each field. Students then select an area for
intensive study and develop a program that trains them to comprehend
and perform cutting-edge research in that field. The program includes
a series of marketing Ph.D. seminars and the development of expertise
in a particular social science discipline and technical skill
appropriate to the analysis of the problems to be studied. The field
offers four Doctoral Seminars in Marketing (BA269A-D): Consumer
Behavior, Choice Models, Marketing Strategy, and Special Topics in
Marketing."
* The University of Texas at Austin (
http://www.bus.utexas.edu/dept/marketing/phd/ )
Department of Marketing - Areas of Specialization
"Although each course of study is tailored to meet the unique needs of
each individual student, a doctoral program in marketing is generally
structured around one of four areas of specialization. These areas
include buyer behavior (both consumer and industrial), international
marketing, marketing management and strategy, and analytical and
quantitative methods."
The business school has a Behavioral Laboratory (
http://www.bus.utexas.edu/phd/research/behav_lab.asp )
* University of Wisconsin (
http://sohe.wisc.edu/secondTierText.asp?ExtCat=4027 )
MS/PhD in Consumer Behavior and Family Economics, Department of Human
Ecology
http://www.wisc.edu/grad/gs/programs/majors/549.html
* University of Illinois at Chicago (
http://www.uic.edu/cba/phd/marketing.htm )
"The area of inquiry in marketing, offered by the Department of
Managerial Studies, emphasizes a variety of sub-areas for in-depth
study, including but not limited to consumer behavior, international
marketing, entrepreneurship, product development, choice models, and
information processing."
* Ohio State - Marketing PhD (
http://fisher.osu.edu/marketing/programs/phd_policies_market.htm )
" The curriculum is structured into three areas: the major, the second
field and research tools. The courses are: Marketing Thought, Consumer
Behavior, Logistics, Marketing Models, Marketing Strategy, Marketing
Colloquium.
Each of these courses will trace development of thought in marketing
to its current state using structure provided by philosophy of science
where appropriate. (Program also requires two independent studies. and
a research proposal)"
* Purdue University - School of Consumer and Family Science (
http://www.cfs.purdue.edu/conscirt/My_Web-Navarre/GRADUATE_PROGRAM/csr_graduate_program.htm
)
MS/PhD in Consumer Behavior
* University of Georgia - College of Family and Consumer Sciences (
http://www.fcs.uga.edu/ )
Splits focus into types of products and services (Foods & Nutrition,
Housing and Consumer, Textile Sciences, Child & Family Development)
* University of Oregon (
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/gencat/coldep/homed/hdfs/hdfs_info.html#Graduate_Programs
)
PhD in Family and Consumer Science Department - Human Development and
Family Studies
* University of Florida ( http://www.cba.ufl.edu/mkt/phd/program.HTML
)
"The Department recommends that students select one of three areas of
study. Students concentrating on consumer behavior will take seminars
that provide a background on cognitive and social psychology plus
methods courses that develop experimental design and analysis skills."
The other two areas of study are managerial topics (such as
organizational behavior and strategy) and quantitative modeling.
Top Business schools who consider Marketing and consumer behaviour to
be pretty much equivalent. They encourage interdisciplinary work with
their Psychology (and other) departments.
* Northwestern University (
http://www.kellogg.nwu.edu/marketing/doctoral/index.htm )
"The Marketing program is interdisciplinary. Faculty interests include
Anthropological studies of cultural meaning, Behavioral decision
theory, pychometrics and causal modeling "
* Stanford business school (
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/phd/fields/marketing/index.html )
Sample Stanford Bschool Marketing dissertations include:
* Sang-Hoon Kim - '00 (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and
Technology): Modeling Buyers' Upgrading Behavior on Successive
Versions of High-Tech Products: Theoretical and Empirical Analyses
* Donnel Briley - '97 (Hong Kong University of Science and
Technology): Influence of Collectivism on Consumer Choice
* David Bell - '96 (UCLA): Consumer Response to Retailer Pricing
Strategies
* University of Michigan (
http://www.bus.umich.edu/prostudents/phd/areas_of_study.html UMich
definition of marketing:
"The field of marketing focuses on the basic questions of how
consumers make choices and how the companies that compete for the
business of those consumers ought to design their marketing programs."
* UPenn Wharton business school (
http://www-marketing.wharton.upenn.edu/programs/phd_program.html )
"The seminars [ eg MKTG 963 Consumer Behavior ] involve in-depth
consideration of various aspects of marketing. Ordinarily, a student
taking these seminars will have already completed some work in
quantitative methods and, perhaps, in behavioral sciences as well. The
general objectives of these seminars are to: (1) discuss contemporary
research problems and relevant literature, and (2) describe concepts
and techniques for handling the research questions, current and
future, in each field."
Ultimately, your PhD research will define where your focus lies.
It might be in your best interests to apply to one of the top business
schools and work with professors who are actively involved in the
specific aspect of buyer behaviour you are interested in.
I hope this answers your request.
PS:
Some other universities whose faculty research may be of interest to
you:
* Case Western University (
http://www.weatherhead.cwru.edu/degree/phd_mgmt/ )
* University of Arizona (
http://www.cob.asu.edu/mkt/phd_curriculum.cfm )
"The Marketing department research orientation spans a broad scope of
topics including Consumer behavior"
* Vanderbilt University ( http://mba.vanderbilt.edu/phd/marketing.cfm
)
Marketing Specialization Courses include Buyer Behavior, Online
Consumer Behavior
* University of Connecticut (
http://www.sba.uconn.edu/PHD/Concentrations/MktgPhd.htm )
* University of California, Riverside - A. Gary Anderson Graduate
School of Management ( http://www.consumerpsychologist.com/ )
FYI, US News ranks the following top Economic Sociology programs in
the USA (for 2003):
1. Stanford University (CA)
2. University of California–Berkeley
3. Princeton University (NJ)
4. Cornell University (NY)
University of Wisconsin–Madison |
Request for Answer Clarification by
tpn-ga
on
13 May 2002 07:52 PDT
The information that comes closest to what I am looking for is the
material listed for Chicago, Florida, and UT Austin, which indicate
certain marketing programs have "official" specialties in Consumer
Behavior, which involve coursework in Psychology. The "Consumer
Science" PhD programs are a somewhat different breed of doctoral
program, but still somewhat relevant. As all marketing departments
offer couses in Consumer Behavior, the listing of such courses in some
schools is not that helpful.
What does seem to be missing are any programs that involve an official
relationship of Marketing and Psychology departments. This may very
likely be missing because there are no such programs! As
clarification, can you confirm that this is the case, that is, that
outside of a generic option at a university to obtain a major from
"Department A" and a minor from "Department B," or even the generic
option to obtain a master's degree from "Department A" and a PhD from
"Department B," there are no graduate programs that officially combine
graduate coursework from marketing and psychology departments
resulting in a PhD program?
|
Clarification of Answer by
waggawa-ga
on
14 May 2002 10:14 PDT
Hi again, TPN
I only saw two offer PhD programs specific to Consumer Behaviour that
sound like what you're looking for: Purdue (MS/PhD in Consumer
Behavior - Consumer Sciences and Retailing Graduate Program,
http://www.cfs.purdue.edu/conscirt/My_Web-Navarre/GRADUATE_PROGRAM/csr_graduate_program.htm
) and Wisconsin (MS/PhD in Consumer Behavior and Family Economics,
Department of Human Ecology, http://sohe.wisc.edu/depts/CS/GRAD.HTML
).
University of Oregon's PhD in Family and Consumer Science (
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/gencat/coldep/homed/hdfs/hdfs_info.html#Graduate_Programs
) sounds like a modernized home economics program.
Note, Purdue's Consumer behaviour program is different from it's PhD
in Marketing at the Krannert Bschool (
http://www.mgmt.purdue.edu/programs/phd/degree_programs/Intro_to_Marketing.htm
-- where “Students learn theoretical models and their empirical
applications related to consumer behavior, organization buying
behavior, pricing, product design, advertising, promotion, sales
force, distribution, new product planning, marketing planning, and
strategy decisions in their doctoral coursework in Marketing.”
University of Michigan's Marketing PhD program professes to be truly
interdisciplinary, although it does not formally list a link to their
Psych department. From their Web site (
http://www.bus.umich.edu/prostudents/phd/areas_of_study.html ):
“Faculty research is both behavioral and quantitative, and neither a
psychological nor a microeconomic/modeling paradigm dominates. Indeed,
much of the work done here combines both approaches, and students are
encouraged to draw on the strengths of relevant University departments
as they develop their own interests.”
Michigan's business school also offers students an opportunity to
create an Individualized Program PhD (
http://www.bus.umich.edu/prostudents/phd/indiv_prog.html )
“Students work with faculty advisors to construct a customized program
that draws on the strengths of the Business School, the University and
the student’s background.” Therefore, you could create this explicit
link between the two departments (Psych and Marketing) there.
As you noted, Chicago and UTexas at Austin's Marketing PhD's have
specializations in Consumer Behaviour. Although you pointed Florida's
program out, it sounds to me that the Florida program does not go as
in-depth into the consumer behaviour focus: “our students often
supplement their marketing coursework with seminars in the departments
of education, economics, management, psychology, and statistics.”
(Sounds like a few supporting classes only, in contrast to Texas' core
Buyer Behaviour seminar and Tools courses in Behavioural Science,
followed by a track of Buyer Behaviour courses (12-18 hours in the
second year). See http://www.bus.utexas.edu/dept/marketing/phd/descript.asp
Otherwise, the remaining programs are either in the Marketing
Departments with supporting courses (e.g. minors or optional
supplementary coursework -- usually just 2 classes) in Psychology, or
in the Psychology department with supporting courses in Marketing
(ditto).
I don't believe I listed programs of the latter variety before, so
here they are, for your reference:
Ohio State - Social Psychology PhD (http://www.psy.ohio-state.edu/ )
"Main areas of emphasis: attitudes and persuasion, social cognition,
attribution, political pyschology, intergroup relations and
personality processes and individual differences. Applied
opportunities and training are also available in consumer psychology
and health psychology."
(vs. Ohio State's Marketing PhD,
http://fisher.osu.edu/marketing/programs/phd_policies_market.htm )
NYU - Social Psychology PhD (
http://www.psych.nyu.edu/research/sp/grad.html#overview )
|
Clarification of Answer by
waggawa-ga
on
14 May 2002 10:21 PDT
PS: in further support of the Purdue, and Wisconsin programs (I would
also encourage you to look closer at Michigan)
Purdue University - School of Consumer and Family Science
MS/PhD in Consumer Behavior - Consumer Sciences and Retailing Graduate
Program
“The primary focus for the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in consumer behavior
is the interdisciplinary study of consumer participation in the
marketplace. A goal of research in consumer behavior is to employ
theories from basic disciplines (especially sociology, psychology,
economics, and marketing) to the study of the decision process,
activities, and influences while individuals engage in the evaluation,
acquisition, use of, and disposition of consumer goods and services.”
University of Wisconsin - MS/PhD in Consumer Behavior and Family
Economics, Department of Human Ecology
"The Consumer Science Department offers an interdisciplinary approach
to consumer economics, consumer behavior, family resource management,
retailing, public policy issues and historical consumer issues. The
Consumer Science major meets the needs of students interested in
qualifying for employment or graduate study in business, economics,
finance, consumer law, specialized areas of family and consumer
finance, or family economics. [...]
"The Consumer Behavior and Family Economics Graduate Program (MS/PhD)
emphasizes consumers as individuals and household members. The program
explores consumers' interactions with the marketplace and the public
sector.
"Faculty members are trained in a variety of disciplines including
economics, sociology, retailing, history of medicine, and family
ecology. These backgrounds contribute to the strong interdisciplinary
research and training program involving all aspects of consumer
behavior and family economics. "
|
