Our Marketing PhD Program gives you a strong theoretical foundation and builds your empirical skills.

You’ll have the flexibility to explore marketing through Chicago Booth while taking courses across the university in psychology, sociology, economics, computer science, and statistics. You’ll also have access to computer science courses at Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago (TTIC).

The doctoral program defines marketing broadly as the study of the interface between firms, competitors, and consumers. This includes but is not limited to consumer preferences, consumer demand and decision-making, strategic interaction of firms, pricing, promotion, targeting, product design/positioning, and channel issues.

Our Distinguished Marketing Faculty

Chicago Booth’s marketing faculty serve as advisors, mentors, and collaborators to doctoral students.

Alumni Success

PhD alumni in marketing go on to successful careers at top institutions of higher education across the world.

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Katherine Burson, MBA ’04, PhD ’04

Associate Professor of Marketing
Ross School of Business University of Michigan 

Katherine Burson studies judgment and decision-making in consumer behavior such as systematic biases in self-assessment, biases in numerical processing, and the antecedents of the biases. She has a PhD in marketing.

Katherine Burson, MBA ’04, PhD ’04
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Sridhar Narayanan, PhD ’05

Associate Professor of Marketing
Stanford Graduate School of Business

Sridhar Narayanan’s research focuses on empirical analysis of marketing problems. He has studied problems such as online advertising, peer effects, and learning. Currently, his research is focused on online advertising and modernization of small retail businesses. His PhD is in marketing.

Sridhar Narayanan, PhD ’05

The PhD Experience at Booth

Rima Toure-Tillery, PhD ’13, talks about the Booth faculty’s open-door approach to PhD students.

A Network of Support

At Booth, you’ll have access to the resources of several research centers that help to fund marketing PhD research, host innovative conferences and workshops, and serve as focal points for collaboration and innovation.

James M. Kilts Center for Marketing
The Kilts Center facilitates faculty research, supports innovations in the marketing curriculum, funds scholarships for MBA students, and creates engaging programs aimed at enhancing the careers of students and alumni.

Center for Decision Research
Devoted to the study of how individuals form judgments and make decisions, the CDR supports research that examines the processes by which intuition, reasoning, and social interaction produce beliefs, judgments, and choices.

Scholarly Journals

Chicago Booth is responsible for the creation and leadership of some of the most prestigious academic journals today. Quantitative Marketing and Economics, for example, which focuses on problems important to marketing using a quantitative approach, was founded in 2003 by Peter E. Rossi, MBA ’80, PhD ’84.

See the full list of academic journals at Booth.

 

Spotlight on Current Research

Our faculty and PhD students continually produce high-level research. The Chicago Booth Review frequently highlights their contributions in marketing.

Meet Our Students

PhD students in marketing choose Chicago Booth because our multidisciplinary approach gives them the tools and training for a successful career. Recent dissertations have examined everything from customer retention and consumer purchasing decisions to the economics of retail food waste. Recent graduates have accepted positions at leading research institutions, including UCLA and Columbia University, and have gone on to data science careers in industry.

Program Expectations and Requirements

The Stevens Program at Booth is a full-time program. Students generally complete the majority of coursework and examination requirements within the first two years of studies and begin work on their dissertation during the third year.

For details, see General Examination Requirements by Area in the Stevens Program Guidebook.
Download the Guidebook