PhD in Management Science, Marketing Concentration

The PhD in Management Science with a marketing concentration trains students to become the next-generation of marketing faculty at business schools in leading research-oriented universities. Students are trained in advanced techniques in marketing and allied disciplinary areas to deal with substantive problems, both theoretical and applied, in the field of marketing. Graduates develop a research specialization and have a clear perspective on marketing issues.

Why UTD?

Research Strength

UTD marketing faculty are well-regarded for their research and are highly ranked based on research publications.
See research rankings below.

Quantitative Focus

Large marketing faculty working on variety of quantitative research makes UTD ideal for students with a quantitative bent to explore and discover their research interests.
See faculty information below.

Rigorous Training

Through coursework and mentoring, UTD marketing faculty rigorously train students to develop high quality research and become successful scholars.
See recent student research publications below.

Marketing PhD Program Quick Facts

Admission Procedures

Students who apply to the program should have at least a bachelor’s degree from an accredited university by the time of expected enrollment in our program. While many successful applicants have a master’s degree, this is not a requirement for admission. Admission decisions are based on grades, graduate examination test scores, letters of reference (at least three with at least two from academic professionals), a written statement of objectives, and other relevant information available at the time of admission.

We are especially interested in students with strong initiative, curiosity, creative thinking, and a strong aptitude for quantitative research. Prior knowledge of quantitative topics such as linear algebra, calculus, probability will be particularly relevant.

The Jindal School of Management starts making first-round admission decisions on December 9, therefore it is best to complete the entire application process no later than December 8. While applications will be accepted after that date, applying after December 8 may significantly lower your chance of acceptance. Applications for admission can be made using the UT Dallas Graduate Application Web site.

Program Contact

Dr. Upender Subramanian

Dr. Upender Subramanian

PhD Area Coordinator, Marketing

upender@utdallas.edu | (972) 883-6525 | JSOM 13.508

Faculty

The marketing area has 15 tenured and tenure-track faculty members. Faculty research is broad using Bayesian statistics, behavioral economics, econometrics, empirical analysis, experimental economics, game theory and machine learning.

The faculty are recognized for their research and occupy editorial positions at leading journals, including a department editor of top journal Management Science, three associate editors of major marketing journals, and several others on the editorial boards of these journals.

Tenure and tenure-track Marketing faculty: Khai Chiong, Sanjay Jain, Joonhwi Joo, Tongil Kim, Xinyao Kong Dmitri Kuksov, Nanda Kumar, Samir Mamadehussene, B.P.S. Murthi, Ram Rao, Brian Ratchford, Upender Subramanian, Shervin Tehrani, Ying Xie & Wensi Zhang.

Get familiar with faculty research

Research Rankings

UTD Marketing faculty are highly active researchers, presently ranked #4 worldwide in quantitative marketing research based on publications in top two quantitative marketing journals Marketing Science and Journal of Marketing Research.

Worldwide Business School Ranking Based on Research Contribution in Marketing Science and Journal of Marketing Research (2017 – 2021)
Rank University Research Score Articles
1 Columbia University (Columbia Business School) 20.07 42
2 University of Chicago (Booth School of Business) 15.86 36
3 University of Pennsylvania (The Wharton School) 14.83 29
4 University of Texas at Dallas (Naveen Jindal School of Management) 12.08 21
5 Harvard University (Harvard Business School) 10.16 19
6 Washington University at St. Louis   (Olin School of Business) 9.25 20
7 New York University (NYU (Leonard N Stern School of Business) 8.67 20
8 University of Maryland at College Park (Robert H. Smith School of Business) 8.66 20
9 University of Michigan at Ann Arbor   (Ross School of Business) 8.64 19
10 Indiana University at Bloomington (Kelley School of Business) 8.50 15

Research scores are calculated from The UTD Top 100 Business School Research Rankings™.

Doctoral Student Publications on Marketing Topics

Students are actively encouraged to publish while in the program, and often collaborate on faculty research papers with UTD professors. A list of Marketing PhD current student and graduate publications with UTD faculty is as follows (student names in bold):

Manish Gangwar, Nanda Kumar and Ram C Rao (2021). “Pricing Under Dynamic Competition when Loyal Consumers Stockpile” Marketing Science

Sanjay Jain and Kun Qian (2021), “Compensating Online Producers: A Theoretical Analysis”, Management Science.

Dmitri Kuksov and Mohammad Zia (2021), “Benefits of Customer Loyalty in Markets with Endogenous Search Costs”, Marketing Science.

Xiaolin Li, Chenxi Liao and Ying Xie (2021), “Digital Piracy, Creative Productivity, and Customer Care Efforts”, Marketing Science

Jayarajan Samuel, Eric Zheng and Ying Xie, “Value of Local Showrooms to Online Competitors” MIS Quarterly.

Yiyi Li and Ying Xie (2020), ““Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words? An Empirical Study of Imagery Content and Social Media Engagement”, Journal of Marketing Research

Ye Qiu and Ram C Rao (2020), “Increasing Retailer Loyalty Through Use of Cash Back Rebate Sites”, Marketing Science.

Mina Ameri, Elizabeth Honka and Ying Xie (2019) “Word-of-Mouth, Observed Adoptions, and Anime Watching Decisions: The Role of the Personal versus the Community Network” 2019, Marketing Science.

Harish Guda and Upender Subramanian (2019) “Your Uber is Arriving: Managing On-Demand Workers through Surge Pricing, Information Sharing and Worker Incentives” Management Science.

Dmitri Kuksov, and Chenxi Liao (2019) “Opinion Leaders and Product Variety,” Marketing Science.

Yiyi Li, Ying Xie and Eric Zheng (2019), “Modeling Multi-Channel Advertising Attribution Across Competitors” MIS Quarterly.

Mohammad Zia and Ram C Rao (2019) “Search Advertising: Budget Allocation Across Search Engines”, Marketing Science.

Dmitri Kuksov and Chenxi Liao (2018) “When Showrooming Increases Retailer Profit,” Journal of Marketing Research.

Juncai Jiang, Nanda Kumar and Brian Ratchford (2017), “Price Matching Guarantees with Endogenous Search”, Management Science.

Dmitri Kuksov, Ashutosh Prasad, and Mohammad Zia (2017) “In-Store Advertising by Competitors,” Marketing Science.


Student Placements

We strive to help our students obtain the best placements and expect they will emerge as leaders in marketing science. At the same time, we place our students in both academic and non-academic positions keeping in mind the individual student’s interests.

Selected Placements – PhD in Management Science, Marketing Concentration
First Name Last Name Grad Year Placement Title
Ashutosh Bhave 2022 University of Arkansas Assistant Professor
Kun Qian 2022 Southern University of Science and Technology Assistant Professor
Keyvan Kasaian 2021 Albion College Assistant Professor
Sriharsha Kamatham 2020 University of Manitoba Assistant Professor
Bo Ram Lim 2019 University of Kansas Assistant Professor
Chenxi Liao 2019 Chinese University of Hong Kong Assistant Professor
Fereshteh Zihagh 2019 University of New Haven Assistant Professor
Ye Qiu 2018 Tongji University Assistant Professor
Mina Ameri 2018 University of Pittsburgh Assistant Professor
Ryan Freling 2017 Louisiana Tech Assistant Professor
Yiyi Li 2017 University of Delaware Assistant Professor
Mohammad Zia 2017 Chapman University Assistant Professor
Ali Bakhtiari 2016 Verizon Data Scientist
Meisam Hejazinia 2016 Sabre Airline Solutions Senior e-commerce data scientist
Jong Min Kim 2015 University of Science and Technology of China Assistant Professor
Aidin Tajzadeh Namin 2015 University of Idaho Assistant Professor
Parneet Pahwa 2015 University of Texas at Dallas Clinical Assistant Professor
César Zamudio 2013 Kent State University Assistant Professor
Juncai Jiang 2013 Virginia Tech Visiting Professor
Marina Girju 2012 DePaul University Assistant Professor
Sonika Singh 2012 University of Technology Sydney Lecturer
David Richardson 2011 Illinois Institute of Technology Assistant Professor
Sungha Jang 2011 Kent State University Assistant Professor

Degree Requirements

Students must complete at least 75 semester hours of approved graduate work before a degree may be conferred. Credit may be granted for graduate courses taken elsewhere.

Calculus, matrix algebra, computer programming and statistics are prerequisites for the doctoral program – every admitted student is responsible for ensuring he/she has satisfied these prerequisite requirements before joining the program.

Doctoral students in Management Science benefit from an exposure to multiple functional areas in management. To ensure this benefit, students who enter the program without an MBA (or equivalent degree) are required to complete a combined minimum of four courses (at the master’s or doctoral level) in at least three functional areas. This cross-functional exposure is particularly useful for students engaging in cross-functional research, in positioning their research for wider appeal, and for effectively teaching business school students with diverse specializations.

The Management Science PhD core curriculum consists of a minimum of 9 courses.

Please visit the Management Science Degree Plan page for core and secondary core course requirements.

Students are required to take at least four doctoral-level seminars in marketing.

Students will be asked to take other advanced graduate level courses in statistics, economics and operations research as appropriate to their program. They may also be asked to undertake independent study on one or more appropriate topics. Finally they are required to take a course in written and oral communication provided by the school during their second summer.

PhD in Marketing students take a written preliminary exam at the end of their first year in the program over a set of core methodology courses (ECON 6309 Econometrics I, MECO 6315 Statistics, MECO 6345 Advanced Managerial Economics, MECO 6350 Game Theory, OPRE 7353 Optimization). The purpose of the exam is to assess the student’s degree of mastery of the research methods covered in the first year of course work. Students are also required to write an original research paper in their first summer.

As with the preliminary examination, the qualifying examination consists of the written exam taken in the summer at the end of the second year and an original research paper (second year paper) due August 31st. The written exam is designed to test the knowledge of the methodology and literature important for quantitative marketing research, and allows some degree of concentration in either primarily empirical or primarily analytical areas. The paper is expected to be presented at the beginning of the Fall semester of the third year.

PhD students must successfully complete the preliminary and qualifying examinations, respectively, to enter PhD candidacy. The area faculty will determine whether a student has successfully completed the exam requirements based on the student’s performance. Criteria to evaluate students may include results from the in-class written portion of the exams, quality of research papers and/or presentations, performance in special courses (e.g. seminar courses), satisfactory GPA as determined by area faculty, and other forms of assessment as required by the student’s area. An unsatisfactory performance in any one criteria for either the preliminary examination or the qualifying examination may result in dismissal from the program.

Once the student has passed qualifying exam and paper requirements, work on the dissertation can commence. The dissertation is written under the direction of the dissertation committee. Twelve to 24 semester hours may be granted for the dissertation toward the minimum 75-hour requirement for the degree. At a time mutually agreeable to the candidate and the dissertation committee, the candidate must orally defend the dissertation to the committee.

The Dissertation Proposal must be successfully defended at least one semester prior to the term of graduation. The requirements for the proposal defense should be discussed with the dissertation committee prior to scheduling the defense. Dissertation Proposal Defenses will be open to all faculty and PhD students of the Jindal School of Management.

student working on her UT Dallas application for Jindal School graduate admission on her laptop

Ready to start your PhD application?

Before you apply, get familiar with the admission requirements and application process for Jindal School PhD programs at UT Dallas.

How to Apply