Graduate

Marketing PhD Program

In the fall of 2010 the University of Wyoming opened its PhD program in Marketing with an emphasis on Sustainable Business Practice, becoming the first University in the Rocky Mountains to have such a program. The program is designed for students planning a career in academia, in which graduates are expected to make contributions to knowledge creation, although some students may choose to find careers in industry and government. The program offers students a highly textured doctoral curriculum that builds upon strengths of the department and the University of Wyoming community and cutting edge developments in the broad field of marketing scholarship. 

Program Goals

The mission of the program is to prepare students to excel at two primary academic roles: knowledge creation and knowledge dissemination. The program is designed to reflect the tradition of scholarly excellence already exemplified by other doctoral programs in the College of Business and the University. Our goals are to ensure that this tradition is maintained through the administration of the program, and strive for continuous improvement in training world-class researchers and teachers.

Departmental Climate

The PhD in Marketing aims to provide a collegial and supportive environment to students consistent with the climate on the University of Wyoming campus. The University of Wyoming positively supports interdisciplinary collaboration. The University is located in one of the United States' most beautiful, wild, and stimulating environments, which students are encouraged to discover. Faculty view their roles in the PhD program as mentors and advisors; our aim is to produce future colleagues.

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Admissions

We begin accepting applications in October for the following Fall semester, and the deadline for all application material has been extended to FEBRUARY 1st. A limited number of slots are available, and admission will be highly selective. Applicants meeting minimum standards in terms of admission requirements are not guaranteed admission. Those applicants who can clearly articulate career goals and whose interests closely align with those of our faculty in sustainable business practice, consumer culture theory, ethics, entrepreneurship, and macromarketing will be favored in the admission process.

Admissions Requirements

• B.A. and (be working toward or have completed) a Master's Degree from an accredited institution, preferably in business or a core social science discipline

• Completed application (i.e., all required materials submitted) on the UW Graduate Programs Applications system

• Copies of all undergraduate and graduate program transcripts scanned and uploaded to the UW system, and official transcripts from each post-secondary institution attended submitted to the UW admissions office

• A typical applicant will have a GRE score of 310 or a GMAT score of 650. A scanned copy of the unofficial results must be uploaded to the UW system, and official scores must be requested from the testing organization and sent to UW

• Three strong letters of recommendation from research-active academicians. The letters must be uploaded by the recommenders to the UW system in MS Word or PDF format. Please use this form

• A 500 word essay summarizing your interest in pursuing doctoral studies and speaking to questions or issues you wish to research. Linking your interest to those of UW marketing faculty members is recommended. This document must be uploaded to the UW system as an MS Word or PDF document

• For international students, Test of Foreign Language scores (TOEFL) are required. A scanned copy of the unofficial results must be uploaded to the UW system, and official scores must be submitted to UW from the testing organization

• A minimum TOEFL score of 76 (online) or 540 (paper) is required for admission

• $50 application fee paid to University Admissions

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Degree Requirements

Full-Time Requirement
For the typical student, the program requires a full-time commitment of four years. During the period that the student establishes residency, employment outside of the department is strongly discouraged. Only through exclusive commitment and substantial daily interaction with faculty and other graduate students can the student obtain the necessary skills to successfully meet the demands of a future academic career. Exceptions will be made for summer internships with a local business where interests in sustainability or other specialized interests are identified. Such internships will ideally involve research activity germane to the student's program of study.

Coursework
Coursework is categorized into marketing core, area of basic social science concentration, research methodology, and marketing pro-seminars. Students will take a minimum of

• 72 semester hours of credit at the 5000 level (i.e., master's) or above from UW or equivalent levels from another approved university.

• 12 hours of coursework to satisfy the marketing core requirement, and as many as an additional 6 hours as ad hoc marketing seminars are offered.

• 9 hours of courses in an outside elective area. Students will be encouraged to accumulate their hours in a core social science, statistical methods, or interdisciplinary studies in environmental and natural resources.

• 15 hours of research methods courses are required if pursuing a basic methods orientation; if pursuing a more mixed method option a student may add an additional 3 hours.

• 0-4 hours of coursework to satisfy the marketing proseminar requirement, depending on the level of proseminar activity available during the program.

First Year Paper
At the end of the first year, under the guidance of their advisors students will submit a targeted paper that focuses on a key area of research to faculty for review.

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PhD Marketing Courses

Marketing Theory	History and development of marketing thought
Behavioral Theory I	Psychological models in marketing
Behavioral Theory II	Anthropological and sociological models in marketing
Marketing Policy and Social Change	Sustainability, transformative consumer research, social marketing, social entrepreneurship, macromarketing, and related topics
Multivariate Modeling	SEM, conjoint analysis, logit modeling
Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis in Marketing

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Graduate Research Areas

Key substantive areas of research students in the PhD Program in Marketing with a sustainability emphasis may pursue include, but are not limited to:

• consumer voluntary simplicity and related movements, such as lifestyles for health and sustainability (LOHAS)

• corporate social responsibility

• development of subsistence or base-of-the-pyramid markets

• energy-, environment-, and society-friendly new product development

• fair trade and ethical marketing and consumerism

• green marketing

• managing economic, social, and natural turmoil or disasters

• product life cycle analysis

• quality of life and consumer welfare issues

• recycling and closed loop manufacturing

• resource-efficient logistics

• social entrepreneurship

• social marketing concerns

• sustainable labeling, packaging, and certification issues

• sustainable value chains etc

• transformative consumer research

• individual and community resilience