PhD Program Faculty Interests

Research in marketing focuses on three core areas:  consumer behavior, marketing management and strategy, and marketing models and quantitative methods (known colloquially as “behavioral”, “managerial” and “quant”). Below is a brief description of each of the areas, plus a list of our Marketing faculty who primarily conduct research in these areas. You can learn more about the specific research interests of faculty by visiting their web pages.

Consumer Behavior: This area focuses on developing theories to understand consumer behavior, drawing upon the literature in marketing as well as concepts and methods in psychology (including cognitive and social psychology). Topics include: How do consumers process information to make purchasing decisions? How does emotion affect the decision-making process? How do marketing tactics (such as advertising and pricing) affect consumer preference? What are the consequences for customer satisfaction? What are the implications for marketers and for public policy?

Faculty Members: Hans Baumgartner, Lisa E. Bolton, Sara Dommer,  Meg Meloy, and Karen Winterich

Marketing Management and Strategy: This area focuses on developing theories to understand firms and markets, with an emphasis on managerial and strategic issues, and draws upon theories and methods from industrial economics, strategic management, political science, and organizational behavior. Topics include: How do managers turn marketing information into marketing strategy? How do companies develop relationships with distributors? What organizational structures contribute to the success of a sales force?

Faculty Members: Gary Lilien, J. Andrew Petersen, Sotires Pagiavlas, Arvind Rangaswamy, and Stefan Wuyts

Marketing Models and Quantitative Methods: This area uses techniques from statistics, economics, computer science, management science, and operations research to develop quantitative models to solve marketing problems. Topics include: How can we mathematically calibrate the impact of marketing actions on consumer choice? How can we use audio and visual data to help managers optimize marketing decisions such as advertisement, product design, branding, retailing, customer management? How can we represent competitive positions of brands? How can a company optimally structure its new product pipeline? What is the optimal pricing strategy for a new product, and how should a company react to a competitor's price change?

Faculty Members: Min Ding, Duncan Fong, John Liechty, Gary Lilien, Sean Melessa, Arvind Rangaswamy, and Ning Zhong

The topics noted here are relatively broad and used for illustrative purposes. To better understand the research interests of our faculty, please visit individual faculty webpages on the Marketing Department website.

The marketing department works closely with the Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM) research center at Smeal.