social marketing phd scholarship

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Curriculum & Coursework

Our programs are full-time degree programs which officially begin in August. Students are expected to complete their program in five years. Typically, the first two years are spent on coursework, at the end of which students take a field exam, and then another three years on dissertation research and writing.

The Marketing program draws on computer science, economics, behavioral science, and psychological methods to focus on marketing problems faced by the firm and its management. Through a combination of discipline- and field-based methods, the curriculum enables students to master concepts and research skills directly relevant to business problems. Candidates must come to understand the point of view of practicing managers and be able to bring theory and careful research to bear in illuminating important business problems.

The program requires a minimum of 13 semester-long doctoral courses. Students in the Marketing program are required to complete a year-long discipline sequence typically in microeconomics or psychology. They also complete courses in the areas of machine learning, computer science, statistics, research methods, academic field seminars, and two MBA elective curriculum courses. In addition to HBS courses, students often take courses at other Harvard Schools and MIT.

Research & Dissertation

Students in Marketing begin research in their first year typically by working with a faculty member. By their third and fourth years, most students are launched on a solid research and publication stream. The dissertation may take the form of three publishable papers or one longer dissertation.

Recent examples of doctoral thesis research include: The effects of brand extensions on the value of parent brands; Multi-method examination of the consumption of “knockoffs” of high status brands, and the counter-intuitive positive outcomes for consumer-brand relationships; Competitive analysis of pricing and quality decisions in industries with strictly complimentary products; The psychological effects of pricing, and how these affect consumers and firms; and "Choice amnesia," the motivated forgetting of difficult decisions.

Mengjie "Magie" Cheng

Ta-Wei "David" Huang

“ Finding an advisor who you really click with and who is willing to support your research interests is absolutely key. ”

Current HBS Faculty

• Tomomichi Amano
• Eva Ascarza
• Max H. Bazerman
• David E. Bell
• Alison Wood Brooks
• Julian De Freitas
• Rohit Deshpande
• Anita Elberse
• Sunil Gupta
• Ayelet Israeli
• Leslie K. John
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• Navid Mojir
• Das Narayandas
• Michael I. Norton
• V. Kasturi Rangan
• Isamar Troncoso
• Jeremy Yang
• Shunyuan Zhang

Current Marketing Students

• Stuti Agarwal
• Mengjie (Magie) Cheng
• Jingpeng Hong
• Ta-Wei (David) Huang
• Jimin Nam
• Lucy Shen
• Sihan Zhai

Current HBS Faculty & Students by Interest

Recent placement, emily prinsloo, 2023, ximena garcia-rada, 2021, serena hagerty, 2022, dafna goor, 2020, byungyeon kim, 2022, grant donnelly, 2018.

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Purpose of Finance course wins top Teaching award and a study on paedophile hunters wins Academic Research award, while Cambridge Judge is Highly Commended for School-wide activities in the Financial Times awards for business education responsibility and impact.

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Exploring the rise of the global B Corp movement

The B Corp movement is helping to shift the focus of capitalism from shareholders to all stakeholders: find out how Cambridge fits in.

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We have faculty, who can speak on many current UK and global issues, and are happy to be contacted by journalists.

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Join us in achieving real world impact

We invite you to invest in our future and help us to remain at the forefront of global business research and education.

PhD & research …

PhD & research masters

Preparing you for an exciting and rewarding academic career with our fully-funded PhD programme. Join one of our 4 research masters programmes, each an integral part of a route to the PhD.

Why a CJBS PhD?

Accounting PhD pathway

Business Economics PhD pathway

Finance PhD pathway

Marketing PhD pathway

Operations and Technology Management PhD pathway

Organisational Behaviour PhD pathway

Organisational Theory and Information Systems PhD pathway

• Strategic Management PhD pathway overview
• PhD pathways overview
• Master of Research (MRes)
• Financing your PhD
• Current students
• Job market candidates
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• The Business Doctorate

The Cambridge Judge PhD programme will: 

• Prepare you for an exciting and rewarding academic career in a world-leading business school.  
• Enable you to research independently and contribute to important ongoing debates. 
• Empower you to impact society through your research and deep engagement with business.  

Masters + PhD structure

Our PhD programme at Cambridge Judge Business School, starts with one of our 9-month research masters degrees, followed by a PhD degree of 3-4 years.  

From the start of your masters degree, you’ll join one of 8 PhD pathways. Each leads you to specialise in a particular discipline of Management Studies.

Explore our pathways

Hello, I’m Professor Jennifer Howard-Grenville, and I’m the [former] director of our PhD programme here at Cambridge Judge Business School. I’m glad you’re exploring the possibility of a PhD. And we’d like to tell you a little bit about how our programme works. The goal of the PhD is to train students who are aiming to become research oriented faculty members at one of the world’s leading business schools. We also aim to help you develop your own independent research and contribute to lively academic debates in the field of management and business.

Finally, it’s important in our programme that you develop research that has an impact on society through your deep engagement with real world business and organisational problems. It’s really important to know that we operate a little differently from some other programmes, and we do not have direct entry to our PhD programme. This is because the PhD is part of a five-year programme of study, which begins with one of our master’s degrees, either the MPhil or the MRes degree.

On your MPhil or MRes year, you’ll learn essential theories and methods needed to conduct research for PhD. As well, you will have a chance to explore if a PhD in a career as a research academic is the right one for you. When you complete an MPhil or an MRes with us, we also get to know you and you get to know us, meaning that in the first year of your PhD, you hit the ground running conducting research, while you also learn some additional essential methods and research literatures.

We will work closely with you as a PhD student to mentor you and developing your research skills and identity. Our PhD and research master’s students also benefit from the fact that Cambridge Judge Business School is a vibrant place for wider scholarly exchange. In addition to our own leading faculty members who regularly publish with students in top journals in their fields and who hold senior editorial positions with those journals, we also regularly host visitors from around the world who are doing cutting edge research. We hope this helps you consider if you will be a strong fit for our research programmes.

View video with transcript

Financial support

All PhD and Master of Research students, as well as some MPhil research students, receive full funding through University or departmental scholarships.

Students in the 4th year of their PhD receive funding conditional on their progress.

We offer scholarships for UK and EU research students, funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC). The wider University of Cambridge offers additional funding sources for domestic and international students.

Find out more about funding your PhD

Undertaking a PhD is a life defining choice, explore the reasons to choose CJBS for your PhD:

Quality of supervision

Complementary training, colleges & environment, research & skills funding, resources for phds, social activities.

From the start of your research masters degree, you’ll join one of 8 PhD pathways. Each leads you to specialise in a particular discipline of Management Studies.

Prerequisite masters programme:

• Either MPhil in Finance
• or Master of Research (MRes)
• Either Master of Research (MRes)
• or exceptionally the Cambridge MPhil in Economic Research
• or Master of Research (MRes) (for students with a Cambridge MPhil in Economic Research)
• Either MPhil in Strategy, Marketing and Operations
• Either MPhil in Innovation, Strategy and Organisation

Strategic Management PhD pathway

• or  MPhil in Strategy, Marketing and Operations
• or  Master of Research (MRes)

Research masters

Cambridge Judge Business School offers 4 research-oriented masters programmes, each an integral part of a route to the PhD. Each masters programme covers essential pathway coursework.

• The 3 MPhil programmes are for students without a prior research masters degree. Which MPhil you take will depend on your research interests and background.
• The Master of Research (MRes) programme is the foundation year of the PhD for students who have a masters degree which provides a strong grounding for research in a subject relevant for management research, and with evidence that they have the calibre and prior training to undertake a research-focused degree.
• Prepares students for a PhD in Management Studies (Finance) or a research career in finance.

Learn more about the MPhil in Finance

MPhil in Innovation, Strategy and Organisation (ISO)

• Prepares students for a PhD in Management Studies.
• Emphasis on qualitative research methodology (involving fieldwork in which the researcher observes and analyses behaviours in organisations).

Learn more about the MPhil in ISO

MPhil in Strategy, Marketing and Operations (SMO)

• Prepares students with prior degree-level quantitative training for a PhD in Management Studies.
• Emphasis on quantitative research methodology (involving the design and analysis of laboratory experiments, the statistical analysis of natural experiments or large archival datasets, or the game-theoretic modelling of managerial decision processes).

Learn more about the MPhil in SMO

Master of Research in Management Studies (MRes)

• Offers a tailored suite of courses for students who already have significant research training at masters level relevant to their chosen PhD pathway.
• Is intended for students who wish to pursue a PhD at Cambridge Judge Business School.

Learn more about the MRes

Developing the next generation of academics

Where do you envision your PhD taking you? Be inspired by our PhD alumni who work in some of the most respected universities and business schools around the world.

News and insights from our PhDs

Learn more about our doctoral students' research and activities.

Three strategies to make waste management greener

Study co-authored at Cambridge Judge calls for reducing export-burden asymmetry for different qualities of waste to reduce environmental harm.

New book on how to hardwire sustainability

A new book by Dr Armen Papazian, a PhD graduate of Cambridge Judge Business School, takes a new look at sustainability and finance.

Adopting AI: tips for managers implementing change

Firms are wrestling with how to convince staff to use artificial intelligence (AI) and other new technologies. A study led at Cambridge Judge, focusing on social comparisons among employees, cautions against a false dichotomy between full and no adoption.

Learn more about the application process and deadlines

Explore fees and funding options

Contact the admissions team