The Current State of Marketing Doctoral Programs: Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities

Marketing doctoral programs have evolved to sustain and improve the contributions of the marketing discipline. This research reviews the state of marketing doctoral programs and reports the results of a survey of marketing doctoral directors. The global survey of 251 directors provides a benchmark for describing and evaluating the composition of doctoral programs. Reporting the number of methodology courses and substantive marketing seminars in programs provides the opportunity to reflect upon the importance of each area in preparing students to make a contribution to the discipline. Consumer behavior is the dominant area of concentration with digital marketing and marketing strategy a distant second. The results provide an important foundation in assessing current doctoral programs for directors and all stakeholders to evaluate their program content relevant to the findings.