Specialisation
Marketing & International Business
Description | Course requirement
The PhD programme in Marketing and International Business is targeted at those wishing to pursue academic careers in marketing, international business and tourism management arenas. Candidates will not only be exposed to the latest tools and concepts in these areas of research, but will also have an opportunity to explore the rich literature that exists in these areas. The programme equips students with the conceptual and quantitative skills needed to independently pursue cutting-edge research.
A unique feature of this programme is its strong focus on Asian business problems. Much of the traditional literature in marketing, international business and tourism management has a distinct Western flavour. One of the principal goals of this programme is thus to help develop a body of knowledge that is distinctly Asian. Students, therefore, have the opportunity to work with faculty members who are conversant with the changing dynamics of some of Asia's and the world's largest markets, including China, India and ASEAN.
Students may pursue doctoral level research on a variety of topics, but the programme has four distinctive areas of research competency at this time:
• Behavioural aspects of marketing, including cross cultural consumer behaviour and organisational buyer behaviour.
• Marketing strategy, including competitive advantage, segmentation, marketing mix strategies, service quality, services marketing, relationship marketing, business-to-business marketing, e-commerce and internet marketing.
• International business, including environmental influences, entry strategies, foreign direct investment, franchising, regionalisation strategies and development of emerging markets.
• Tourism management, including the impact of information technology on travel distribution systems, social impacts of tourism, national identity and cultural tourism, sustainable urban tourism and human resources management practices in the tourism industry.
One of the major strengths of our programme is that most faculty members have strong industry experience and knowledge. Thus, the practical relevance of research is very important to them. Students will be challenged to think of problems and come up with solutions that make sense not only from an academic perspective, but also from that of industry. Faculty members teaching in the doctoral programme are all active researchers who have a great deal of experience supervising graduate research. They have published in some of the world's leading journals in marketing, international business and tourism management, such as the Journal of Marketing, Journal of International Business Studies, European Journal of Marketing, Columbia Journal of World Business, Management International Review, International Business Review, and Annals of Tourism Research.