Marketing & Supply Chain

The Marketing & Supply Chain PhD Business Administration program is accepting applications for Fall 2024.

Providing students with the skills necessary to become successful marketing professors in esteemed business schools.

The Marketing & Supply Chain PhD program trains students in how to identify interesting marketing phenomena (in consumer behavior and marketing strategy), how to test their ideas, and ultimately, how to publish their research in our field’s most prestigious academic journals. This 4-5 year process involves close collaboration with and mentorship by our faculty. In addition to working closely with faculty on research, PhD students focus their efforts on coursework for the first two years (PhD seminars, research methods courses, courses in economics, sociology, and psychology), and on their dissertation research in the latter years.

Our PhD students also graduate with a firm foundation in teaching. Over the course of their program, PhD students will teach a limited number of undergraduate courses. Such courses typically include consumer behavior, marketing research, marketing management, and personal selling. Feedback from these courses affords students the opportunity to hone their teaching skills before embarking on their formal academic careers.


Admission Guidelines

To be considered for the PhD in Business Administration Concentration in Marketing & Supply Chain, the applicant must meet the admission requirements of the Graduate School and Gatton College of Business and Economics.

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Degree Requirements

To obtain a degree, the student must

  1. Complete all prerequisite coursework,
  2. Complete all PhD coursework (minimum 40 hours) and maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 out of 4.0 on all graduate work attempted at the University of Kentucky and avoid receiving two "C's" in this coursework,
  3. Pass the qualifying examination in the major area,*
  4. Develop and orally defend a dissertation proposal,
  5. Complete a dissertation based on the approved proposal, and
  6. Successfully defend the dissertation in an oral presentation.

* Candidates who have not completed all requirements for the doctorate within five (5) years (beginning with the next full semester, fall or spring), following the original successful completion of the qualifying examination must repeat successfully the entire qualifying examination process (both written and oral) before the Director of Graduate Studies may recommend an extension of time to the Graduate Council.

The minimum coursework required for the degree is 40 hours. Allowances for exceptions to the 40-hour program can be made for students who have taken courses above a master's degree level with the advice of the student's advisory committee and the approval of the DGS.

The program is designed to provide specialization study beyond the master's level. All students are expected to have at least minimal training in areas that represent the common body of knowledge in the functional areas of business.

The Department of Marketing and Supply Chain typically offers the following courses:

  1. Consumer Behavior I
  2. Marketing Strategy I
  3. Consumer Behavior II
  4. Marketing Strategy II

Contact Us

If you are interested in challenging yourself intellectually and becoming a professor in a major research university, contact us to get more information about applying to our PhD program in Marketing & Supply Chain. Contact Jeannie Graves.

Adam Craig
Director of Graduate Studies for Marketing & Supply Chain awcrai2@g.uky.edu