PHD Thesis Topic

[linda124]

Hello everyone,

In fact i am considering doing my PHD in Marketing, and have been really confused and unfocused regarding the

choice of my Thesis Topic! I know it sounds stupid, but i am just not able to figure it out! I don't know how to proceed,

nor which direction to take, and don't want to lose this urge just because of such a small dilemma, which i find unsolvable.

From your own experiences, can anyone tell what to do?

1-Is it possible to contact a professional person in the field to help me out? If yes , pls explain to me.

2-Can we usually contact university staff to decide together on the Topic, before proceeding on filling in the PHD application? Will they be ready to help me?

3-Is there any Online Thesis Topic Services that can guide me to decide on narrowing down my Marketing topic?

I really appreciate your input since anything might help me.

[Eigen]

This may be vastly different in marketting, but in most other fields you don't choose a Dissertation Topic (Thesis is for a Masters) before you start. You might have some general ideas, but you usually don't choose your exact topic until 1 or 2 years into the program.

[abdefghijkl]

Hi Linda124,

There are online services - I run one myself and I'd be happy to help you out with this.

In general, as a supervisor and someone who has accepted and rejected graduate applications I can tell you that the main thing I look for is for candidates that show signs of intellectual maturity. That means that you know what you are interested in researching and how you will do it, and in your application you are really offering that to the department. You are offering to make the program a smarter and more interesting place.

I get the feeling you aren't quite there yet and until you are, I wouldn't reveal myself to potential grad advisors yet. Now I have known PhD students who got their thesis topic from their supervisor - often since he/she had some big research project ongoing and the grad student was invited to do some part of the research and get published as a second or third author on the resulting article. This can be a very dangerous thing to do if: your supervisor is anyone but a super, super famous academic whose students get jobs just because of him/her OR you are still working out what your own scholarly vision is -- if so, you need some independence to figure out your own talents and insight. Being bogged down in someone else's research can squelch your own voice and then get you into trouble later in your career when you need to have a scholarly brand and attract collaborators of your own with it.

P.S. As an academic, I study the history of communication and business -- which obviously includes lots of marketing history -- so I am fascinated by what you folks do! Do drop me a line and there's lots of free stuff on my website.

[Dal PhDer]

It's interesting...for my program, I needed to submit a full proposal/statement of research intent to my department with my application package. I do believe this isn't the normal procedure, but isn't unheard of.

As for choosing the topic.

1) Do you have a supervisor or an individual your are thinking about working with? If not, go through your department's website (and even other departments) and look at professors' interests and research. You might find one that is a good match based on your interests. If you have a supervisor, perhaps talk to them about what you're interested in, what work their doing, if they have any projects open for you to work on...

2) Read...read read read read read. Read and research the areas that interest you. Look up articles that are in your area and see what's missing or gaps need to be filled.

In the end, you are really responsible for finding the topic which interest you. Don't get discouraged- this is your time now to find out what you're passionate about, and what you see yourself doing for your career. Take the time to explore lots of opitions and open doors for yourself

[Eigen]

I guess I'd say there's a distinct difference between a research proposal/statement of research intent and choosing a dissertation topic.

Similarly, we have to submit research proposals, but they rarely become our dissertation topics- there are too many variables in getting everything to work out just right. We submit more official dissertation proposals in our third year, after we've actually got an active research program going.

[globalnomad]

This may be vastly different in marketting, but in most other fields you don't choose a Dissertation Topic (Thesis is for a Masters) before you start. You might have some general ideas, but you usually don't choose your exact topic until 1 or 2 years into the program.

In some British systems, you complete a Masters Dissertation and a d PhD Thesis. I know some British schools require you to submit a proposal, and this helps determine who your advisor will be. In this case, it's a good idea to know what you want to focus on before entering the program.

Regarding choosing a topic, were there any topics that interested you more than others in your undergraduate program? I would say start with that and try to read additional publications on that topic. Look at the discussion sections for gaps that need to be filled in.

Also, look at profiles of marketing professors at schools you want to apply to. See if anything they are working on is interesting to you. Again, I second Dal PhDer about reading and researching what these professors are working on.

If you ave access to a university library, you can also check out past doctoral Dissertation/Thesis. This will give you an idea of what students at a particular school have been focusing on.

[Eigen]

That's interesting about the UK vs US systems- I had thought the Dissertation vs Thesis difference extended from there. You learn something new every day

I'll second the others about looking at the areas of research available at schools you're interested in, to get an idea of the area you want to study.

Maybe this is just semantics, but when I think of choosing a Diss. Topic, it's very specific- exactly the systems and methods you want to use to find a given answer. When I think of writing a research proposal/statement of research interests for admissions, I think of it in distinctly broader terms- areas and areas of interactions you want to study, as well as perhaps some specific systems, but nothing nearly as detailed.