The marketing area in IIMU is one of India's most diverse and research-active departments and was the first area to offer a PhD Program at IIMU in 2016. The Marketing PhD program at IIMU offers students the chance to pursue their doctoral studies in Consumer Behaviour, Marketing Strategy and Consumer Culture Theory. By providing rigorous training in theories from the fields of psychology, economics, sociology, anthropology and strategy, the program grooms students to develop a nuanced understanding of the micro, meso and macro aspects of consumption, markets, and brands. By offering several marketing-specific core courses and research methods courses—the students gain expertise on a wide array of quantitative and qualitative methods including experiment methods, qualitative research methods, cultural analysis, and advanced quantitative methods (analytics).
The faculty work closely with PhD students and collaborate with scholars from other leading business schools globally. The faculty’s areas of expertise include Consumer Behavior, Cultural Consumption, Firm and Market Behavior and Marketing Effectiveness with substantive topics such as social entrepreneurship, social media marketing, branding, language, cross-cultural psychology, digital technology, health care, compensatory consumption, sustainable consumption, etc.
Marketing faculty have published in journals of the highest international repute such as Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Journal of Business Research, and Consumption Markets & Culture. Additionally, the Marketing area faculty and PhD students frequently present their work at the top international marketing and consumer research conferences, including the annual conferences of: American Marketing Association (AMA), Association for Consumer Research (ACR), Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP), European Marketing Academy (EMAC), Consumer Culture Theory Consortium (CCTC), Gender, Markets, and Consumer (GENMAC), and North American Society for Marketing Education in India (NASMEI). This program has visits from many senior professors and researchers from leading business schools globally, who present research seminars and provide research feedback to the faculty and Ph.D. students.
If you are interested in applying to the PhD program in Marketing at IIMU, we encourage you to go through the profiles of faculty affiliated to the department to understand their respective research areas to gauge an alignment with your own research interests.
Area Faculty
The Marketing Area leads two research centers which encourage academia-industry collaboration for cutting edge research. PhD students are encouraged to engage with the centres to enhance their research experience.
“IIM Udaipur has empowered my academic journey in innumerable ways right from the start of my PhD. From the rich research ecosystem in the institute that helped me provide all the necessary support system since the first year of my coursework, to the highly invested faculty that mentored me and honed my skillset at every step of my journey till date. Given the diverse research interests and backgrounds of faculty in the Marketing area, I got a chance to explore different domains of research within Marketing during coursework and choose a paradigm that most resonated with me later. I feel fortunate to be a part of this academic community with a highly conducive working environment which helps stimulate ideas and realize their full potential.” - Vidushi Trivedi, PhD Student (Marketing)
“The PhD program at IIM Udaipur is deeply enriching. The resources and efforts invested by the institute in my learning exposed me to the global research environment. This place has endowed me with learning and relationships for life.” - Arti Srivastava, PhD Alumnus (Marketing)
A 1-year/2-semester master's degree programme after a 4-year/8-semester bachelor’s degree programme or a 2-year/4-semester master’s degree programme after a 3-year bachelor’s degree programme or qualifications declared equivalent to the master’s degree by the corresponding statutory regulatory body, with at least 60% marks in aggregate or its equivalent grade in a point scale wherever grading system is followed
or
A professional qualification (completed) such as CA (ICAI), ICWA, CS with a Bachelor's degree with at least 60 percent marks.
A 4-year/8-semester Bachelor's degree with equivalent of 75 percent marks in aggregate or its equivalent grade on a point scale wherever the grading system is followed.
These criteria are higher than the minimum threshold suggested by UGC guidelines on "Minimum Standards for Ph.D. admissions" as of November 7th, 2022, to ensure consistency with the minimum eligibility criteria of pre-PhD qualifications for the role of Assistant Professor at IIMs.
The Master's degree or equivalent qualification/Bachelor's degree or equivalent qualification required for IIM PhD eligibility should be: (a) from any of the Universities incorporated by an act of the central or state legislature in India or other educational institutions established by an act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as a University under section 3 of UGC Act, 1956; or (b) recognized by the Ministry of HRD, Government of India or (c) possess an equivalent qualification from an institution approved by AICTE. The Bachelor's degree or equivalent qualification obtained by the candidate must entail a minimum of three years of education after completing Higher Secondary schooling (10+2) or equivalent.
Final year candidates who have not yet completed their respective degrees (Bachelor's or Master's) by the date application is due are eligible to apply for IIM PhD program at IIM Udaipur and can receive provisional acceptance. According to IIM PhD criteria, with their initial application, they must submit a bonafide certificate (on the day of registration) signed by the head of their current department/institution indicating that they have completed all examinations/submissions required for obtaining the degree. No later than December 30th, of the year of application, they must submit the final mark sheets/certificates related to the completion of the degree indicating the minimum cut-off has been met.
*Valid CAT /GMAT/GRE/NET-(JRF to be mentioned in application, if applicable/qualified) Economics/Psychology/Sociology/Anthropology/Management Scores are mandatory for the candidates applying for Marketing Area. The validity of the test scores is shown in the table below. It should be noted that the scores should be valid at the time of the application deadline.
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Please note that a candidate can apply to only one area. In the case where candidates submit multiple applications in more than one area, the application received on the latest date will be considered and the previous application/applications will be summarily rejected.
Along with the completed application form, the following documents are mandatory:
*Candidates in the final year of the program or awaiting their results can upload the Mark Sheet of the previous term(s)/semester/year.
Your statement of purpose (SOP) for applying to the PhD program in Marketing area at IIMU must include answers to the following three questions:
Don’t just write your SOP in a simple question-answer format. Rather, share with us a compelling narrative (in the form of a long, coherent essay), clearly explaining your purpose for applying for a PhD in Marketing at IIMU.
Scanned copies of all academic mark sheets, certificates, qualifying examination score cards, category certificates, and research proposals must be uploaded, along with the online application form.
**There is no application fee for the PhD program.
For application-related queries please contact- phdadmission@iimu.ac.in or Call- 0294-2477251 (Monday to Friday) 9.00AM to 5.30PM
There shall be 4 rounds in this year’s selection process for PhD applicants in Marketing area:
The Marketing area faculty will screen the submitted application packets by the candidates, and only shortlisted candidates will be invited to participate in Round 2.
The candidates will be given a simple conceptual model/framework to analyze and critique. The critiques submitted by the candidates will be evaluated on:
Candidates shortlisted based on their performance in round 2 will be invited for a virtual interview with a panel of Marketing area faculty (round 3).
Selected candidates, those who are shortlisted based on performance in round 3, will be invited physically to IIMU campus for a final interview with the entire Marketing area faculty group (round 4).
In both the interview rounds, the candidates will be evaluated on their research aptitude, domain knowledge, motivation and preparedness for the PhD program, long-term career plans, and communication skills.
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