Pursuing a Ph.D. in Word-of-Mouth Marketing?

I recently received an e-mail from a person interested in planning an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in word-of-mouth marketing. Specifically, I was asked if I was aware of folks doing doctoral studies or research in this area.

Here's my response:

(I invite others to add to this list by posting a comment to this post)

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... In terms of resources to aid your planning:

1) You can check out the class I taught on WOM, Buzz, and Viral Marketing Communication. This was designed for undergraduates but I included optional readings for graduate students. So the level would be too basic for a Ph.D., but the topics of study might be relevant.

2) I would also check out Kerimcan Ozcan's site. He recently completed a dissertation related to WOM at the U of Michigan and has a helpful website.

3) I would visit Andrea Wojnicki's website. She is now at University of Toronto but recently finished her Ph.D. in the WOM arena at Harvard Business School. Andrea is also on the advisory board at the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA).

4) Relatedly, you might want to check out the following faculty members who also serve as advisory board members to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, esp. Dina Mayzlin at Yale, Dave Godes at Harvard, Robert Kozinets at York, Chris Dellarocas at Maryland, etc. You can find links to all of their websites at http://www.womma.org/advisors.htm

5) Visit Peter Verlegh's website at Erasmus University Rotterdam as there are a number of people there who do work in the area of WOM.

6) Finally, you might want to poke around the Association for Consumer
Research website and listserv and post your query there, as there are
people there who study WOM.

There are others but this should get you started! Let me know if you have additional questions.

Walter
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Also, you can learn about Robert East at Kingston University in England. Here's a post I did about some of his work.

You might also want to learn more about the work of Alain Samson and Paul Marsden at the London School of Economics.

Added 9/26/2006: Check out the Ph.D. program at Touro University International as well.

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Tags: WOM word of mouth Word-of-Mouth Marketing buzz marketing viral marketing marketing communication