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Establishing human brands: determinants of placement success for first faculty positions in marketing

  • Original Empirical Research
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Abstract

Based on primary data spanning 5 years, we examine factors that influence the entry-level placement of marketing doctoral candidates at U.S. universities and colleges. Contributing to the emerging research on human brands, we identify marketing doctoral candidates’ intrinsic and extrinsic brand cues that influence their number of AMA interviews, campus visit offers, and starting base salary. The strongest brand cue is the research productivity of candidates’ doctoral degree-granting departments. A related cue that also predicts initial salary is the candidates’ advisors’ research record. Further, when beginning the job search, doctoral students who have a top research publication, who have a dissertation proposal defended with data, and who have attended the AMA-Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium receive a substantial entry salary premium. Based on branding frameworks and theories of academic rewards, this study adds to the emerging knowledge on both the concept of human brands as well as the growing literature on issues relating to marketing academia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing, The University of Nevada Las Vegas, 4505 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV, 89011, USA

    Angeline G. Close

  2. Department of Marketing, E.J. Ourso College of Business, Louisiana State University, 3119-B Patrick F. Taylor Hall, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA

    Julie Guidry Moulard

  3. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA

    Kent B. Monroe

  4. University of Richmond, 4905 Old Millrace Place, Glen Allen, VA, 23059, USA

    Kent B. Monroe

Authors
  1. Angeline G. Close
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  2. Julie Guidry Moulard
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  3. Kent B. Monroe
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julie Guidry Moulard.

Additional information

The authors sincerely wish to thank the members, leaders, and advisory board of AMA’s DocSIG, especially Annie Cui, Maureen Bourassa, Jody Crosno, Jodie Ferguson, Alex Zablah, and Tom DeWitt. The authors thank Georgia State University for hosting the online survey. The authors also thank the scholars who provided valuable input to this manuscript: Mike Brady, Mike LaTour, Roland Gau, Peter Dixon, Dhruv Grewal, Peter Dacin, Dan Ladick, and Jack Schibrowski.

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Close, A.G., Moulard, J.G. & Monroe, K.B. Establishing human brands: determinants of placement success for first faculty positions in marketing. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 39, 922–941 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-010-0221-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-010-0221-6

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