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Purpose of the Study: Multiple essay dissertations have become increasingly common in marketing Ph.D. programs, but the research outcomes of those who employ this comparatively new format have not been investigated. In this study, we compare the total number of journal publications and the number of top-tier marketing journal publications across marketing Ph.D. graduates who used traditional, monographic dissertations and those who used multiple essay dissertations. We also investigate the impact of the marketing Ph.D. program ranking on the effectiveness of these two formats.
Method/Design: An observational research method is employed whereby the dissertation format, number of journal publications, and Ph.D. program and hiring institution ranking for 896 marketing Ph.D. graduates from 2003 to 2013 are investigated.
Results: Marketing Ph.D. graduates who complete monographic dissertations publish significantly more journal articles than do graduates who complete multiple essay dissertations. There is no significant difference in the number of top-tier marketing journal publications between those who complete monographic or multiple essay dissertations. The ranking of the Ph.D. program has no significant effect on the results, nor does the graduates' gender. No significant differences are found between two-essay and three-essay dissertations, and dissertation format has no relationship with the rank of the graduates' initial hiring institution.
Value to Marketing Educators: The results suggest that monographic dissertations lead to more journal publications for marketing Ph.D. graduates and call into question the effectiveness of the multiple essay dissertation format in improving the research productivity of these graduates.
Keywords: dissertation format, observational research, monographs, multiple essays
Introduction
For well over 100 years, the dissertation has been one of the hallmarks of doctoral education, with the dual purpose of acting as an all-inclusive instructional tool for doctoral students and requiring them to provide a significant contribution to knowledge in their discipline (Berelson 1960). Yet, based on insufficient research, a substantial change has been made to the dissertation in recent years, potentially impacting the likelihood of being hired at a high-quality institution in many disciplines, including the marketing discipline. The risk therein is of doctoral programs over promising and under delivering in terms of building the graduates' ability to build a marketable 'brand' based upon quality research publications. This momentous change has come in the form of the multiple essay dissertation, a...