(Last edited: 8 June 2005.)

MKTG 670: MARKETING THEORY

COURSE SYLLABUS
Fall 2005

Instructor: Dr. Michael R. Hyman, Wells Fargo Professor of Marketing

Office Hours: By appointment.

INSTRUCTOR EXPECTATIONS

The instructor expects students to:

• read and understand much of the theory literature in marketing;
• read and understand some of the classic philosophy of science literature;
• read and understand some of the theory literature in the other social sciences;
• begin to develop more rigor in their thinking about scientific theories; and
• begin to develop a personal philosophy of science.

COURSE MATERIALS

BOOKS:

• Hunt, Shelby D. (2002), Foundations of Marketing Theory: Toward a General Theory of Marketing. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe
• Hunt, Shelby D. (2003), Controversy in Marketing Theory: For Reason, Realism, Truth, and Objectivity. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe..
• Sheth, Jagdish N., David M. Gardner, and Dennis E. Garrett (1988), Marketing Theory: Evolution and Evaluation. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.
• Zaltman, Gerald, Karen LeMasters, and Michael Heffring (1982), Theory Construction in Marketing: Some Thoughts on Thinking. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.
• Poundstone, William (1988), Labyrinths of Reason: Paradox, Puzzles, and the Frailty of Knowledge. New York, NY: Anchor Books.

READINGS: PHOTOCOPIED or PDF ARTICLES

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

The instructor calculates your grade as follows (relative weights appear in parentheses):

• the equivalent of '12/n' in-class presentations on assigned readings, where 'n' equals the number of students enrolled in the class (see course readings list for these readings) (60%) (probably 45% for solo presentation and 15% for group presentation);
• an open book final examination with questions taken from a question set available to all students (30%); and
• participation in and general preparedness for class discussions or in-class presentations by other students (10%).

IN-CLASS PRESENTATIONS

Your grade for each in-class presentation of assigned readings is based on the following:

• the quality of the classroom experience for the other students;
• five comprehensive-exam-level questions about the readings; and
• any handouts that organize, summarize, and synthesize the readings and exam questions (see exam question set).

Presenters are responsible for:

• selecting the subset of readings to be discussed in class;
• providing other students with photocopies or pdfs of all selected readings at least one week before the presentation; and
• providing the instructor with five comprehensive-examination-level questions at least one week before the presentation.

FINAL EXAMINATION

From the published question set for this course, the instructor will select six questions.  At 8:00am on Monday, December 5th, the instructor will send these questions via e-mail to all students.  By 8:00am on Wednesday, December 7th, students must submit their answers to all six questions as e-mail attachments in Word or WordPerfect.  (Other than a university-sanctioned excuse, no exceptions to this deadline will be made. Thus, students may wish to confirm receipt of their answers.) Although students are permitted to discuss the questions among themselves, students must submit original answers. Submission of even one answer that represents another person's work as one's own work is grounds for failing the entire examination.

COURSE SCHEDULE