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Ph.D. Seminar, August 13-20, 2009
University of Texas—Pan American
Poststructuralist Studies in Culture, Business and Marketing Collaborative

Cultural Embeddedness of Marketing and Business Research

Objective of the Seminar

This Ph.D. seminar will address theory and practice in order to rethink the ways that theory has constituted and defined business and marketing as well as the ways that business and marketing have utilized theoretical analysis. By approaching both business and its analysis from a new point of view, this seminar will enable fresh insights and applications that have not been previously realized by conventional perspectives of business derived from classical economics and liberal politics. More specifically, this seminar aims to bridge the latest forms of social, economic, and political analysis from the humanities, most immediately poststructuralism, with the ultimately socially driven and constituted reality of the market.

Specifically, this doctoral seminar deals with the cultural dimension of marketing and business research. The purpose of the seminar is to draw the attention of researchers to cultural factors in research in order to broaden, deepen, and update their understanding of the phenomena they wish to examine in different fields of business, particularly marketing. The seminar will help its participants to develop critical and innovative ways of seeing the world, from perspectives that are original.

The questions asked, the issues addressed, and the methods used in all research projects are embedded in a culture, and cultures around the world are currently experiencing vibrant transformations. A critical self-awareness of this embeddedness not only raises the scientific level of the research, but also enlightens the researcher as it provides a new perspective not only in cross-cultural but in all research.

The purpose of this doctoral seminar is (1) to provide PhD students and other researchers participating in the seminar with insights about the cultural context of their research project—a context of which they are not always aware, and have not always been properly trained to take into consideration, and (2) to help seminar participants in working on a cultural project to improve their approach.

The faculty for the seminar coming from different fields such as anthropology, philosophy, marketing, and consumer research will discuss basic concepts and advanced methods of the cultural approach to marketing and business research. This faculty, working at the interface of cultural analysis and business, will provide examples of how those concepts are fruitful to contemporary business research. Participants will be helped by the faculty to perceive the cultural dimension of their own research projects.

A contemporary research project cannot fully be captured by a single conventional discipline or method. A cross-cultural and interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological perspective is, therefore, at the core of this seminar. Among other approaches, emphasis will be placed on the relevance that theories encountered in anthropology, cultural analysis, poststructuralism, ethnomethodology, ethnology, epistemology, hermeneutics, history of ideas, literary criticism, phenomenology, psychology, semiotics, social psychology, sociology, and systems theory have for business research.

There will be an emphasis on each participant’s own research project, since the main purpose of this course is to enable the researchers to reconsider their research project from perspectives different from conventional business research in order to generate more meaningful questions and alternative hypotheses, as well as theoretical insights into their own research, resulting in a more up-to-date, interdisciplinary, reflexive research.

The seminar will achieve these objectives not only through the exposure to the cultural context of business research as a whole, but also through relying on the diversity of cultural backgrounds and research traditions that the doctoral students will bring. Therefore, the students will be requested to present their research problems and research perspectives at the beginning of the seminar. Active participation during the seminar is a must. Readings will be required before and after the seminar.

Seminar Faculty:

Dominique Bouchet, Sociology/Marketing (Founder, CEMBR seminars)
   University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
Nikhilesh Dholakia, Marketing/Information Technologies
   The University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA
A. Fuat Firat, Consumer Research/Marketing
   University of Texas—Pan American, Edinburg, TX, USA
Ann Jordan, Anthropology
   University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA
Romain Laufer, Marketing/Philosophy
   HEC School of Management, Paris, France
Amy Wendling, Philosophy
   Creighton University, Omaha, NE, USA
Cory Wimberly, Philosophy
   University of Texas—Pan American, Edinburg, TX, USA
Mohammadali Zolfagharian, Consumer Research/Marketing
   University of Texas—Pan American, Edinburg, TX, USA

Seminar Outline

All students accepted to join the seminar and registered will be sent a readings list about 2 months prior to the start date (circa June 15). They are expected to come to the seminar having read the material.

On the first day of the seminar, students will make a brief (15 minutes) presentation of their research project and receive feedback from the faculty and other students. The following days will include presentations and exercises led by the seminar faculty and guest scholars. During each day of the seminar, students are encouraged to make appointments with faculty for one-on-one discussions of their research interests. Students can also expect to be engaged in one-on-ones and group discussions with other students during breaks, at meals, and during the evenings. On the last day of the seminar, each student will make a presentation on how their research project is modified based on the inspirations from the seminar and receive feedback (followed by a gala dinner party). Two months after the seminar, each student will turn in a paper to be read by at least two of the faculty members. The paper will be related to the student’s research project and can be a research proposal or research paper, or a conceptual piece (this will be discussed in more detail at the seminar).

Seminar Coordinator

A. Fuat Firat, Department of Management, Marketing and International Business, College of Business Administration, University of Texas—Pan American
1201 West University Drive, Edinburg, Texas, USA
Tel: +1 956 381 3559; Fax: +1 956 384 5065; e-mail: firatf@utpa.edu

Application Process

Applicants are asked to send a 750-1200 word letter of interest indicating their interests for their dissertation research or research otherwise planned, and the fit of this seminar within their doctoral program. This letter of interest can be accompanied with a letter from the applicant’s dissertation committee chair or a member of the dissertation committee. All submissions must be e-mailed to firatf@utpa.edu by the application deadline (May 31, 2009). Acceptance decisions will be made by June 10, 2009. There will be a fee of 1,250 USD that will cover tuition, accommodations for the days of August 12-20, inclusive, all meals for the seminar dates of August 13-20, and transportation between the airport and the seminar site.

Site Information

University of Texas—Pan American:

College of Business Administration:

Wellness and Recreational Sports Center:

City of McAllen:

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