SEMINAR IN CONTEMPORARY TOPICS: MARKETING AND RETAIL MANAGEMENT - 2021/2

Module Overview

The unit will start with an overview of Marketing Theory & different theoretical foundations of Marketing Theory in Economics, Psychology and Sociology. Afterward individual theories will be discussed by different member of the Department. In general, there is a high degree of freedom of the academic in designing the session as long as it is aligned with the below aims. However, the individual academic holding the session is asked to give readings to the candidates at least one week before the session. The academic holding the session can make the student present the findings of their readings or just go through them and discuss or any other format.Generally, it is suggested that the sessions will have either one of these three types of articles as foundation or reading:

• Theory overview articles: Articles that focus on what marketing theory is, which blocks of theories there are, how Marketing theories have developed, …


• Original Marketing Theory: The lecturer chose a paper that has developed theory in Marketing, e.g. Service Dominant Logic, trust commitment theory, etc. and some papers around that as reading and discuss those, e.g. favourable less favourable papers on the theory or main points.


• Borrowed Theory: The lecturer chooses a marketing paper that uses a particular theory from a different field, e.g., social comparison theory, psychological ownership theory, … and amend this reading with the articles form this adjacent field in which the theory has been developed.

Module provider

Surrey Business School

Module Leader

BENOIT Sabine (SBS)

Number of Credits: 0

ECTS Credits: 0

Framework: FHEQ Level 8

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

N/A

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• Overview of Marketing Theory & different foundations of Marketing Theory


• Theories of emotions and applications in marketing


• Social Comparison Theory


• Psychological Signalling Theory


• Neutralisation Theory


• Dialogical Self Theory and narrative identity theory


• Prospect Theory in the context of Marketing and empirical generalizations in Marketing

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

Revise Individual Essay

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate

• The ability to neutrally describe a theory, find and describe examples of application and critically reflect on the value of the theory and analyse/synthesise the critical evaluation in literature.

• The two supervisors reading and marking the essay.

• During the module the lecturers can and are asked to give feedback on the students contributon to the class discussion and their ciritical evaluation of the different theories.

Module aims

• Within the PhD programme the students get educated in philosophy of science, qualitative and quantitative methods as well as writing. This module – in contrast – is aimed to deepen the knowledge of the students in their “functional specialisation”, meaning that only the Marketing PhD students take this unit. Content-wise the aim is to give them a good foundation in Marketing Theory and learn different perspectives. This is achieved by involving different staff members from the Department. Thus, beyond the content-related goals the aim is also that the students get to know the research areas of as many different research active staff members as possible.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

• Enhance the knowledge of different theories and perspectives


• Enhance critical thinking

• Readings and self-study


• Discussion


• Final application in an essay

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MAND034

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2021/2 academic year.