I am writing to let you know that we have opened our 2014  Shankar-Spiegel Dissertation Proposal Competition which recognizes the best dissertation proposal in direct/interactive marketing.  We will award up to $6,000 in grants [$3,000 to the winner(s); $1,500 to the honorable mention(s)] for Ph.D. candidates conducting research focused on direct/interactive marketing topics.  

Dissertation proposals can focus on topics such as:

Past winners have included doctoral candidates from University of Southern California, INSEAD, Northwestern University, Columbia University, Georgia State University and University of Connecticut. 

Past Winning Topics Include: “Online Shopping Intermediaries: The Design of Search Environments”; “Managing a Profitable Interactive Email Marketing Program: Modeling and Analysis”; “The Selective Reporting of Factual Content by Commercial Media”; Managing User-Generated Content….

The competition is open to doctoral candidates worldwide.  Participation in other grant or award programs does not preclude being considered for this award. This is a wonderful opportunity for candidates to share and further develop their research ideas through valuable feedback from other academics.   

Candidates will be asked to complete an  Intent to Compete form by April 30, 2014 and submit their entry by May 30, 2014. There is more  information on the competition on the Web page given below.  I would very much appreciate it if you would share this information with the relevant individuals in your department.

Full information is available at

http://www.marketingedge.org/marketing-programs/shankar-spiegel-best-dissertation-award