Marketing: Honors Research Seminar

An academic researcher in the scholarly field of consumer behavior  

The class is taught by Professor Kristin Diehl, Professor of Marketing and an expert in consumer behavior who has been on the faculty at USC since 2005. Her research interests include understanding how consumers search for and use information, particularly in information-rich environments. She also studies how people anticipate, experience, and remember events that unfold over time, particularly when taking photos during such experiences. 

Professor Diehl was awarded the Evan C. Thomson Faculty Mentoring and Leadership Award from Marshall in 2017. She is also the recipient of the inaugural Early Career Award from the Association for Consumer Research and serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Consumer Research. You can find more info about her here.

To develop critical thinking and analytic skills 

The Honors Research Seminar is designed to help you systematically approach an unstructured problem in order to answer your question of choice. The processes and skills the class develops will benefit you in personal problem solving as well as in pursuit of employment or graduate school. 

Hard work and intellectual gratification

You will begin the two-semester class (2 units each semester) in the spring of your junior year. The class guides you through developing an honors thesis by the end of the fall semester of your senior year.  The course meets once per week in a round-table, seminar style format. Each class session is designed to help you develop the skills necessary to conduct scholarly research in marketing. In addition, you will attend research talks in the marketing department, develop your own research ideas, design and conduct studies, and write your thesis. More detailed information is available under Course Info and Syllabi and by reading the comments of past students under Students’ Voices. A sample of past research topics is available under Past Projects.

 

A motivated student ready to advance intellectually and write an honors thesis in marketing

This course is open to Marshall students who have been invited to participate in the Marshall Undergraduate Honors Program based on their overall GPA and GPA within a major. Advanced classes in marketing are highly recommended in preparation and as a basis for you to develop novel research ideas. If you believe you are qualified and have not received an invitation, please talk to the Marshall Advising Office. 

Course Overview

This two-semester class is designed to help you develop your own, unique research project on a topic related to marketing and take it from the initial idea to a completed research paper.

Over the course of the spring semester (BUAD 493), you will:

• Discuss how to identify interesting research questions
• Learn how to conduct a literature review
• Develop and propose specific hypotheses 
• Design ways in which your predictions can be tested empirically. 

The class will guide you through the process of writing a thesis proposal by the end of the spring semester. 

Over the course of the fall semester (BUAD 494), you will:

• Conduct the empirical research required to test your hypotheses in order to complete your honors thesis 
• Prepare and support your classmates in all aspects associated with this process (e.g., designing and implementing empirical studies, analyzing primary and secondary data, communicating study results, etc.). 
• Work in close consultation with the class instructor based on your individual project.  

Find the syllabus for Spring BUAD 493 and Fall BUAD 494 below.

BUAD 493

pdf Honors BUAD 493 331.59 KB

BUAD 494

pdf Honors BUAD 494509.83 KB

Honors Requirement

The formal requirements to graduate with Marshall Honors are:

• Pass BUAD 493
• Pass BUAD 494
• Graduate with 3.5 or above GPA in the major
• Graduate with 3.3 or above overall GPA.

NOTE: Even if you excel in BUAD 493, you must enroll in BUAD 494 in order to conduct research and submit an original thesis before you graduate to obtain the Marshall Honors designation.

Carolyn Levi (Marshall Graduate 2020):

"In October 2021 I virtually attended the Sustainable Brands 2021 conference though my work and saw my USC Marshall honors marketing thesis in the wild! This particular discussion at the conference was on Communicating Scientific Claims to Protect Credibility and Manage Risk. A main discussion point in the conversation was the myriad of environmental claims and certifications within the sustainability space used to market products and services, and how to credit them.

My own research at USC similarly explored the topic of the apparent oversaturation of environmental claims in the sustainability space. You can see the slide they presented alongside one of my own from my final thesis presentation below. It was so gratifying to see echoes of my research presented by industry experts!

As someone who majored in both Business and Environmental Studies, the honors thesis program offered me the flexibility to explore the intersection of these topics in a way few other courses could. Attending this conference and participating in this discussion made me reflect on how thankful I am to have had the honors thesis experience to research something I'm truly passionate about." - Carolyn

 

 

 

“The class feeds my curiosity of the world and challenges the way I approach problems. No other class in Marshall has given me as big of an opportunity for hands-on learning.” - Chloe

 

 

 

 

 

 

“This class is a one-of-a-kind Marshall experience. You do a cost-benefit analysis and a class with four students and an outstanding teacher is not only rare, but provides great value.” - James                              

                 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                     

“This class has changed my plans for the future.” - Chenchen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I've been able to fulfill [my] goals by taking this class. It's enabled me to pursue research that feeds directly into my personal and professional interests, while providing useful information to managers working in the non-profit industry.” - Lilian

Research conducted for the honors thesis can span a wide range of questions and topics—the only requirement is that it pertains to factors that affect decisions made by consumers or companies. Questions should be framed such that the answers make a contribution to the field beyond what is already known and are not intended to solve an imminent business problem for a particular client company. 

Previous thesis projects have explored topics such as:

• The Effectiveness of Word-of-Mouth Recommendation in an Individualistic Culture and a Collectivistic Culture: Do You Want to Purchase This Luxury Brand?
• Spoilers and Anxiety: When Film Spoilers Might Not Be the Enemy
• To See or Not to See: The Effect of Labeling Consumer-Generated Advertising on YouTube
• Cultural Convergence in Consumers’ Reactions to Comparative Advertising in the United States and South Korea
• Analyzing the Effects of Political Preferences and Negative Advertising on Voting Decisions
• It Matters How You Ask: Using Social Impact Messaging in Nonprofit Fundraising
• The More You Quantify, The Harder It Is to Accomplish It All: How Self-tracking is Less Effective in Sequential Tasks
• To Be Heard or Hated: A Guide to Advertising When Using Guilt-Inducing Messages
• Say What You Want, It Might Not Matter: Politics In Corporate Advertising Leads to Reactions But Not Changes in Consumer
• Confessions of a Blogaholic: How Readers Respond To Endorsed, Co-Designed, or Own-Design Products
• Harmonic Dissonance: Why Society Supports Physically Abusive Recording Artists
• Say What You Want, It Might Not Matter: Politics In Corporate Advertising Leads to Reactions But Not Changes in Consumer
• Paying in Advance: How Purchase Timing Affects Consumption Excitement for Experiential Purchases
• It Matters How You Ask: Using Social Impact Messaging in Nonprofit Fundraising
• The More You Quantify, The Harder It Is to Accomplish It All: How Self-tracking is Less Effective in Sequential Tasks
• To Be Heard or Hated: A Guide to Advertising When Using Guilt-Inducing Messages
• The Effectiveness of Word-of-Mouth Recommendation in an Individualistic Culture and a Collectivistic Culture: Do You Want to Purchase This Luxury Brand?
• Spoilers and Anxiety: When Film Spoilers Might Not Be the Enemy
• To See or Not to See: The Effect of Labeling Consumer-Generated Advertising on YouTube