Graduate Programs | PhD Program

PhD Program

The Marshall PhD Program is one of the premier Business PhD programs in the world. With a diverse and outstanding faculty and a student-centered culture, we have achieved stellar success in placing our graduates in faculty positions at the top business schools in the U.S. and abroad.

Accounting PhD Program

The Accounting PhD program includes research focused on several accounting disciplines, including Financial, Managerial, and Auditing and Corporate Governance Accounting.

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Data Sciences + Operations PhD Program

Operations Management studies how firms organize their resources and recurring activities in order to be competitive in cost, price, responsiveness and quality. The field stresses quantitative techniques ranging from applied probability to optimization and game theory.

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Finance PhD Program

The finance Ph.D. program is designed to prepare students for academic careers in financial economics. Financial economics is the study of how individuals and firms raise and invest resources, and how financial assets are priced. Specific topics in asset pricing include the determinants of asset returns, pricing of risk, behavior of investors, and trading mechanisms. Specific topics in corporate finance include capital structure, payout policy, financial intermediation, internal capital markets, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance.

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Management + Organization PhD Program

MOR research includes the study of human behavior in organizational settings, the design of organizational structures and the relationship of organizations to their environments. MOR research draws on the basic disciplines of psychology, sociology and economics to investigate research questions in three general areas: organizational behavior, organizational theory and strategic management.

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Marketing PhD Program

Marketing is an interdisciplinary field that examines the interactions of consumers and businesses in the marketplace. Academic research in marketing draws upon theories and methodology from a wide variety of fields, including psychology, sociology, mathematics, statistics, and economics. Faculty members in Marshall’s marketing department represent numerous theoretical backgrounds and substantive interests. As mentors, they encourage students to identify their own interests and develop the analytic and methodological skills to pursue their own research questions.

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Maya Cratsley is a PhD Candidate in the Management and Organization department at USC Marshall.

PhD Program Benefits

Why pursue a Ph.D. at Marshall?

Because Marshall offers a distinct set of advantages that is rarely available at other schools.

Marshall faculty are top-tier professionals with a passion for academia and research. Currently, Marshall Faculty rank 8th in the world in terms of publication output in the top business journals. Many of our faculty are thought leaders in their profession, conducting innovative and influential research, serving as editors at top journals, and taking leadership roles in research bodies and associations. During the past few years, Marshall has engaged in an aggressive and successful strategy to recruit some of the top researchers in various areas of business.
- Our student-centered program is based on flexibility, a collegial environment, free inquiry, informed risk taking and exposes students to top quality research early in the program.
- We employ a “learner-centered” approach, fostering intellectual partnerships between faculty and students as students hone their skills in identifying interesting research topics, conducting rigorous research, and presenting their research to academic and non-academic audiences.
- We maintain a high faculty-to-student ratio, allowing students to receive quality mentoring and to develop research and teaching skills under the apprenticeship of renowned faculty members.
- We strive for students to have ample co-authorship opportunities with faculty; most of our graduates produce multiple papers with faculty before graduation.
- Students have unmatched exposure to global cultures as USC is home to more international students than any other university in the United States.
- Graduates join two powerful networks with unsurpassed reach: the Trojan Family, with more than 375,000 USC alumni worldwide, and the Marshall Trojan Family, with 80,000 graduates in 123 countries.
At Marshall, we believe in exposing students to research early in the program and providing all the necessary support to prepare students for conducting top quality research. This includes providing resources such as state of the art computers/information systems support, innumerable research databases, behavioral labs, research grants and industry access. It also includes working with faculty on research projects, and receiving the necessary training, guidance and mentorship from a top-flight researcher.
Many of our Ph.D. students will publish at least one top journal paper along with faculty prior to graduation.
The Marshall Ph.D. program offers you the opportunity to explore your research interests and take advantage of the classes, centers and programs offered both within and outside of Marshall.
- Our curriculum includes numerous electives that can be taken within Marshall, at USC schools outside of Marshall and at other universities.
- USC offers more than 400 highly regarded graduate and professional programs that prepare students for leadership positions in research, education and professional practice.
- Our interdisciplinary approach to research includes productive collaborations with other USC professional schools and access to USC’s 100-plus research centers and institutes.
Fellowship & Graduate Assistantships
Accepted students receive a competitive fellowship and/or graduate assistantship package. The package includes full tuition, a generous stipend, health and dental insurance, and coverage of mandatory student health center fees. The combination of fellowship and graduate assistantship is guaranteed for five years for those who maintain satisfactory degree progress.
Outside Funding
Occasionally a student brings outside funding to replace or supplement the funding from the USC Marshall School of Business. Examples of outside funding sources include the Ph.D. Project, foreign governments, and the Accounting Doctoral Scholars program. Such funding is acceptable, but applicants should understand that funding source is not considered in the evaluation process. We accept only the top applicants regardless of the source of funding.
Research Support & Awards
Marshall Ph.D. students are provided with a discretionary account for teaching and research activities. The annual funding increases as the student progresses in the program into more research activities in the later years.
After advancing to candidacy, students become eligible for competitive research awards open exclusively to USC Marshall Ph.D. students. Past awards have been sponsored by the USC Graduate School, the Ford Foundation, the USC Marshall Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurship and the USC Marshall James S. Ford Award.
Marshall is located at the heart of Los Angeles and Southern California, giving students access to the people and places that make the region a global force. As one of the world’s most dynamic, diverse and successful business centers, Los Angeles is equal parts international trendsetter and cultural crossroads. Students at Marshall are immersed in a vibrant international city that is a major player in emerging economies across the Pacific Rim.The University of Southern California, one of the world’s leading private research universities, offers a global outlook as well as close ties with the local community, providing opportunities to gain real-world experience while making a lasting impact.

PLACEMENTS

Our students have had job offers from top business schools including Stanford, MIT, Harvard, University of Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, UT Austin, Duke, NYU, Cambridge, London Business School, University of Michigan, Rochester, Nanyang, North Carolina, Emory, and others.

Shuping Chen, PhD '03

Current Position: Wilton E. and Catherine A. Thomas Professor in Accounting, University of Texas at Austin
Initial Placement: Foster School of Business, University of Washington, Seattle
Shuping is a highly published researcher in accounting with an emphasis in voluntary disclosure, who no holds an endowed chair in accounting at UT Austin. She is on the editorial board of The Accounting Review.
Ran Duchin, PhD '08

Current Position: William A. Fowler Endowed Professor at University of Washington (Seattle)
Initial Placement: University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business
Ran has published extensively in the top finance journals in areas as disparate as corporate finance and behavioral economics. He was recently awarded an endowed professorship at the University of Washington in record time. He also serves as Associate Editor of the Review of Financial Studies.
Negin Golrezaei, PhD '17

Current Position: Assistant Professor of Operations, Sloan School of Management MIT
Initial Placement: MIT, Sloan School of Management
Prior to graduation, Negin won the University of Southern California Graduate School PhD Achievement Award. This prestigious award is granted to a select few graduating PhD students across the entire university. Negin's dissertation has also won two prestigious awards: the INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Dissertation Prize, and the Dantzig Dissertation Award.

FACULTY + RESEARCH

SELECT PhD FACULTY

Patricia Dechow
- Robert R. Dockson Professor of Business Administration
- Professor of Accounting, Finance and Business Economics
Professor Dechow's research focuses on accounting accruals, the quality and reliability of earnings, the use of earnings information in predicting stock returns, and the effect of analysts' forecasts on investors’ perceptions of firm value.
Mark Leroy DeFond
- A. N. Mosich Chair in Accounting
- Professor of Accounting
Professor DeFond is the A. N. Mosich Chair of Accounting, Leventhal School, University of Southern California. His research investigates issues in auditing, international accounting, and earnings management.
Nathanael Fast
- Jorge Paulo and Susanna Lemann Chair in Entrepreneurship
- Associate Professor of Management and Organization
- Director of the Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making
- Co-Director of the Psychology of Technology Institute
Nathanael Fast studies the psychological underpinnings of power, leadership, and technology adoption. His research examines how power and status hierarchies shape decision making, how people’s identities shape their professional networks, and how AI is shaping the future.
Fast is Director of the Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making and Co-Director of the Psychology of Technology Institute.
He received his PhD in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University and has been recognized for both teaching and research, including USC’s Golden Apple Teaching Award, the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research, and Poets & Quants "best 40 B-school profs under the age of 40.
Peer C. Fiss
- Jill and Frank Fertitta Chair in Business Administration
- Professor of Management and Organization, and Sociology (by courtesy)
- Associate Vice Dean for Research
Peer is broadly interested in how meaning structures shape organizational actions. His work has been published in journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, American Sociological Review, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Organizations Science, Organization Studies, MISQuarterly, and the Strategic Management Journal, among others. Peer has also been working for almost two decades on the use of set-analytic methods in the social sciences, specifically on the use of fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in management and related fields. Most recently he has been working on applying set-analytic methods to policy analysis, specifically the intersectionality of poverty. His recent book with Charles Ragin (UCI) is entitled “Intersectional Inequality: Race, Class, Test Scores, and Poverty” (University of Chicago Press, 2017).

ALL PhD FACULTY

SELECT RESEARCH

"How Do Accounting Practices Spread? An Examination of Law Firm Networks and Stock Option Backdating"

Patty Dechow, Samuel Tan (2021)
The Accounting Review 96, 431-464
"Implied Equity Duration: A Measure of Pandemic Shutdown Risk"

Patty Dechow, Ryan Erhard, Richard Sloan, Mark Soliman (2021)
Journal of Accounting Research 59, 243-281
"Is It a Home Run? Measuring Relative Citation Rates in Accounting Research"

Patty Dechow, Richard Sloan, Jean (Jieyin) Zeng (2020)
Accounting Horizons 34, 67-91
"Understanding the Determinants of Analyst Target Price Implied Returns"

Patty Dechow, Haifeng You (2020)
Accounting Review 95, 125-149
"Virtual (freedom from) reality: Evaluation apprehension and leaders’ preference for communicating through avatars."

Roshni Raveendhran, Nate Fast, Peter Carnevale (2020)
"“Theorizing the Multiplicity of Digital Phenomena: The Ecology of Configurations, Causal Recipes, and Guidelines for Applying QCA"

YoungKi Park, Peer Fiss, Omar El Sawy (2020)
MIS Quarterly
"Director Networks and Innovation Herding"

Felipe Cabezon, Gerard Hoberg (2021)
"Product Life Cycles in Corporate Finance"

Gerard Hoberg, Vojislav Maksimovic (2021)
Review of Financial Studies Accepted