Doctorate

Professor Swoboda supports his PhD students extremely strong and enjoys working with them. He is very interested that PhD students are writing a cumulative dissertation on projects that are visible in the international science community and in international journals. At least two out of three projects should be published at the time of doctorate or have a reasonable chance of getting published in a visible international journal in the field of Retailing, Marketing or International Management.

If you are primarily interested in a classical, German monograph or a quick dissertation, then Professor Swoboda is not the right partner. He supports his assistants by creating baseline conditions that allow to graduate within four years. This support include a participation in a summer school (to improve the necessary empirical and methodological competencies) as well as the possibility to present own projects at leading international conferences in Marketing and International Management. The conferences, the intensive corporation with Professor Swoboda and the replies to anonymous reviews after the submission to a journal increases the quality of the published studies. Apart from the option to discuss the projects of the dissertation with colleagues and Professor Swoboda every week, usually every three months a PhD colloquium takes place, in which all PhD students have enough time to present and discuss their projects.

The expectations towards you as a PhD student is that you are interested and enjoy making serious contributions to international research. This interest and the required skills should be reflected in your CV. Nevertheless, grades alone do not reflect the performance of a PhD voluntarist, but if you did not at least have performed excellently in high school or in individual subjects during your studies, then your strengths lie probably in other areas.

If you are interested in obtaining a doctorate, please contact Professor Swoboda directly, independently of a specific PhD position advertisement. External PhD students, those who are not working at Trier University, only have a chance of receiving applications if they have a scholarship that keeps them free from other activities for at least two years. This scholarship need to be at least partly charged through Trier University.

Current dissertations can be accessed at "Dissertations & Book Series".