Special Doctoral Colloquium Session: The Bumpy Road to Academia, Difficulties, Challenges, and Concerns Doctorate Students Face in the USA and Beyond (An Abstract)

Few would argue that current doctorate students face numerous challenges and difficulties on their road to becoming assistant marketing professors. This journey is becoming even more demanding when considering continuous influence of globalization evident in the discipline due to (1) international students studying in the USA, (2) international applicants for faculty positions at US universities, (3) international authors publishing in American journals, and (4) American authors publishing in international journals. Thus, young aspiring academicians face the pressure to publish in top tier marketing journals while dealing with cultural and often unknown expectations displayed in numerous markets. As such, a fundamental question that needs to be examined is “what difficulties, challenges, and concerns doctorate students face in the USA and beyond?” To provide answers to this question, the underlying objective of this special session is to pinpoint and address difficulties doctorate students face in different academic markets, ranging from the USA and France to Germany and the UK. By involving doctorate candidates in this panel, meaningful and interactive discussions between the panel members and other doctorate students on essential topics, issues, and facets associated with a typical progression from doctorate student to assistant professor are aspired. Specifically, questions related to development of research, manuscript writing skills, entering the job market, and dealing with international coauthors will be discussed. The major component of the session is the interactive framework allowing the panel members to directly address questions of the audience using their personal experience of being a third- and fourth-year doctoral candidate. This approach furthers open dialogue among participants to exchange “positive” and “negative” experiences of developing into a scholarly researcher and author. In addition, the international perspective fostered in this session allows for a unique opportunity for doctoral students around the globe to compare challenges and provide guidance on how to become a successful international scholar. The goal of the session is to gain insights into how to deal with the difficulties associated with becoming an assistant marketing professor, researcher, and author. Further, the interactive forum provides networking opportunities for students and the possibility to team up with new coauthors for future projects.