DMEF Shankar - Spiegel Award for the Best Dissertation Proposal in Direct/Interactive Marketing

The 2010 Shankar – Spiegel Award for the Best Dissertation Proposal in Direct/Interactive Marketing will be awarded at the Direct/Interactive Marketing Research Summit in San Francisco in October 2010.

Award Details:

Direct Marketing Educational Foundation will award up to $6,000 ($3,000 to the winner(s); $1,500 to the Honorable Mention(s)) in financial assistance to be used for conducting the research and data collection to support their dissertation. Winning candidates will be assisted in gaining the cooperation of D/IM firms for data collection, and generous use of databases held by or accessible to DMEF.

How to Enter:

· Intent to compete forms were accepted through April 30, 2010.  The deadline for 2011 will be announced at a later date.

· An electronic version of the proposal (Word or PDF format) must be received at the DMEF by June 25, 2010. An intent to compete form was required in order to make this submission.  Maximum length is 25 double-spaced pages includes tables/exhibits and references. The first page should be an executive summary of the proposal.

· The dissertation must be no more than 50% completed at the time of submission. A letter from the primary thesis advisor approving the submission and certifying that the dissertation is no more than 50% completed must be sent/postmarked by June 25, 2010.

· The candidate should have successfully completed his/her comprehensive preliminary exam as certified by the chair(s) of his/her dissertation.

· For blind reviewing purposes, please omit any identifying information (name, school, etc.) from the proposal itself. Please include with the submission a separate file / hard copy sheet containing name, dissertation title, school, and detailed contact information for both the entrant and his/her thesis advisor(s).

· Proposals should include a brief statement of the problem area to be researched, relevant theory addressing that problem, hypotheses to be tested, methodology to be employed, analysis to be performed on the data collected, and an indicative bibliography. Attention should also be given to the managerial relevance of the expected results.

· In addition to applications from Ph.D. students in marketing, applications are encouraged from students in computer science, economics, management science, organizational psychology, statistics, advertising and communications, strategy, management and organization, information systems, and other relevant disciplines whose developments help advance our understanding of direct/interactive marketing.

· The competition is open to doctoral students worldwide. Participation in other grant or award programs does not preclude being considered for this award.

Proposals will be judged on importance and potential contribution of the subject to business and academia; quality of conceptual development; feasibility and appropriateness of methodology; and creativity. Research design aspects will play a particularly important role in the evaluation process. Judges will include marketing academics and the executive staff of the DMEF. Winner(s) will be announced by September 2010.

Inquiries should be sent to:

Jim Wu, Assistant Program Manager | Direct Marketing Educational Foundation

1120 Avenue of the Americas

New York, New York 10036 | jwu@directworks.org