Hi All,

Well I'm in my second month of a 4 year funded phd and I'm already starting to get very nervous about the whole process and my ability to make a unique contribution to the field. Its in Marketing and I proposed a topic which certainly needs investigation. However, when I met with my 2 supervisors in week one we discussed things and they gave me advice in which direction to take the research which I agreed with.

Since then I've obviously been reading deep in the literature but I'm struggling greatly at identifying an appropriate gap. This weekend however I had a moment whereby I got real excited and thought...yes that could so work and it would be amazing....so I did preliminary research and found that in this particular area of marketing this research has not being developed. However the problem is that in order to conduct this research, I would be borrowing heavily from sociological theories which are well established and studied.

So here is my issue. If I continue down this route, what I will have is essentially a body of research which has been done before, with a marketing twist on it. Obviously this is important as I am doing a phd in marketing field but I am just worried that the contribution would not be as unique as it should be and my peers would end up asking that dreaded questions of 'So what???'.

Can some of you out there, preferably those who have completed or are doing a phd in marketing, social sciences or rather theory based research (no disrespect to the hard science students :p) offer me some advice?

To sum up.
1. How unique does your contribution need to be?
2. Is it ok to borrow heavily from an extensively researched area and apply it in a unique way to your own field?


Thanks

Hi Roro,

in 'How to get a PhD' Phillips and Pugh list nine definitions of what it means to be original:

1 doing empirically based work that has not been done before
2 using already known ideas, practices or approaches but with a new interpretation
3 bringing new evidence to bear on an old issue or problem
4 creating a new synthesis that has not been done before
5 applying something done in another country to one's own country
6 applying a technique usually associated with one area to another
7 being cross-disciplinary by using different methodologies
8 looking at areas that people in the discipline have not looked at before
9 adding to knowledge in a way that has not previously been done before

It sounds like number 6 would apply to your proposed idea!  Remember, you don't have to come up with something as groundbreaking as the equivalent of the Theory of Relativity! Smaller original contributions to knowledge are still suitable for PhDs.

Good luck with your PhD. :-)

I have no idea where I read it, but I did recently read something along the lines of

"Indeed, entire academic careers have been made out of translating well-known ideas from one field into another."

I wish I knew where I got that from. I get the feeling it was something to do with the resource curse, but I can't be sure. Anyhow, the point remains.

I agree with the others. I study literature, so not very close to your own field, but I spend 90% of my time shamelessly borrowing from other fields, applying the ideas to literature and seeing how they fit/ don't fit. It's how we roll 8-)

Thanks guys this is great. I'm starting to get really excited about it. In my head I have a zillion ideas flying around and I really think it could work. I'm on my Xmas hols since yesterday but I'm dying to whack out the books and get working on this idea. But I'm going to enjoy my 10 days off and then attack it.


I'm confident that there is some new way to view these existing theories and apply them. I really hope I can carve my niche.

To be honest I think I had crazy notions that I somehow had to come up with some astounding new theory and blow everyone out of the water. Thing is though...my supervisor finished hers about 3 years ago and was praised right across the field for having such accomplished research. Now I have a complex about it. I think I just need to accept that while mine may not as be ground breaking it will be valid none the less....
:-)

Hey Roro! I think that's fine...research is all about looking at different theories and models, seeing if they translate to other areas/fields etc. In a way, that's what I am doing...I do Clinical Psychology and am working with people with Alzheimer's. The model that I am structuring my research around is very well known in other fields, but has never been applied in this way before, or to this population. I suppose the way I am using it means that it it is more a theoretical framework than a model (i.e. I am not trying to prove it right or wrong, which would actually be impossible)- I am just using the framework as a structure, but the theoretical and practical implications of trying it out are quite far-reaching. Moreover, there is a huge gap in the field with respect to the area that I am trying to apply it to, especially with respect to empirical research. It might not work out too well, who knows...but either way, it would still be interesting! So yes, I would say borrow away! In one sense, we are all borrowing something as all of our research is based upon previous research...whether that's a model, a methodology or technique, existing data etc. Best of luck with it! KB

i agree with the others, it doesn't have to be an earth shattering eureka making thing - but it does have to have some degree of uniqueness. My research in drawing on ideas from many different areas, and is far away from the traditional teacher - pupil approach to research in my area. This is considered exciting and original by my prof, so who am I to argue with that? I suggest you start with ideas on post-its or similar, or use mind mapping techniques so that you can rearrange your thoughts easily to get some order to your plan, this will help you see where your proposal shows the unique quality required, and you can use the list already posted here to help you with this. Incidentally if you have a brilliant idea now, get something down before you start any festivities - even if they are just jottings on a bit of paper, sometimes these ideas need to be captured before they disappear into the ether forever :-)