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Marketing is a popular major in universities worldwide. However, the discipline of marketing encompasses a wide range of subjects, making it difficult for students to understand its internal and peripheral disciplines. And, there are three core ideas of the reading.

• 1. Marketing is a popular major in universities worldwide, but the discipline encompasses a wide range of subjects, making it difficult for students to understand its internal and peripheral disciplines.
• 2. The distribution of colleges and departments in a university can provide insights into the surrounding disciplines, and the internal and peripheral disciplines of marketing can be understood by examining the professional courses offered by each department.
• 3. The placement of the Marketing Department in different schools within universities reflects different perspectives on marketing as a discipline and can affect the knowledge and skills students gain from their marketing education.
  

To shed light on this issue, we conducted a comparative analysis of the marketing departments in several universities, including Tsinghua University in China, Harvard University in the United States, and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

The distribution of colleges and departments in a university can provide insights into the surrounding disciplines. For instance, at Tsinghua University, the Marketing Department is located in the School of Economics and Management, alongside parallel departments such as the Department of Economics, Department of Finance, and Department of Leadership and Organizational Behavior. These departments are considered peripheral disciplines to marketing since they share similar domains of knowledge and research.

In contrast, at Harvard University, the Marketing Department is part of the Business School, which includes parallel departments such as the Department of Accounting and Management. These departments are also considered peripheral disciplines to marketing. However, at the University of Oxford, the Marketing Department is part of the Saïd Business School, which includes parallel departments such as the Department of Strategy and International Business. These departments are considered internal disciplines to marketing since they provide complementary knowledge and research.

To understand the internal disciplines of marketing, we examined the professional courses offered by each department. At Tsinghua University, the Marketing Department offers courses such as consumer behavior, advertising management, and sales management. These courses are considered internal disciplines to marketing since they provide fundamental knowledge and skills to students pursuing a career in marketing.

Similarly, at Harvard University, the Marketing Department offers courses such as marketing research, consumer behavior, and digital marketing. These courses are also considered internal disciplines to marketing. However, at the University of Oxford, the Marketing Department offers courses such as brand management, pricing strategy, and customer relationship management. These courses are considered peripheral disciplines to marketing since they provide complementary knowledge to students pursuing a career in marketing.

Despite the similarities in the distribution of colleges and departments in universities worldwide, there are some discrepancies. For instance, at some universities, the Marketing Department is part of the Communication or Journalism School rather than the Business School.

This placement reflects a different perspective on marketing as a discipline that focuses on advertising and public relations rather than business strategy and consumer behavior. Moreover, some universities offer interdisciplinary majors that combine marketing with other fields such as psychology or computer science. These majors provide students with a unique perspective on marketing that incorporates different domains of knowledge and research.

In conclusion, understanding the discipline of marketing in universities requires a comparative analysis of the distribution of colleges and departments and the professional courses offered by each department. While there are similarities across universities worldwide, there are also discrepancies that reflect different perspectives on marketing as a discipline. By gaining a better understanding of the internal and peripheral disciplines of marketing, students can make informed decisions about their career paths and contribute to the advancement of this dynamic field.

Key learning outcomes from the article: 

1. A better understanding of the internal and peripheral disciplines of marketing, which can help students make informed decisions about their career paths.

2. An awareness of the differences in the placement of the Marketing Department in different schools within universities and how this affects the knowledge and skills students gain from their marketing education.

3. Insights into the professional courses offered by marketing departments at different universities, which can help students choose the university that best fits their interests and goals.