This article examines the evolution of social marketing as the subject of doctoral dissertations. Search strategies were used and online databases mined to identify 93 social marketing-focused doctoral theses completed between 1971 and 2013. Dissertation titles and abstracts were analyzed to determine growth trends, institutional output, disciplinary context, topical coverage, theory and model use, and differences between countries. Results indicate that the growth in the number of doctoral theses on social marketing was neither stable nor continuous over the examined period but that a rapid increase has been seen in recent years. More than 80% of the identified doctoral dissertations were undertaken in American and British educational institutions. The largest contributions came from the fields of health sciences and education, followed by business administration, marketing, communications, and psychology. Public health was predominantly the research topic. Theories and models were not always reported, with Theory of Planned Behaviour, Diffusion of Innovations Theory, and Health Belief Model being utilized most often. This study also suggests that many dissertations were focused on program development while paying relatively limited attention to theoretical advancement. This study contributes to the debate on the academic legitimacy of social marketing and helps shape directions for further knowledge creation in the field.
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