Business Administration: DBA

Program Outcomes

Objective 1: Discovery of new knowledge that can be applied to enhance successful management of business firms, government organizations and other not-for-profit organizations.
Objective 2: Prepare students for advanced positions in management or consulting.
Objective 3: Prepare students for entry into teaching, research and training administration in higher education.

Learning Model

A DBA is an applied doctoral degree and graduates work in corporations, not-for-profits, consulting agencies as well as academia. Accordingly, the program ensures comprehensive coverage of the body of knowledge and skills needed for graduates to perform successfully in corporations and other organizations as well as academia. Our DBA curriculum is a focused, rigorous program with a business and management emphasis as well as a research orientation.

More than one-third of the program entails research hours, conducted at the doctoral level with an applied focus. Students must demonstrate an ability to work independently with initiative and diligence to design and implement an empirically grounded and theoretically significant contribution to their field. This is accomplished under the mentorship and supervision of a Doctoral Chair and Committee.

Igor Ansoff, considered one of the founders of the field of Strategic Management, was part of the team that originally designed and launched our DBA program. The program is specialized based on the University and ASM missions of professional practice and international and multicultural approach to business and management competence. The DBA program is committed to excellence in the formulation and delivery of programs in a climate that includes challenging academic requirements for students.

Specialized Admissions Requirements

Applicants must satisfy the requirements stipulated in the “Admissions and Registration” section of the University catalog, and must also meet the following criteria:

GPA: Students must have a minimum GPA of 3.0

Recommendations: Each candidate must provide three written confidential recommendations from those who can attest to the applicant’s abilities, interests, and proven accomplishments in education.

Resume: A current resume is required

Personal essay: A two-page personal essay describing the following is required:

• the professional organizations to which you belong,
• honors, activities and other creative accomplishments, and
• a brief autobiographical statement including future professional plans.

Interview: Upon receipt of all admissions documentation, the applicant will be interviewed by the DBA program committee or other qualified core faculty.

Upon receipt and review of all documentation, the candidate will be considered for final admission. Final admissions decision will be made by the DBA program committee.

Curriculum and Degree Requirements

The Doctor of Business Administration degree requires 60 total units, including 21 core units, 18 concentration units, 6 elective units, 12 dissertation research units, and 3 units in teaching seminar. This is a four year program and students have a maximum of eight years to complete.

• Comprehensive Exam - This exam is administered by the student’s Dissertation Committee, to be completed after coursework- with the possible exception of Teaching 1 and Teaching 2 which can be taken concurrently with the exam. Students need to register for Dissertation Research with their Chair to take this exam.
• Dissertation Proposal - Students need to register for Dissertation Research with their Chair to prepare for their proposal defense.
• Dissertation Defense - Students need to register for Dissertation Research with their Chair to prepare for their dissertation defense.
• BUS 9990 - Dissertation Extension (3 units)- If the students have not completed the comprehensive exam, the proposal defense and the dissertation defense in the four Dissertation Research courses, then the student needs to register for Dissertation Extension to complete these requirements.

Curriculum Plan

Concentration Curriculum Plan

Please note students are expected to have four masters level courses or equivalent in the concentration area prior to enrollment in the DBA. If students are admitted without these courses, they will need to make this up before entering the concentration courses.

Business Administration DBA Program Faculty

Core faculty for the Business Administration: DBA program are listed below:

Wendy Chung, PhD, Associate Professor

Ute Jamrozy, PhD, Associate Professor

Louise Kelly, PhD, Professor

Rachna Kumar, PhD, Professor

Cornelius Los, PhD, Professor

Rene Naert, PhD, Professor

Saba Ozyurt, PhD, Assistant Professor

Hamid Rahman, PhD, Professor

Lee White, PhD, Assistant Professor and Interim Dean

For a detailed description of program faculty background and research interests, please see the alphabetical listing of Faculty  for the Alliant School of Management.