Business Administration: DBA

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The Doctoral program of Alliant’s School of Management is designed to provide a multidisciplinary and global perspective for managers and leaders to improve their practical and theoretical capabilities to create new knowledge and apply it to create innovation and solve problems in organizations in the 21st century.

The program encourages an interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary approach integrating ideas from Business, the Humanities and the Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences. The doctoral program prepares students for advanced positions in management or consulting, or academic positions in teaching, research or administration in Higher Education institutions. The degree consists of 60 units with an emphasis on Management - including Strategic Finance and Marketing. Students will learn in classes with their professors and they will also engage in extensive self-learning and collaborative learning opportunities such as the Research Labs.

Program Outcomes

Objective 1: Discovery of new international and multicultural knowledge that can be applied to enhance successful management of business firms, government organizations and other not-for-profit organizations.

Objective 2: Ability to disseminate international and multicultural knowledge in academic or professional publications and conferences.

Objective 3: Prepare students for advanced positions in management or consulting and higher education teaching and administration.

Learning Model

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

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.

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 two 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. This is a four year program and students have a maximum of eight years to complete.

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

Courses are three units each, unless otherwise indicated.