Doctor of Business Administration

Program Description/Overview

The program 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 program prepares students for advanced positions in management or consulting, or academic positions in teaching, research or administration in Higher Education institutions. 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.

Emphasis/Concentration/Tracks

Marketing

This specialization is geared towards students with a broad range of interests including but not limited to the organizational strategy of firms, managing and growing organizations, and behavior of employees, teams and groups, strategies for political and social influence and organizational learning and adaptation. Doctoral candidates in this specialization will be able to create new knowledge for application in the real-world to the evolving needs of complex global organizations and their management. They learn and research theory and application, leading them to impact management practices across the globe.

Information and Data Science

This specialization is geared towards students with a focused interest in understanding and contributing to knowledge creation within the broad and contemporary field of data revolution. Data science can be researched from a quantitative, programming and applied perspectives. The specialization emphasizes research in the data and information science areas from the applied perspective of impacting organizational, management and competitive perspectives. The program will also provide experience in important, business related data-science problems in diverse fields including ethical and societal considerations surrounding data science and its applications.

Management

This specialization prepares students with broad based foundational skills for academic research, consulting and corporate positions in organizations. The specialization is geared towards students with an interest in understanding and contributing to knowledge creation within the fields of strategy, leadership, human resource management, international strategy, growth and competitiveness, organizational development and theories. Students learn emerging theories and research issues to develop solutions to complex management problems.

Program Learning Outcomes/Goals

1. Analyze and research contemporary business problems using appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods, tools or techniques. (P)
2. Develop research-based solutions in complex environments using discipline-specific theory in an area of specialization.  (A)
3. Conduct applied, scholarly research relevant to the discipline that contributes to sound decision-making in the business environment. (I)
4. Demonstrate ethical and professional skills for leadership roles in academia, consulting or business organizations. (C)
5. Demonstrate understanding of multicultural and international issues influencing success of solutions in organizations.  (M)
6. Contribute knowledge by utilizing data and interdisciplinary understanding to develop highly functioning, sustainable organizations.   (A)
7. Demonstrate competence in interpersonal communication in team (T)

Training Model

This 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. The 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.

Program-Specific Admission Requirements

1. GPA: Students must have a minimum GPA of 3.0
2. 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.
3. Resume
4. Personal essay: A two-page essay describing the following:
   1. the professional organizations to which you belong,
   2. honors, activities and other creative accomplishments, and
   3. a brief autobiographical statement including future professional plans.
5. Interview: Upon receipt of all admissions documentation, the applicant will be interviewed by the DBA Program Committee or other qualified core faculty.

Final admissions decision will be made by the DBA Program Committee.

Internship, Practicum, and/or Dissertation Information

Students have the option to participate in an internship course as part of their specialization learning experience within the program. The internship is designed to develop professional practice related skills in student’s area of specialization through a variety of work experiences which could involve independently conducted projects in professional settings or an internship. This is designed to provide students with in depth supervised practical learning experiences. The internship option should be chosen by international students after one (1) academic year in the program. Contact the International Students Office for details in case you want to do the internship prior to completion of one (1) academic year.

Credit Units

Total Credit Units: 60

Total Core Credit Units: 45

Total Elective Credit Units: N/A

Total Concentration Credit Units: 15

Degree Requirements

Students must pass a qualifying exam (projects) to ensure qualified doctoral candidacy.

Emphasis/Concentration/Track Requirements

Curriculum Plan

Gainful Employment

For important information about the educational debt, earnings, and completion rates of students who attended this program, please visit https://www.alliant.edu/media/gainful-employment-disclosure/Doctor_Business_Administration.html.