The Doctor of Business Administration

From an emergent and niche market, the Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) will undoubtedly grow to answer the new needs of senior managers working in increasingly complex and uncertain work contexts that require decision-makers trained in the critical thinking skills provided by a DBA for professionals. This book has been written by professors and managers working in internationally accredited DBAs run by leading higher education institutions on three continents. It aims to explain why this development will happen, and why more and more managers will decide to pursue what is a rather special and unique doctoral programme. It also aims to answer many of the questions that future DBA students are likely to ask. The book has therefore been structured into three logical parts: Part one, Why a DBA programme?, answers some key questions about the reasons for the existence of a doctoral programme for business professionals. The authors explain that DBA programmes exist to answer the need of the market, and clearly expose the differences between a DBA and a PhD. Part two, The DBA programme, opens up the black box of this so-far little-known doctoral programme. The authors clarify participant profiles and motivations, programme design, the partnership between student and supervisor, student support mechanisms, and the all-important supervision of the thesis. Part three, The impact of the DBA, then discusses the huge added-value of a DBA for practising managers in terms of personal benefit, but also for their organisations, and for wider society.