Find the new article by Jean-Pierre Helfer, Professor Emeritus at the Sorbonne Business School and Michel Kalika, Professor Emeritus, at iaelyon School of Management!
Forget all your preconceptions about the PhD. The Doctorate of business administration (DBA) can help companies. Let's find out more about this little-known degree, which builds bridges between the worlds of business and research.
In a context characterized by an ever-increasing number of crises (geopolitical, environmental, economic, health-related, etc.), companies need to question their decision-making processes and business models. A number of managers who already hold MBAs or Master's degrees highly professional programs, but lacking the indispensable side-step required for reflection and action are now embarking on a doctoral course to find new answers. The experience gained in a sector or profession enables them to take the measure of the changes underway.
Recently, a manager who is a member of the Comex of a major international company in the electronics sector contacted us, as his management had entrusted him with the task of overhauling the business models of the various divisions to adapt them to inevitable climate change.
Two sub-questions then arose:
- Is a doctoral course useful to a manager, and more generally to an organization?
- What doctoral path to choose, between traditional doctorate (acronym English, PhD) and Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA)?
The value of a PhD
With regard to the first question, the experience of the authors, who together have directed more than sixty PhD theses, and the recent White Paper "Management research for the benefit of companies", which presents the story and results of some twenty doctoral paths taken by working managers, provide an unambiguous answer. Managers with significant professional experience can greatly benefit from an open door to performance by committing to a doctoral thesis on a topic related to their practice.