Program Schedule and Courses

Designed to accommodate working business professionals, the program is delivered in a blended learning format that combines online learning with traditional classroom instruction during monthly in-residence weekends (Fridays and Saturdays).

The DBA program requires completion of 62 credit hours over a three-year period including preparation and defense of a doctoral dissertation.

DBA courses consist of the following:

Course Descriptions

Business Administration | Back to Top↑

DBUA 8102, 8103, 8104, 8105, 8106, 8107. Doctoral Colloquium I, II, III, IV, V, VI.

These courses are designed to supplement the formal course work with a series of professional development workshops. They are also designed to ensure that students are making satisfactory progress in the development of their applied research study.

DBUA 8211. Becoming an Applied Researcher.

Supports a student’s entry into the format and rigor of the 亚博yaboApp DBA program by introducing them to the scholar-practitioner doctoral competencies of critical thinking and analysis, academic reading and writing, as well as, the managerial and organizational literature. Students will complete a personal assessment and development plan to identify strategies for success. The course will acquaint the students with the blended learning format that integrates both online and on-ground content delivery methods utilized throughout the DBA program.

DBUA 8305. The Craft of Research and Writing.

This class teaches students how to write clearly and effectively both in their academic research and in their professional lives. It sets forth the principles of writing from a reader’s point of view, beginning on the sentence level and proceeding to the level of the document. By learning concepts such as “nominalization,” “information flow,” “point,” “argument,” “warrant,” and “problem,” students learn not only how to navigate the academic writing that they read, but how to lead their own readers when they write. The course will also cover the importance of setting up a valuable problem, and how to explain its rationale with a cogent and well-supported argument.

DBUA 8320. Designing Applied Research.

Designed to equip managers to be critical users of information by learning about the variety of research strategies, designs, and operations. Designed to build a core set of skills by examining the full range of methodological choices, constraints, and compromises that occur in the applied research process.

DBUA 8330. Qualitative Methods for Diagnosis and Assessment.

Focuses on the use of qualitative methods for discovering, observing, and analyzing a variety of organizational phenomenon. Topics include case method, grounded theory, action research, phenomenology, ethnography, and comparative-historical inquiry. 

DBUA 8340. Applied Statistical Analysis I.

Designed to build a toolkit of analytic techniques for development, measurement, and analysis of data. Topics include descriptive statistics, correlation, exploratory factor analysis, and regression analysis. 

DBUA 8350. Applied Statistical Analysis II. 

Designed to expand the toolkit of analytic techniques for development, measurement, and analysis of data, with a focus on multivariate analysis techniques. Topics include multiple regression analysis, multivariate analysis of variance, conjoint analysis, cluster analysis, and structural equation modeling (SEM) among others. In addition, this course provides the opportunity to advance students' knowledge and application of appropriate analysis methods for their dissertation research. 

DBUA 8370. Practicum: Dissertation Mini-Proposal. (Independent Study)

Doctoral students take the first step in the dissertation process by selecting an applied research topic and writing a mini-proposal to include a review of relevant literature, research questions, hypotheses, and methodology to conduct the research. 

DBUA 9394, 9395, 9696, 9697. Dissertation I, II, III, IV.

The DBA Dissertation I, II, III, and IV are the culminating experience in the program. Individual students demonstrate their ability to design and execute an applied research study. The DBA Dissertation courses are taken in three successive trimesters after all other course work has been completed. Enrollment in DBUA 8699 Doctoral Readings may be required if the applied research project is not completed by the end of the third dissertation trimester. A grade of T is assigned and remains until after the defense of the dissertation. Doctoral Readings are required each term until the final defense of the dissertation is complete.

DBUA 8V98. Teaching Practicum.

Designed for DBA students who wish to teach college-level courses. International Scholars in the DBA program must enroll in this course in order to receive employment authorization from the International Student Services Office (ISO). See ISO for details. Special restrictions apply and a contract is needed to enroll. Enrollment does not make students eligible for federal financial aid or for the deferment of loans. 

Management | Back to Top↑

DMGT 8315. Strategic Perspectives.

Survey of strategic management topics that are relevant to managers. The primary objectives are for students to be able to assimilate and synthesize existing knowledge from the field of strategic management in meaningful ways. Intended to equip students to derive and apply tactical solutions to strategic issues that face both large and small organizations today.

DMGT 8325. Human Resource Management & Organizational Behavior.

Attracting and retaining a talented workforce is a strategic imperative. Doing so requires organizations to create an overall context through a set of organizational practices referred to as the HR Value Chain. This organizational context must be supplemented at the individual and group level with a variety of leadership and motivational processes that foster commitment, satisfaction and engagement.

DMGT 8335. Leadership and Followership.

Views leadership as both a personal and an interpersonal process. In-depth self-assessment and reflection used to develop the self-awareness necessary for effective leadership in complex environments. Ethical implications of emerging approaches to leadership and followership examined.

DMGT 8355. Agile Organizations.

This course examines organizational effectiveness from a senior leadership perspective. Attention is devoted to understanding the various leverage points that allow leaders to create high-performing organizations that are capable of quickly adapting to the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environments in which they operate. Attention is also paid to the processes and dynamics of implementing successful change via the formal organization development process.

DMGT 8365  Special Topics in Applied Management Research

This course guides doctoral students in exploring current topics in management, strategy, sustainability, marketing, technology, or other research areas in business.

DMGT 8H30. The Sustainable Enterprise.

Inter-firm relationships in a supply chain as a product or service is brought to market and its cradle-to-cradle life cycle impact on sustainability. The systems view of the supply chain used to examine sustainable design issues across the chain.

Marketing | Back to Top↑

DMKT 8360. Applied Marketing Research.

This course examines the marketing research process as it applies to marketing concepts such as consumer behavior, segmentation, branding, customer service, pricing, distribution, integrated marketing communication and sales. Steps in the marketing research process such as survey design, data collection, data analysis and reporting will be covered in detail.

Technology | Back to Top↑

DTEC 8H15. Emerging Technologies.

Technologies that enable information power in support of the enterprise mission and goals. Current and future technologies examined from the perspective of bringing value add and change to the enterprise, empowering the employee, and engaging customers. Critical information infrastructures studied to ensure system and information confidentiality, integrity and availability. Process design, risk management and frameworks analyzed to minimize the negative effects of business issues, disasters (man-made and natural), and wicked problems that affect the country, the enterprise and each individual.