A New Partnership in Doctoral Education in Business Administration: A Contemporary Approach

Academic And Professional Career Paths

The current model for delivery of doctoral education in business administration needs to change to cope with the diversity of doctoral degree holders but has good pedagogical skills and research skills. The current model emphasizes the apprenticeship approach but this approach does not allow for keeping up with the demand of doctoral degree earners. That is, there needs to be greater diversity in the delivery of a doctoral education. It is suggested that we may need to add different models of doctoral education in business education that allows more interdisciplinary work and a more diverse career path. Given the latter suggested changes, schools of business will have to find new ways to deliver the doctoral education and to develop the communities of practice that will share the values of scientific research (De Meyer, 2013).

Given the requisite changes as suggested by De Meyer (2013), doctoral programs in business administration are recognized to prepare students for career paths within academia and industry, or even both. That is, not all doctoral programs in business administration have the latitude to offer career preparation within academia and industry, or there is differentiation among business doctoral programs because a doctoral program could be intended for the students aspiring to a professor, researcher, and/or administrator role in an academic setting, or for practitioners interested in advancing their careers by improving their research skills (AACSB, 2013).