Completing a PhD in business and management: A brief guide to doctoral students and universities

Abstract

Purpose

Despite the ever-growing number of PhD students all over the world, there remain significant doubts about whether entering students in business and management disciplines fully understand the process of producing a PhD thesis, defending it and developing a coherent publication strategy. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to offer some guidance on what it takes to successfully complete a doctoral research thesis.

Design/methodology/approach

The arguments and guidance presented in this viewpoint paper are drawn on the authors’ collective supervision and doctoral examination experiences.

Findings

The paper presents guidelines on three key issues related with the doctoral completion: choosing a research problem; demonstrating rigour and quality; developing a publication strategy.

Originality/value

The content presented in this paper would be valuable aide to those pursuing doctoral research.

Citation

Dwivedi, Y.K., Ravishankar, M.N. and Simintiras, A.C. (2015), "Completing a PhD in business and management: A brief guide to doctoral students and universities", Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Vol. 28 No. 5, pp. 615-621. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEIM-12-2014-0118