PhD in management is the highest academic degree awarded in the study of management science. The degree was designed for those seeking academic research and teaching careers as faculty or professors in the study of management at business schools worldwide.
A PhD degree is a doctor of philosophy which can be obtained in many areas of study, while a PhD in management is specific to the study of research questions with potential relevance to the business world. Areas of specialization for the PhD in business often include, but are not limited to:
A PhD in management or business is often required for those interested in pursuing an academic career as a professor at a business school. Business schools often require faculty to hold a Ph.D. and to engage in research. Business school rankings are often heavily influenced by the proportion of faculty with Ph.D. degrees or doctorates. Research is fundamental to the integrity of a graduate educational institution. Through research, professors gain the expertise required to teach advanced courses and to ensure that they remain current in his or her chosen field.
In the 1950's and 1960's, leading business schools made a transition from vocational training to scientific research, rooted in social sciences, such as economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, systems engineering, and mathematics. Since then, Ph.D. programs in business prepare candidates to conduct scholarly research based on rigorous methods and applied to business. For example, such research might aim to develop new theory and empirical knowledge about business and management problems by combining methods from economics, psychology and mathematical decision theory. By combining methods from multiple social sciences, business research has developed its own subfields of research, published in business application oriented journals as well as in social sciences journals.
Research with regard to the study of business encompasses a wide range of activities. There are many research methodologies or "tools" one must learn before being able to conduct research. A PhD program in business will teach one these various methods.
Common research methodologies used in studying business are: Modeling, Econometrics, Experiments, descriptive and Field Studies.