Doctor of Business Administration

The DBA Launch and Current Topics course provides an opportunity for cohort members to connect and collaborate. Learners discover university resources, gain a beginning knowledge of the applied research process, use scholarly writing, and apply APA formatting. Using business sources in the fields of leadership, change management, marketing, human resource management, strategy and innovation, supply chain management, financial management, and business law, learners will evaluate current topics by synthesizing information from academic and popular business sources.

The Doctor of Business Administration project is an applied research project and is designed to solve a real business problem, known problem, or potential opportunity that can be exploited and, in all cases, seeks to improve business practice. This course equips learners with the research tools required to design and conduct a doctoral applied research project. The course will compare research processes and learners will identify, select, and support a research topic for further investigation. Doctoral learners will be prepared to select a topic, review academic and business sources, design a study using qualitative or quantitative research, collect data, analyze, and interpret data, and report and evaluate the research project.

The executive leadership development course focuses on emerging trends in leadership studies including steward, ethical, and authentic leadership practice. Learners apply modern leadership theories in an organizational context. Doctoral learners will synthesize leadership development from a personal, team, and organizational leadership perspective and will develop a personal mission statement and leadership growth plan by analyzing and evaluating leadership practices. Learners relate their understanding of leadership influence by evaluating leadership practice from a real-world perspective.

Businesses have legal, social, and ethical responsibilities. When businesses are global, these aspects are further given international law. Doctoral learners will interpret business law using real-world cases and from a perspective of a business life cycle including legal requirements for starting, running, and closing a business. Learners will also compare business law from the perspective of a corporation, appraise bankruptcy, and assess dispute resolution. Learners will apply learning through business law case interpretation and analyze business law practices.

Organizational leaders address contemporary business issues in an ambiguous global economy of rapid change, technological advances, and uncertainty. Executive leaders leverage business analytics to manage daily operations, evaluate strategic objectives, and to make sound decisions driven by informative data. Business analytics has evolved using machine learning and artificial intelligence to help solve business problems involving structure and unstructured data. Doctoral learners will understand various data sets and business analytical tools available which will encompass critical thinking and decision-making. Learners will research, analyze, and evaluate business analytics and decision making to solve a business problem.

Through this course in human resources management learners will investigate key issues and contemporary research topics in the global workforce using real case studies. Doctoral learners will increase knowledge through research in the field of strategic human resource management including the strategic allocation of human assets, workforce demographics and planning, performance metrics, and analytics. Learners interpret concepts of diversity, organizational behavior, corporate social responsibility, hybrid and remote work, and ethical behavior, and gain insight on talent development and workforce sustainability. Learners will assess HR best practices by synthesizing information from academic and business sources.

The entrepreneurship course helps doctoral learners appraise critical-thinking processes and problem-solving needed to launch new ventures and manage change in a global marketplace. Entrepreneurial processes will be analyzed through real-world case studies and business sources starting from ideation to launch. Learners will evaluate business strategy, growth plans, and change-management from the lens of entrepreneurialism. Doctoral leaners will analyze and evaluate business practices using a broad knowledge of business functions, strategies, and analytics.

This course will help doctoral learners gain an understanding of research in the field of marketing through an exploration of contemporary theories. Course concepts include complex marketing activities that promote products, brands, and services in an ever-evolving global marketplace of changing personas. Marketing study will include the use of resources, research, analysis, psychology, advertising, delivery, digital marketplaces, and buying and selling B2B and to direct consumers. Learners will analyze real-world cases using popular and scholarly research related to an industry/and or interest area and a broad knowledge of marketing functions and strategies

Strategy covers advanced themes such as a situation assessment, ideation, formulation, development, and implementation. Doctoral learners will analyze market forces, competitive landscapes, customer changes/experiences, and internal company business issues to help frame effective strategies and policies. Real world case study examples help doctoral learners gain insight on market changes, value propositions, and opportunities. Learners will learn the framework for developing strategy, how to identify a bad strategy, and gain an appreciation of good strategy for sustainability. Learners will evaluate strategic plans, retooling, launching new innovative processes, and demonstrate an understanding of the rapid pace of innovation, strategic management, change, and best practice.

Virtually all business involved a supply chain whether it is goods, funds, and/or information. The efficiency of a supply chain, or not, directly impacts the performance of a business. Doctoral learners will study real world examples of efficient and inefficient supply chains and the impact on businesses. Key concepts to be studied will include participants supply chain, various software platforms, roles, and responsibilities of supply chain providers to end consumers, and key business challenges facing supply chains moving forward. Doctoral learners will analyze a business problem and leverage multiple sources to offer recommendations from a logistics perspective for supply chain improvements.

Corporate sustainability relies on sound decision making and financial management. Learners will create, assess, and summarize financials using decision marking processes. Doctoral learners will evaluate decision making models and analyze financial health, profitability, and organizational performance using financial decision-making tools such as budgets, profit/loss, cash flow, capital, risk assessment, and short- and long-term financial planning.

In this course, learners will create an introduction to the project along with a problem/opportunity statement. Doctoral learners will compare potential problem and opportunity scenarios and choose a research approach and the problem/opportunity statement will guide the research project. The problem statement will be clear, concise, and practical. The doctoral learner will complete the first draft of the dissertation proposal by creating research that addresses practical business problems or opportunity. Upon the completion of this course, the learner will be partnered with a mentor for the remainder of the ADPE.

In this course, the learner will craft the literature review using contemporary research and scholarly literature through a synthesis of academic and business sources. The doctoral candidate works in collaboration with the mentor to review and revise the literature review.

In this course, the learner will revise and edit the proposal to become a formal project proposal. Learners will work with a mentor, methodologist, and stylist to review and revise the project proposal. At the completion of this course, doctoral learners will complete a final proposal document and successfully defend their doctoral project proposal to a committee.

In this course, learners will prepare and submit an Institutional Review Board (IRB) application. When approval is received, learners will conduct research to address the business problem or opportunity. In this course, candidates will initiate, conduct, and complete the research project. Learners will then complete a draft of the final two chapters of project. The doctoral candidate will collaborate with the mentor and methodologist to review and revise the data collection.

In this course, candidates will complete the writing of the doctoral dissertations by interpreting the data and will conclude the project. Learners will work with a mentor, methodologist, and stylist to review and revise the final project and prepare for the final defense.

In this course, candidates will defend the project and upon successful completion, will post the project for public access.