The PhD is losing its currency for business leaders

In continental Europe, the PhD is still widely considered the default next step for leaders wanting to extend their knowledge beyond an MBA. But the complexity of challenges faced by organisations today means that senior businesspeople have increasingly specific and rather different study needs. These can’t always be met by conventional doctorates such as the PhD – let alone short CPD or executive education programmes.

The latter do a great job of providing leaders with pre-packaged solutions on specific topics. But they are less suitable for those who want to take a step back and generate specialised knowledge and expertise for the benefit of both their organisations and themselves as practising managers.

On the other hand, PhDs are great for people who want to follow an academic career or teach at a business school. But they are less suited to business leaders dealing with increasingly fast-paced, uncertain and complex challenges (only exacerbated by the pandemic) that require them to work beyond the confines of a highly specialised academic discipline.

On a secondary level, many senior business leaders desire theory and broader insights into their business practice. They are looking for guidance from expert academics and opportunities to interact with other like-minded leaders. Achieving all this requires a programme that delivers broad, divergent and multidisciplinary knowledge.

This is why many leaders in Europe are now turning to the professional doctorate, the DBA, as a more suitable option. Other than the opportunity to focus on an existing problem in their professional practice and to find a way to address it, the core purpose of the DBA is to help practitioners have their capabilities recognised and publish and share managerial knowledge based on their experience. It can serve as a potent development tool, helping them consider which aspects of their identity are potentially blocking the self-progress and change required to find solutions.

Despite all this, universities in continental Europe have been slow to offer DBAs. In France, for example, Grenoble School of Management introduced the first programme in 1984, but it wasn’t until 2008 that the first French university, Paris Dauphine, offered an executive DBA. Traditional doctorates still get the most airtime because their more philosophical approach is what the sector understands best. It is estimated that French business schools and universities are some 25 to 30 years behind the UK in terms of DBA provision.

The DBA is seen as very resource-intensive, and therefore not a priority for state-funded universities. What is perhaps more surprising is the lack of interest from fee-paying continental business schools. Given their unique focus on business and management, the DBA would allow them to engage differently with business leaders.

While some academics may find it hard to adopt the unfamiliarly practical mindset required to supervised DBAs, others are champing at the bit. Here at the Business Science Institute, for instance, we have had calls from faculty members from elsewhere actively looking for DBA teaching or supervisory experience because this sort of deep interaction with practitioners was not on offer at their home university. Lars Meyer-Waarden, professor of marketing at Toulouse School of Management and academic coordinator of our executive DBA in Thailand and Vietnam, says he finds it “stimulating to conduct applied research on hot topics concerning organisations right now – in marketing and technologies such as AI, the internet of things and smart cities”.

Students seem keen too. We have seen numerous examples of people who have transferred from a PhD to a DBA because the former did not meet their needs. From students’ perspective, the DBA offers an intensive active learning experience that offers unique critical perspectives on their practice. This enables them to navigate through ambiguity and complexity to find solutions to “wicked” and very specific business challenges.

From an employer’s point of view, DBAs develop specific practice-related skills and outcomes that are absent from a traditional PhD. European governments, too, are demanding a research degree that is more relevant to the needs of business and economic growth, even if many countries still fail to give formal recognition to the DBA as a doctoral-level qualification. Internationally, quality assurance and accreditation agencies have generally embraced more work-related and practice-oriented criteria in doctoral learning. DBAs can therefore support institutions’ accreditation initiatives, if done properly.

But they could do so much more for institutions – and learners. There are now more than 60,000 MBA graduates in the UK and Europe from Association of MBA-accredited institutions alone. The market for further study is huge. As these graduates become senior leaders over time and their needs develop, could the DBA become the new MBA?

Michel Kalika is president of the Business Science Institute, an independent international academic organisation that runs an executive DBA programme for senior managers from nearly 50 countries.