Management Concentration, Ph.D. in Business Administration

Although there are a number of required courses for all Ph.D. students, your program of study will be individually tailored to meet your particular needs and goals. Your program of study is not cast in stone once it has been approved and filed with the Ph.D. program office. However, any changes must be approved in writing by your unit coordinator and the Ph.D. program office.

The rate of progress in the Ph.D. program may be a factor in the allocation of competitive awards. These awards include fellowships as well as graduate research and teaching assistantships. As a general guideline, students are expected to register for a minimum of nine hours each semester (with the exclusion of summer quarter) until graduation. Many students will opt to register for more hours than the minimum. Failure to follow the program of study may be interpreted as a lack of progress.

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Required Courses – 42 Hours

• Research Methods (15 hours)
• Major (18 hours)
• Secondary Area (9 hours)

Research Methods Requirements - 15 semester hours
The satisfactory completion of no fewer than 15 graduate-level semester hours constitutes minimum preparation in research methods. The Ph.D. coordinator may approve substitutions for any of the following research methods requirements.

• Approved Graduate-Level Statistics Course
• MGS 9940 – Design of Experiments
• MGS 9950 – Regression Analysis
• MGS 9960 – Multivariate Data Analysis

Elective Options

• BA 9260 - Theory Development
• BA 9280 - Quantitative Research Methods in Business
• BA 9300 - Qualitative Research Methods in Business
• BA 9330E - Philosophy of Science for Business Research
• BA 9340E - Advanced Psychometrics
• BA 9520E - Principles of Multi-level Methods and Modeling
• IFI 8650 - Image and Text Analytics with Deep Neural Networks
• IFI 9000 - Research Methods with Analytics

Quantitative and Economic Foundations
Students entering the Ph.D. program are presumed to have background and current knowledge in:

• multi-variable calculus – including multiple integration, partial derivatives, and infinite series
• matrix algebra – including linear transformations, vector differentiation and eigenstructures
• computer skills for empirical research – including statistical packages and the use of data tapes and files
  macroeconomics and microeconomics through the intermediate level

Academic Deficiencies

New students should discuss any deficiencies in their academic background with their Ph.D. coordinator. Students lacking English communication skills may be required to take special English courses as foundation coursework. A proficiency test is administered at the special orientation program for international students. Any English courses assigned as a result of this test must be taken during the student’s first semester of coursework.

Assistantships

Ph.D. students are eligible for graduate research assistantships and graduate teaching assistantships.

These assistantships waive tuition and provide a stipend for living expenses, depending on the availability of funds from the college and academic department supporting the degree. There is no separate application; consideration is automatic.

University Doctoral Fellowships

As part of the university’s Second Century Initiative (2CI), a limited number of competitive university doctoral fellowships are available to qualified students working in each 2CI area.

Students selected as University Fellows receive the following:

Competitive stipends
Fellowships are awarded to an individual doctoral student at the level of $22,000 for a 12-month period and may be supplemented by grant or other funding.

Reduced teaching requirement
Fellowships are designed to be primarily graduate research fellowships. But recognizing the benefit of developing strong teaching experience for potential future faculty members, fellows may be the instructors of record only after they have completed their first year in the program. Then they may teach one course (or the equivalent in laboratory instruction) during each fellowship year (three semesters).

Graduate assistant benefits
As with all assistantships, University Fellows will receive full tuition waivers. Students will pay mandatory USG, registration and health insurance fees.

Renewable award
A fellowship may be awarded to the same student for up to 4 years as long as the student is meeting established doctoral program progress and academic guidelines and is being productive scholarly.

Second Century programs in the Robinson College of Business include:

Chinese Studies
The Robinson College of Business and the College of Arts & Sciences have established an inter-college research cluster in Chinese studies. The program involves Chinese language studies, Chinese politics and relationships between politics and economics, and Chinese business.

The Business of Science: Law, Policy and Ethics in the Regulation and Governance of Scientific Businesses
The Robinson College of Business and the College of Law have established a collaborative cluster with the theme of legal and ethical governance of businesses in healthcare, life sciences and biotechnology markets.

Health Information Technology
The Department of Computer Information Systems and the Institute of Health Administration in the Robinson College of Business and the Georgia Health Policy Center in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies are undertaking research around the theme of health information technology. This initiative will build upon the existing strengths of the nationally ranked computer information systems and health administration programs and the extensive funded research of the Health Policy Center.

Prospective and current Robinson College of Business students interested in pursuing a University Doctoral Fellowship should contact the their department’s doctoral coordinator.

Learn more about the Second Century Initiative.