Program Overview

Overview

The Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) program at Clermont School of Business is a high-level degree that provides professionals with the opportunity to undertake in-depth research in management while continuing their corporate career. The program is designed to be an optimistic bet on a richer and more fruitful future for management sciences and all its new actors.

Program Details

• Duration: 3 years with the possibility of a one-year extension
• Language: English for all teaching modules; thesis supervisor support, writing of the thesis, and defense can be done in French or English
• Format: Part-time, online, with seminars on weekends
• Diploma requirements: Writing a DBA thesis accepted by the DBA Supervisory Committee and successfully defending the DBA thesis before a scientific committee of experts

Research Themes

The DBA program covers a wide range of high-level management activities in organizations. Some possible research themes include:

• Management of Health care Institutions
• Digital Economy
• Innovation Management
• Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics
• Human Resources and Talent Management
• Strategy and Strategic Planning
• Marketing and Branding
• Finance and Financial Modeling
• Oil, Gas, and Petrochemical Industries
• Banking and Financial Services

Admission

• Public concerned: Candidates holding a Master's degree (Bac+5) with a good command of English who need a doctoral degree to turn towards teaching and research, to build up a file of publications, and to join a Business School. Experienced professionals who need a doctoral degree to move into high-level management positions, to retrain in teaching and research, and to develop academic expertise in order to set up a consulting business.
• Recruitment in a two-stage process:
  • Examination of the applicant file (diplomas, CV, cover letter, letter of recommendation, professional certificates)
  • Motivation Interview

Program Structure

The DBA program is made up of three sets:

• Supervision: By a qualified supervisor, professor from the Faculty of Clermont School of Business, available and attentive. He is specialized in the doctoral student's field of application and is dedicated to him from the start of the doctoral journey.
• Collective workshops: Dedicated to the main steps of the construction of the thesis (problem statement, theoretical framework, collection and processing of data, etc.) as well as to academic writing (writing the thesis and articles) and to the preparation for the oral defense.
• Seminars: Allow students to learn the practice and methods of research and to understand the major current issues of research in the main disciplines of Management Sciences.

Year 1

• Doctoral Courses:
  • The fundamentals of research: epistemological posture and methodology
  • Conducting your research project, research approaches and design
  • Research practice in Management Sciences (I) – Main Streams
• DBA Thesis Workshops:
  • Research Follow-Up Workshops
  • Workshop 1: Research Statement
  • Workshop 2: Literature Review
  • Workshop 3: Theoretical Framework
  • Optional Workshop 1: Action Research and Collaborative Research
  • Optional Workshop 2: Academic Writing

Year 2

• Doctoral Courses:
  • Training in Qualitative Methods
  • Training in Quantitative Methods
  • Research practice in Management Sciences (II) – Contemporary Issues
• DBA Thesis Workshops:
  • Research Follow-Up Workshops
  • Workshop 4: Processing Qualitative Data
  • Workshop 5: Processing Quantitative Data
  • Optional Workshop 3: In-depth practice in qualitative data processing
  • Optional Workshop 4: In-depth practice in quantitative data processing

Year 3

• Doctoral Courses:
  • Training in the Valuation of Research Work
  • Presenting Your Research at Conferences
  • Publishing in Academic Journals
  • Ethics and Deontology in Research
• DBA Thesis Workshops:
  • Research Follow-Up Workshops
  • Workshop 6: Reflection on the Discussion and Managerial Implications
  • Workshop 7: Mock Defense of the DBA Thesis
  • Writing and presenting the DBA Thesis
  • DBA Thesis Defense

Partners Abroad

Clermont School of Business has partnerships with institutions abroad, including:

• EPIM – Afrique Subsaharienne
• Impacters Global Events
• NEW IDEA International Education
• Online Education
• RUNSHI EDUCATION GROUP (RSEG)
• Shenzhen BoLing Education
• YUKIA
• Yunnan Provincial Service Center of Scholarly Exchange

These partnerships allow for the DBA program to be offered in various locations around the world.