Business Administration PhD

Major: Business Administration
Degree Awarded: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Calendar Type: Quarter
Minimum Required Credits: 90.0 (post-bachelor's) or 60.0 (post-master's) 
Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code: 52.0101
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code: 11-1021

About the Program

Drexel's PhD in Business program prepares candidates for careers in academic research and teaching. The PhD in Business includes specializations in accounting, finance, marketing, management (organizational behavior and strategy), and operations & business analytics. PhD degrees are delivered as full-time, on-campus degrees and normally require about five years to complete. The LeBow faculty take a hands-on approach to research and mentoring students on a daily basis. The support of LeBow's collaborative, collegial research environment provides our doctoral students with tremendous research opportunities.

The program enables students to complete their doctoral coursework in two years. Students begin specializing in their chosen area during the first year of study. For information about doctoral work in economics, please visit the PhD in Economics webpage.

PhD students complete a minimum of 60.0 quarter credits beyond the master's degree. Students who enter the program without a master's degree must complete 90.0 credits beyond the bachelor's degree. Degree Requirements describe the basic structure of the PhD in Business curriculum.

Additional Information

For more information about the program, visit the PhD Program in Business page.

Degree Requirements

60.0 credits (Post-Master's degree)
90.0 credits (Post-Bachelor's degree)

• 15.0 credits of core courses
• 30.0 credits of specialization requirements
• 15.0 credits of dissertation research
• 30.0 credits for students without master's degree

Core Program

PhD students in business select one of two broad streams of research:

• Behavioral-based research; or
• Economics-based research

Within each stream all students pursue a common set of core courses during their first year of study. This core consists of course work in research methodology (three courses) and economics (two courses) or behavioral science (two courses). In addition to these core courses, students also take courses in their specializations during their first year in the program.

Each research stream consists of 5 core courses. All courses are 3.0 credits each.

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Operations and Business Analytics students may make substitutions for the econometrics series. Their research methodology sequences is comprised of Statistics, STAT 924 Multivariate Analysis I and OPR 922 Operations Research Methods I.

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Concentration credits include courses in Accounting (ACCT), Statistics (STAT), Economics (ECON), Finance (FIN), General Business (BUSN), International Business (INTB), Legal Studies (BLAW), Management (MGMT), Management Information Systems (MIS), Marketing (MKTG), Operations Research (OPR), Organizational Behavior (ORGB), Production Operations Management (POM), or Taxation (TAX), with a course number range between 900-999 or other approved course at the PhD level.

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Dissertation Research credits include courses in Accounting (ACCT), Statistics (STAT), Economics (ECON), Finance (FIN), General Business (BUSN), International Business (INTB), Legal Studies (BLAW), Management (MGMT), Management Information Systems (MIS), Marketing (MKTG), Operations Research (OPR), Organizational Behavior (ORGB), Production Operations Management (POM), or Taxation (TAX), with a course number of 998 or other approved dissertation research course at the PhD level.

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Concentration credits include courses in Accounting (ACCT), Statistics (STAT), Economics (ECON), Finance (FIN), General Business (BUSN), International Business (INTB), Legal Studies (BLAW), Management (MGMT), Management Information Systems (MIS), Marketing (MKTG), Operations Research (OPR), Organizational Behavior (ORGB), Production Operations Management (POM), or Taxation (TAX), with a course number range between 900-999 or other approved course at the PhD level.

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Dissertation Research credits include courses in Accounting (ACCT), Statistics (STAT), Economics (ECON), Finance (FIN), General Business (BUSN), International Business (INTB), Legal Studies (BLAW), Management (MGMT), Management Information Systems (MIS), Marketing (MKTG), Operations Research (OPR), Organizational Behavior (ORGB), Production Operations Management (POM), or Taxation (TAX), with a course number of 998 or other approved dissertation research course at the PhD level.

First-Year Examination

After the completion of the core coursework, students are examined on their competence in the core material and their readiness to proceed to their specialization area.

Specialization

The PhD Program in Business offers specializations in six areas:

• Accounting
• Finance
• Marketing
• Organizational Behavior (Management)
• Operations & Business Analytics
• Strategy (Management)

Each specialization area consists of 10 courses (30.0 credits) in addition to the 5 stream courses. The courses outside of the stream courses are either department requirements or electives selected by the student with the approval of their PhD coordinator. Up to 3 of the electives may be independent studies or dissertation research courses subject to the approval of the student’s PhD coordinator and the Director of the LeBow PhD Program. The requirements of each area of specialization are discussed in detail on the Lebow College of Business PhD Program Areas of Specialization webpage.

Candidacy Examination

At the completion of their coursework, students take written and oral candidacy examinations. These examinations test each student's preparation for dissertation research. Once the candidacy examinations are passed, the student is recognized as a PhD candidate.

Doctoral Dissertation

The doctoral dissertation is a piece of original research designed to make a contribution to the student's chosen discipline. Each candidate selects a dissertation adviser and an advisory committee of additional faculty members is formed. The candidate prepares a detailed dissertation proposal that is defended before the University community. After successfully defending the proposal, the candidate conducts the research (15.0 credit minimum) and prepares a written dissertation. The completed dissertation is then defended in a final oral examination.

Dissertation Format Review

In addition to meeting the Thesis Advisory Committee's standards of originality and scholarly content, all doctoral dissertations must conform to university format requirements. Students should obtain a copy of the Thesis Manual from the Graduate College of Drexel University or from the Thesis Reviewer in 5038 MacAlister Hall.

Sample Plan of Study

Economics Stream - Post Master's 

Facilities

The 12-story, 177,500-square-foot home for LeBow College of Business is located at the heart of the Drexel University campus, at the intersection of Woodland Walk and Market Street, where it forms a gateway to Drexel and a backdrop to the historic statue of A. J. Drexel (Moses Ezekiel, 1904). The diagonal massing of the lower floors follows Woodland Walk and combines with the new Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building (Diamond & Schmitt, 2011) to energize the University’s central quadrangle. The building’s tower will mark the LeBow College and Drexel campus from all directions while the open, glassy Market Street façade will showcase the College’s student activities to passersby.

The building’s organization unites the school’s various constituencies around a five-story-high atrium ringed by classrooms, student lounges, events spaces, and offices. The atrium is immediately accessible from main entrances at the three corners of the building. An open stair within the atrium leads to a 300-seat auditorium and 100-seat lecture hall one floor below and to a divisible multipurpose room and additional classrooms above. The building’s upper floors contain faculty offices interspersed with seminar rooms and group study rooms. The top floor houses the Dean’s suite and a boardroom and conference suite that opens to east- and west-facing terraces.

The building’s warm masonry and glass exterior reflects the emerging vocabulary of the next generation of Drexel buildings. Sophisticated solar shading devices allow maximum transparency between the inside and outside while supporting the building’s high environmental aspirations.

Key Building Features

• Five-story atrium
• Finance trading lab with Bloomberg Terminal Room
• 300-seat auditorium
• 160-seat event space
• 100-seat lecture hall
• 45-seat seminar rooms
• 44-seat computer classrooms
• 60-seat classrooms
• Executive MBA classroom
• 24-seat classrooms
• Special areas for experiential learning simulations and business consulting
• Videoconferencing capabilities
• Integrated teaching technology in all classrooms
• Recording studio to support LeBow College’s online programs
• Extensive areas for students to gather socially and for collaborative study, including student collaboration rooms, two quiet study areas, and 3,500 square feet of student social space
• EMBA Alumni Lounge for the exclusive use of EMBA alumni
• Behavioral Studies Lab
• Starbucks
• Green Globe certifiable, meeting worldwide sustainability standards

Gerri C. LeBow Hall brings together faculty, students, and staff in a state-of-the-art building on the University City campus. Please visit the LeBow College of Business webpage, the Behavioral Lab webpage, and the Finance Trading Lab webpage to learn more about Gerri C. LeBow Hall.