Curriculum

The requirements for the PhD in Business Administration with a specialization in MIS program involve doctoral coursework, a research readiness requirement, the General Exam, and the successful completion of a dissertation. Most adequately prepared doctoral candidates should be able to complete these requirements in a four-year time period.

COURSEWORK

The Graduate College requires 90 hours past the Bachelor's degree for the Ph.D. The core doctoral coursework involves 47 hours distributed as follows:

• 18 hours of statistics and research methods courses
• 14 hours of MIS research seminars
• 9 hours of management and/or marketing research seminars
• 6 hours of electives

Because the most impactful research is inter-disciplinary, students are encouraged to consult with their advisor on coursework offered outside the MIS Department that can inform their distinctive research interests. Students without an MBA may have to complete up to 21 hours of additional MBA core coursework. Once students have completed their coursework and the general exam, they can register for up to of 30 dissertation hours while working on their dissertation. Students with an MBA may count some of their prior graduate coursework towards the remainder of the 90-hour Graduate College requirement.

RESEARCH READINESS REQUIREMENT

Doctoral students will begin an independent research project (under the supervision of a MIS faculty member) during their first summer in residence. This project must be completed by the end of the student's second summer in residence. The product of this research effort is to be submitted for presentation at a major conference and, ideally, submitted for publication to an appropriate journal. Students must complete this requirement before sitting for their General Exam.

GENERAL EXAM

After completing coursework and the research readiness requirement, but prior to beginning the dissertation, each doctoral student must successfully pass a written exam covering their (1) major, concentration and elective coursework, (2) understanding of the MIS research literature as represented by a bibliography prepared and approved by the MIS Division's Standing Divisional Doctoral Advisory Committee, and (3) capability to fabricate and justify a research design given an assigned phenomenon to be investigated.

DISSERTATION

Upon successful completion of the General Exam, a doctoral student will constitute his/her Dissertation Committee to oversee the formulation, completion and evaluation of the dissertation. Within the semester following completion of the general exam, the student should plan on defending a dissertation proposal to this Dissertation Committee.

PREREQUISITES

• MBA core courses: microeconomics, macroeconomics, financial accounting, financial management, marketing management, organizational behavior, and production/operations management.

REQUIRED

• Graduate Statistics/Quantitative Methods (9 hours)
• Graduate Research Methods (6 hours)

MIS MAJOR

• Study of Human-Technology Interactions
• Cognition and Decision Making in MIS
• Governance and Control
• Computer-Mediated Communication and Decision Making
• Management seminar (either MGT6253 - Organization Theory, MGT6293 – Strategic Management, or MGT6273 - Organizational Behavior)

CONCENTRATION

Three doctoral seminars offered by the Division of Management or Division of Marketing and Supply Chain Management and approved by the MIS Ph.D. faculty coordinator.

ADDITIONAL BASIC

Two directed readings courses (research projects, taken during summer)