PhD Business Administration

This PhD gives you the opportunity to explore issues at the frontier of research directly relevant to regional, national and global businesses. Today’s managers face dwindling consumer confidence, difficulties retaining talent and demand for greater social and environmental responsibility. We support you to create new insights and theories into the working world, in which your research could help leaders to navigate these challenges and shape theory, policy and practice in the fields of management studies and business analytics.

Our Strategy, Operations and Entrepreneurship Group, based at our Southend Campus, are a group of international researchers with an entrepreneurial focus. The group organises regular research seminars, giving you the chance to hear cutting-edge research and how it is applied in business settings, as well as the opportunity to network with scholars from the School and the wider academic community.

Assessment

You begin your studies by meeting with your supervisors and undertaking an intensive induction programme. You attend advanced research methods training and undertake compulsory modules tailored to your individual research needs. Throughout your PhD, you have regular meetings with your supervisors. You are often asked to write up your ideas or reading notes to help establish good writing practices. By the end of your first year of research, you should have a solid understanding of the key debates in your field and have defined your research questions, outlining your original contribution to knowledge.

Your future

Our PhD programmes are designed to foster the business leaders and researchers of the future. Our graduates use creativity, innovation and ethical awareness to meet the many challenges facing the international business world. Our doctoral graduates have secured roles in academia at some of the best international universities, as well as organisations in the public and private sectors. Recent examples include careers with Leeds University Business School, Cambridge Education, EY (Ernst and Young) and public sector roles around the world.