PhD Program

The PhD Program equips a new generation of academics and researches with cornerstones in methodology and in eight different areas, always from the point of view of research. The program takes participants beyond these essential foundations to build a career in Academia.

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Accounting

KEY RESEARCH AREAS

Auditing
Compensation
Executive
Financial reporting
Management control

SELECTED RESEARCH QUESTIONS

What is the effect of managers’ choices on financial reporting?
How institutions and organizations use accounting and how these accounting practices impact on society?
What is the impact of accounting information on the functioning of financial markets?

Entrepeneurship

KEY RESEARCH AREAS

Corporate entrepreneurship
Decision-making
Family firms
Innovation
Investors
Informal businesses
Organization evolution
Opportunity
Social entrepreneurship

SELECTED RESEARCH QUESTIONS

What drives entrepreneurial activity by those at the base of the pyramid?
How human factors influence in the evolution of organizations?
How multiple venture signals affect decisions of public investors?
What makes corporate innovation efforts successful?
How family owners make strategic decisions under uncertainty?
How to create a business that successfully achieves both economic performance and social value?

FINANCE

KEY RESEARCH AREAS

Corporate Finance
Financial Markets
Real Estate
Macro-Finance

SELECTED RESERCH QUESTIONS

Climate risks in Financial and Real Estate Markets.
How ESG goals are addressed in CEO compensation around the world.
Does Gender Diversity Affect Renewable Energy Consumption?
Macro-finance and investors chasing for yield.
Gender Diversity and Corporate Governance.

HUMAN RESOURCES / ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

KEY RESEARCH AREAS

Blended workforce
Careers
Emotions
Ethical behavior
Leadership
Managerial decision making
Motivation
Regulatory focus
Social networks
Online learning
Organizational change
Organizational structure and processes
Power and influence
Team dynamics
Turnover

SELECTED RESEARCH QUESTIONS

What are the effects of social mechanisms on learning, worker performance, and employee retention?
What are the drivers of top executive career success and how have top executive careers changed in the past 30 years?
What is the effect of online learning technologies and online learning innovations on corporate development practices?
How do followers experience organizational change and how can leaders motivate, engage and galvanize followers during this process?
What individual- and organization-level factors drive unethical behaviors, prosocial and giving behaviors and advice-taking behavior?

INFORMATION SYSTEMS

KEY RESEARCH AREAS

Digital innovation
Knowledge management
Data analytics, Big Data
Enterprise information systems
Information security, cybersecurity and privacy
Health informatics
Information Systems
Economics Gamification and serious games
ICT for development

SELECTED RESEARCH QUESTIONS

How security, risk and trust influence in today’s digital world?
What is the influence of organizational networks of IT outsourcing firms?
How to design electric vehicle charging algorithms and market mechanisms applicable to smart grids?

MARKETING

KEY RESEARCH AREAS

Branding
Consumer behavior
Corporate social responsibility
Goal-directed behavior
Impact of economic cycles on consumer behavior
Judgment and decision making
Marketing models
Sensory marketing
Social networks

SELECTED RESEARCH QUESTIONS

What are the cognitive and affective underpinnings of goal-directed behavior?
How do they differ from various goal types?
What biases do consumers display when making decisions?
What are the effects of CSR on consumer perceptions and sales?
How do tactics in branding influence consumers’ perceptions, attitudes, and emotions under various circumstances?
When and why do such strategies backfire?
How do specific visuals, textures, odors, sounds and imagery change the way we think about brands and products?
Do individual interactions, both within and across groups, affect diffusion of innovative products and their performance?

OPERATIONS

KEY RESEARCH AREAS

Decision Making and Risk Analysis
Global Supply Chain Management
Healthcare Operations
Knowledge-Intensive Operations
New Product and Service
Innovation
Retail Operations

SELECTED RESEARCH QUESTIONS

How to manage geographically dispersed operations effectively?
When can operations be a source of innovation?
How do digitalization and big data affect operations design, strategy, and performance?
How do managers make decisions under risk and uncertainty?
How can organizations operationally mitigate financial and supply chain risks?

Strategy

KEY RESEARCH AREAS

Competitive strategy in platform markets
Innovation strategy
International Business
M&A and Diversification
Social categories and market structure
Strategic alliances

SELECTED RESEARCH QUESTIONS

How to compete in platform markets?
When does corporate diversification create value?
What is the impact of product-market categories on firm organization & strategy?
How/when do firms profit from innovation?
How to design the strategy of a multinational company?
How do firms benefit strategically from interfirm collaborations (alliances, M&A)?

STRUCTURE

YEAR 1 | OCT-DEC

Quantitative Methods I
Organizational Theory
Economics / Psychology

PHD COURSE DESCRIPTION

YEAR 1 | JAN-MAR

Quantitative Methods II
Research Methods I
Principles of Major

PHD COURSE DESCRIPTION

YEAR 1 | APR-JUN

Paper Crafting
Research Methods II
Topics of Major
Research Assistance and Research Seminars

PHD COURSE DESCRIPTION

YEAR 2 | OCT-DEC

Ethics & Humanities
Research Project
Quantitative Methods III

PHD COURSE DESCRIPTION

YEAR 2 | JAN-MAR

Seminar of Major
Research Project
Principles of Minor

PHD COURSE DESCRIPTION

YEAR 2 | APR-JUN

Research Methods III
Readings of Major
Seminar of Minor

PHD COURSE DESCRIPTION

YEAR 2 | JUL-SEPT

Comprehensive Exams
Preparation
Exams in September

PHD COURSE DESCRIPTION

COMPREHENSIVE EXAMS

This examination will be taken, after the second year. The examination will last three days and will cover those topics defined as Core or major, minor and methodology. The exam will be set and evaluated by the professors of the subjects.

YEAR 3 & 4

This period is formally devoted to work on research leading to the student’s doctoral dissertation. The program is completed after successful submission and defense of the dissertation.

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COMPETENCES

During their time in the PhD program, students will develop a series of competences and skills that will help build their capacity for future professional success.

GENERAL COMPETENCES

Systematic understanding of a field of study and mastery of the research skills and methods related to that field.
The ability to conceive, design and create, put into practice and adopt a substantial research or creative process.
The ability to contribute to expanding the frontiers of knowledge through original research.
The ability to undertake critical analysis and evaluation and the synthesis of new and complex ideas.
The ability to communicate with the academic and scientific community and with society in general about their fields of knowledge, using the means and language typically used in the international scientific community.
The ability to encourage scientific, technological, social, artistic and cultural progress in academic and professional contexts within a knowledge-based society.

SPECIFIC COMPETENCES

Analyze the most significant advances made in recent years in the student’s particular field of specialist research to identify their limitations and formulate new, relevant questions.
Understand and skillfully deploy the analytical and conceptual tools necessary to conduct a rigorous analysis.
Effectively synthesize their knowledge and skills in order to successfully produce a doctoral dissertation in the field of Business Studies.
Present and defend research conclusions and results through the channels commonly used in the profession.
Disseminate research results in publications of significant renown in their particular area of research.

OTHER SKILLS

Moreover, PhD students must also develop the following personal capacities and skills:

The ability to work in contexts where there is limited specific information.
Finding the key questions that must be answered in order to resolve a complex problem.
Designing, creating, developing and undertaking novel and innovative projects within their field of knowledge.
Working both as part of a team and independently in an international or multidisciplinary context.
Integrating knowledge, dealing with complexity and formulating opinions based on limited information.
Intellectual criticism and defense of solutions.