Professional doctorate curriculum design: A resource dependency analysis of DBA stakeholders

Interest in Professional Doctorates (ProfDs), including the Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) programme, has increased significantly over recent years (Mellors-Bourne et al., 2016). Wildly et al (2015:p762) suggest that this is because globally, there is interest in research degrees which are ‘…more relevant, field-based doctoral studies incorporating applied rather than pure research…’. In comparison to a PhD, a Professional Doctorate adopts a more structured approach to learning and typically attracts industry professionals who wish to investigate a work-based problem through doctoral level research (Costley and Lester, 2012; Chiteng Kot and Hendel, 2011). Furthermore, according to Lester (2004:p767) ProfDs aim to be ‘…academically robust and directly relevant to professional practitioners who are concerned with leading practice and initiating change rather than being researchers.’ The DBA in particular has proven to be a popular Professional Doctorate, representing a natural progression from the MBA