PhD in Business Administration

PhD in Business Administration - Management Information Systems Concentration

PHILOSOPHY AND OBJECTIVES

As a multidisciplinary field of study, Information Systems is concerned with the design, development, implementation, and use of information technology to solve organizational problems. The program focuses on research and theory relevant to these concerns. Its purpose is to prepare graduates for positions as professors and researchers in schools of business or related areas at the university level, as well as in research functions at information technology industrial research organizations.

The PhD. degree is a research oriented academic degree. Accordingly, the program for information systems majors has a very strong emphasis upon this research orientation. Attention is also directed to the development of the necessary skills conducive to excellent classroom teaching. The objectives of the program are:

• to provide each candidate with in-depth knowledge of the field of Information Systems with emphasis on research contributions in the organizational  uses of information technology applications;
• to provide the candidate with exposure to theories and models relevant to the study of information  systems;
• to develop the candidate's ability to integrate work from a diverse array of reference disciplines into a coherent framework for guiding that individual's research program for years to come;
• to provide the candidate with a sound conceptual understanding of a set of research tools (e.g., statistical methods, research designs and methodology, programming, simulation, etc.) and technical knowledge in their applications and limitations;
• to develop the candidate's skills in conducting scholarly research and in the communication of the results to an academic and practitioner audience ; and
• to assist the candidate in the development of skills in classroom instruction and teaching effectiveness

INFORMATION SYSTEMS CONCENTRATION REQUIREMENTS

The PhD. degree in Business Administration at Florida International University is designed to admit individual candidates with bachelor degrees in any discipline. For those candidates not possessing a baccalaureate or master's degree in business, a tutorial program or certain course prerequisites may be required by the student's Area Coordinator.
 

All students are required to complete a minimum of 16 courses. Those concentrating in Information systems must take four required seminars in Information Systems, two seminar courses in Information Systems on areas related to the research topic, a two-course sequence in advanced statistics, and four courses in research methodology and design of experiment.  With the advice and consent of the departmental PhD. committee, students also select other supporting coursework. Successful completion of the first year of study is a prerequisite for enrollment in some of the more advanced courses. In summary:

• 18 credit-hours in doctoral level Information Systems seminars and related seminar courses
• 18 credit-hours in Research Methods and/or Statistics courses
• 12 credit-hours of doctoral level MIS courses (or directed study) 

Substitutions (or waivers) for the six seminar courses may be permitted by the Director of the PhD program in MIS. Such substitutions, if any, will be from courses in related areas, such as Accounting, Management, or Finance.

With the advice and consent of the PhD. coordinator, you will select appropriate courses in the Research Method and/or Statistics areas (usually, these will be courses offered by the Decision Sciences and Information Systems Department within the college, Statistics Department, Psychology Department, or College of Education). In addition, students may select additional supporting coursework in areas such as economics, statistics, and/or psychology depending on their interests, abilities, and prior training.

Research Projects

Students are required to complete research projects during the summer semesters following your first and second years in the program. A faculty member will serve as an advisor for all research projects in a given summer.

The primary objective of the first summer research project is to enhance your skills in using computer programs and databases for research. To this end, students may replicate one or more prior studies using new data or to engage in some other meaningful empirical project.

The second summer research project, in contrast, requires students to develop an original research hypothesis. This hypothesis should be developed well in advance of the second summer semester so you will have enough time to execute the project during the summer semester.

For both summer projects, students must submit a written paper and make a presentation to the faculty. Ideally, these papers should be of sufficient quality to merit their submission to a high quality journal and/or a national or international conference.

 Comprehensive Examination

At the end of your coursework, students must pass a comprehensive examination designed to assess your level of preparation for dissertation research. This examination will test the material covered in the departmental PhD courses.

Dissertation

Students must satisfy all university and college dissertation requirements.

A Sample Course of Study

The sample program of study below describes the schedule for a typical student. Variations may be allowed for some students, and, of course, the requirements may change at the discretion of the PhD. Committee.

Special considerations

Admission to the program requires substantive work experience in the proposed research area.  It is recommended that candidates meet one of the following two requirements:

1.Four years of teaching experience at an academic institution.

2. Six years of experience in a responsible management position.

The preferred background knowledge areas are:

• Information systems and technologies background in

• Systems Analysis and Design
• Telecommunications
• Database Design
• E-Business
• Programming
• Project management

• General business background in

• Accounting
• Economics
• Marketing
• Organizational Theory
• Probability and Statistics

• Other recommended information systems topics

• Artificial Intelligence
• Security
• Knowledge Management
• Web Services

Faculty research interests

• knowledge management & knowledge management systems
• IS strategy, governance, capabilities & business alignment
• IS project complexity & flexibility
• innovation adoption & evaluation 
• deontic process modeling
• virtual worlds & 3-D Web business models
• project management & cooperation theory
• data warehousing, data mining & knowledge discovery in databases
• multivariate statistics
• multicriteria decision analysis of judgments & opinions
• ranking methodologies & index development
• decision-support systems
• distributed development
• agile development
• human-computer interaction
• operations research applications in IT management
• e-commerce technologies
• supply chain management
• knowledge and corporate governance
• healthcare information systems

For more information on the program, please contact.

Dr. Dinesh Batra
Professor and PhD Program Coordinator, Department of Decision Sciences and Information Systems
11200 SW 8th Street
Ryder Business Building
Florida International University
Miami, FL 33199-0001
Phone (305) 348-2645 or 954-612-5376
Email: batra@fiu.edu