Educational Programs, View record [ID:127]

Doctorate of Business Administration

Our long-distance Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) program is a three-year part-time program for experienced business professionals or teaching scholars. We offer an exciting cohort-based approach with a facilitated action learning and research approach focused on supporting organizations in the sustainability journey by providing historical analysis and relevant transformational support. The program is unique world-wide as it combines research that counts in the interdisciplinary field of sustainability with a deeper understanding in the practice of responsible leadership.

What makes this program different?

Global Research Project in Business Sustainability
As a Doctoral student at BSL, you will join an international group of independent researchers in business sustainability and gain experience in collaborative research on a challenging topic. You will work with other doctoral candidates and will combine your skills and expertise with theirs to contribute to a global interdisciplinary research project together.

The project will provide insights on three key organizational challenges of the coming decade:

How to move from business-as-usual to business sustainability (based on existing research);
How to embrace and adapt to the new paradigm (based on emerging best practices);
How to make the great leap of becoming a truly sustainable organization (based input from pioneers).

Working on a joint research project allows you to build a global network of applied sustainability scholars focused on integrating sustainability and responsibility in business.

International Collaboration
BSL collaborates with GOLDEN to provide research, training and advising support to its Doctorate candidates. The partnership between BSL and GOLDEN gives you the opportunity to work on a common research project, while benefiting from GOLDEN’s global network of sustainability scholars and experienced consultants in organizational change.

GOLDEN is an independent, multi-stakeholder initiative operating as a program of the Center for Research in Organization and Management of Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. It represents a global network of leading research centers, corporations and other stakeholders that provides a platform for sharing data, developing knowledge and stimulating action to navigate the challenges to creating sustainable enterprise.

Supporting Training and Development
The BSL DBA program supports you in the development of knowledge, skills and competencies. In close collaboration with the Global Doctoral Alliance (GDA) of 50+20, a number of training workshops will be offered as webinars, summer camps and symposia.

In addition, BSL DBA candidates will be put in contact with other DBA candidates, thus allowing them to build a global network of applied sustainability scholars.

Research Approach and Methodology
The BSL DBA program takes a different approach to research. We build on the traditional model of exploring the current state of business as a starting base for incremental change by looking into what a truly sustainable organization of the future would look like and exploring the paths to get there.

The project includes a range of research approaches that are distinguished as well by the participatory engagement of stakeholders. These are often associated with large system change science, engaged scholarship and action research.

No Interruption to your Career
Designed for the working professional, our DBA is a part-time applied research program allowing candidates to research independently and in their own time.

There is no required course work, however, research methodologies are taught at our bi-annual Research Symposia and are available online. Perfect for busy professionals around the world as you only need to visit BSL once per year.