Management: Curriculum
Our programs are full-time degree programs which officially begin in September. Many incoming students choose to join us in July to conduct research with an HBS faculty member. Students are expected to complete their program in five years. Students typically spend their first two years on course work, at the end of which they take a field exam, and then another two years on dissertation research and writing.
Coursework
A minimum of 13 semester-long doctoral courses are required for the degree. These should include:
- Two year-long course sequences:
- Management and Markets: Team taught by four to six HBS faculty, this two-semester sequence includes classic works in administrative theory, human motivation and interaction, corporate strategy and organizational design, and modern capital markets.
- Theory and Practice of Research: This two-semester sequence is designed to help students understand how to do research by engaging them in a combination of theory and labs.
- Two methods courses from either behavioral science research methods or econometric research methods
- Two quantitative methods courses
- Two courses in a scholarly discipline (i.e. microeconomics, psychology or sociology)
- One to five HBS MBA courses are also required:
- Students who do not have an MBA are required to take either the first semester of the MBA program or five second-year MBA courses.
- Students who have a non-HBS MBA are required to take one approved second-year MBA course.
Management Field Exam
Students are required to pass a Field Exam in Management at the end of their second or the beginning of their third year. The exam has two parts: a written exam and an oral examination based on the student’s written exam.
Research and Dissertation
Students in Management begin research in their first year typically by working with a faculty member. By their third and fourth years, most students are launched on a solid research and publication stream. In management, the dissertation may take the form of three publishable papers or one longer dissertation.