Technology & Operations Management
The doctoral program in Technology & Operations Management prepares students to conduct important research on a broad range of issues in operations and innovation.
Students are trained in various disciplinary areas including operations research, operations management, economics, engineering, and organizational behavior. Doctoral students' research addresses managerially-relevant problems, integrating discipline-based theory with rigorous research methods. Faculty and students work in collaboration with industry partners, giving them a unique perspective on academic research and the ability to test their ideas in the field.
Prospective students will apply to the PhD in Business Administration and select Technology and Operations management as their area of study. Students work closely with faculty in the Technology and Operations Management unit.
Curriculum & Coursework
Our programs are full-time degree programs which officially begin in August. 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 three years on dissertation research and writing.
Program RequirementsResearch & Dissertation
Students in Technology and Operations Management begin research in the summer preceding their first year by working with an HBS faculty member. Over the first two years in the program, students are encouraged to explore their research interests as they complete relevant coursework. By third year, students are working on dissertation research, and by fourth year, students are launched into a solid research and publication stream, typically developing three publishable papers by the end of the program.
Recent questions students have explored include:
examining how employee non-compete agreements affect entrepreneurship and job mobility;
improving retailers' sales forecasting using cost-of-sales, inventory levels, and gross margins;
how familiarity among team members fosters organizational capabilities among teams;
the implications of operations management for investors; and
how firms influence service quality and how service affects performance.
My professors are incredibly generous with their time, and the other members of my cohort are consistently engaged and curious.
PhD Candidate, Technology & Operations Management
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