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Important Clarifications about what is a Business Problem

Despite the repeated and continuing distribution of pronouncements, guidance, examples and a well-made video on the subject, we are still seeing students attempting to develop a proposal based on a societal, political, educational or medical issue, instead of a real world documentable business problem.

Please keep in mind that a DBA program by definition and by accreditation is much narrower in focus than a Ph.D. program.

· In a Ph.D. program, a gap in the body of knowledge or a theoretical question is sufficient to justify an inquiry. However, in a DBA program it must be a real world business problem.

· In a Ph.D. program, it is acceptable to study how a business policy or practice impacts society or a category of people. However, in a DBA program a business problem, first and primarily impacts a business, not a category or group of society or a community.

· In a Ph.D. program, it is acceptable to study a subject that a political group, advocacy group or category of people think is a problem that businesses should address. However, in a DBA program a business problem is something that is seen from the point of view of the management of businesses or the leaders of an industry as a problem because it negatively impacts the business or industry.

Additionally, a key component of a specific business problem is that it deals with a business process that the organization’s managers or leaders need to address in order to effectively meet elements of their strategic plan or the organization’s mission.

Also, a business problem is one that a business leader or leaders can solve and are responsible for solving. Business leaders cannot solve and are not responsible for solving societal problems, social justice issues, social equality issues, national policy, economic issues, failure of an educational curriculum, or the efficacy of teaching or medical practices.

The validity and acceptability of a proposed problem statement is first and foremost the responsibility of the student. We are holding our DBA students responsible for the condition of their problem statement. As independent scholars in development, we expect them to seek, read, understand, apply and conform to the published and provided guidance of this DBA program.

We continue to hear the refrain “but, I am passionate about this subject”. This is not a justification for a DBA study. For the most part the things that we are passionate about are family, personal and social issues. Therefore do not try to make your passion the focus of your proposal, instead find a business problem. There are rare times when a student can “turn” a social, educational, or public policy topic into an acceptable business problem, but be forewarned that in the vast majority of cases this does not work. Additionally in those rare cases where it does work, the time and effort necessary to stretch a topic into a business problem can take 3 to 4 times as long as preparing a straight-forward business study.  Moreover, it is just too easy, in the midst of writing, to let one’s passions metaphorically take and skew the proposal or study back down the wrong path (back to a social, educational, or policy study). This can result in the waste of a considerable amount of time, effort and money.

The best strategy is to table the passion topic for post-doctorate research and from the beginning focus on identifying a clear business problem to get the DBA doctoral study done within a reasonable period of time. Once a person completes a DBA, they may address any issue they desire.