Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW
Doctorate Persistence of Students in Business Programs
Erica Gibson
School of Business, Liberty University
Author Note
Erica N. Gibson
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to
Erica N. Gibson
Email: Egibson7@liberty.edu
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Abstract
Doctorate persistence is among the critical elements that result in the reduced number of students
completing the program. Therefore, this literature review will analyze the factors that result in
doctoral persistence in learners doing a doctorate in business studies. Nonetheless, the literature
will also examine the barriers to the completion of the program. Several pieces of literature will
be evaluated, and the findings explained. Although the rate of doctorate completion is still low in
the United States, institutions need to research and address the issue to increase the attrition rate.
Some of the barriers to completing doctorate programs comprise individual, work associated, and
institutional challenges. Nonetheless, the issue of finance and full-time job are among the critical
factors that limit students from accomplishing their doctorate programs. Nonetheless, the
doctorate program factors explained by different researchers are socialization, the structure of the
program, and mentoring.
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Doctorate Persistence of Students in Business Programs
Several studies have been conducted focusing on understanding doctorate persistence
among students. Nevertheless, more research is needed to provide the concepts and factors that
result in fewer people completing the doctorate in business across the United States. Currently, a
minimal number of American residents hold a doctorate, which averages about 1.68 percent
based on the United States Census data (Bernard & Cooperdock, 2018). Therefore, doctorate
persistence will play a critical role in ensuring many people reach the doctorate level in their life.
Bernard & Cooperdock (2018) defined doctorate persistence as the endurance of a student’s
advancement toward the success of a doctoral degree. Although, on average, around forty to
sixty percent of doctoral students fail to present persistence, they fail to attain the degree. Thus,
the scholars allowed in business doctoral programs, including any other doctoral-level program,
are thoroughly assessed and are classically the most educationally successful people in their
fields. Nonetheless, the number of students accepted in the doctorate of business programs
ranges around fifty percent, while those enrolled in the past few years have increased
tremendously. Therefore, this literature review paper will scrutinize the barriers to completion
and the areas at the program level that are essential in helping students endure the program to
fruition.
Barriers to Completion
Students who do doctorate programs in business can face significant barriers that may
hinder them from accomplishing the school. The increased levels of abrasion among the scholars
are explained in several pieces of literature. Researchers have become interested in
understanding the barriers to completion because the wonder of doctoral persistence and its
attrition is the most perplexing considering that the most proficient, with educational abilities,
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and severely assessed in the postgraduate programs are incapable of finishing their education.
Several researchers address three different barriers to realize how the students will face,
including analyzing those that persist differently from those that dropped. The barriers explained
comprises of individual, work, and institutional.
Hanson et al. (2020) realize various individual barriers to accomplishing doctorate
programs, such as students lacking the ability to work individually, procrastination. Poor
educational planning and health challenges. Therefore, as this challenge continues, more students
cannot complete their assignments; however, those who have managed to accomplish the past
educational quest may not be ready for the constant doctoral quest. Although the scholars
selected are inspected seriously before allowing starting the programs. It is challenging to foresee
how each student will react individually when faced with the class needs and demands for their
family work and life.
Moreover, another research by Hanson et al. (2020) claimed that writing a dissertation is
one of the significant roles of doctorate students. Therefore, the dissertation procedure is critical
because it necessitates that learners work individually and maintain themselves by setting their
timelines. Nevertheless, Fahim et al. (2021) stated that the university scrutiny procedure is
unsuitable for recognizing the individual’s features to attain the demands. Furthermore, the
doctorate students enrolled in business programs face the challenges of being isolated by their
close family members, which provides them with the problem of not getting the social support
they deserve. Fahim et al. (2021) emphasize that social support is critical in accomplishing a
doctorate because it ensures that the students feel their success is supported by many people
across their family line and society, resulting in increased accomplishment rates.
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McDonald et al. (2021) added that doctoral scholars that do not receive sustenance from
their partners have a high likelihood of experiencing intense stress while enrolled in a doctorate
program. Furthermore, the increased pressure caused by a lack of support may result in a higher
risk of attrition. On the other hand, the students who obtain support from their family members
and friends are most likely to increase the programs' accomplishment (Breitenbach, 2019).
Health challenges are another critical issue that may cause doctorate students to fail in
accomplishing the program because it can cause an increase in attrition rate, especially when the
individuals do not have a suitable support structure. Support makes students believe they can,
and those around them will most likely make them concentrate on their studies.
Another critical barrier explained by Rockinson-Szapkiw et al. (2016) is work-related.
The same source argues that technological advancement has resulted in a shift in how doctorate
programs are offered. For instance, many institutions have started to provide online business
programs, and it has grown significantly. This has increased the number of students enrolling in
an online doctorate in business programs and at the same time working as in full-time
employment. Therefore, by Rockinson-Szapkiw et al. (2016), when students work and learn
simultaneously, it becomes difficult to balance their time and the demand for work and school,
resulting in dropping the business program. Similarly, as many students are in full-time jobs, the
demand for work cuts the relationship with the other learners (Elliott, 2019). When there is a
good relationship between learners, it helps in reducing stress and enhancing endurance for the
program, thus resulting in accomplishment.
According to McDonald et al. (2021), claimed that “stress is the main challenge that the
majority of the learners experience and is augmented by disagreeing weights and interior battles
that are essential to the students.” Consequently, the managers have a substantial role in ensuring
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that the students will balance between the doctorate education and get support in their
workplaces. Waalkes et al. (2018) emphasized that although some employers help and provide
financial support to their employees to advance their education, the majority of the doctorate
students support themselves without any help from their managers. Therefore, lack of employer
supports results in an increased attrition rate. The same source found out in their study that every
student that fails to complete the doctorate program was a full-time worker. Also, Elliott (2019)
claimed that the employers give the support and other workers are similar to the families in
ensuring persistence in accomplishing the program.
Work plays a crucial role in hindering the students from accomplishing their education.
The business doctoral program is very demanding, and it requires students to utilize their time
well as they will need to participate more in new inventions and research. Therefore, the reason
that makes more people remain in full-time work while advancing their education is that they are
unable to find proper financial support that will sustain their families and also education (Elliott,
2019). thus, persistence will be more likely to increase when they obtain new means of attaining
finances, such as through grants and employer sponsorship. Nonetheless, the decreased dangers
did not spread to the students with student loans.
Several factors are associated with institutional barriers. Research conducted by Waalkes
et al. (2018) stated that an insolence dominant in the faculty could lead to attrition because the
majority of the students will not have the necessary inspiration or planning and making the
problem fall to the admission department because they did not recognize the required student’s
features as an element in the admission procedures. Furthermore, McDonald et al. (2021) explain
that insolence will persevere unless retaining is realized as a performance measure for faculty.
Nevertheless, the positive association among learners and the faculty counselors is critical,
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resulting in persistently high rates. Learners who indicate positive involvement and practice with
the counselors are more likely to finish their business doctorate through resistance than those
who show adverse experience.
The study conducted by Robinson & Tagher (2017) found that learners recognize faculty
counselor associations as one of the most essential to their persistence than connections with
other students. The same author claims that the majority of the students that complete the
doctorate programs had a chance to be involved with the faculty as graduate supporters.
Although most institutions have realized the possible barriers they provide and have taken
necessary steps to address them, there is a sharp concentration on the institutions and countries
on enhancing the rate at which learners complete the programs from institutions and colleges
(Waalkes et al., 2018). Preservation checking is essential for most advisor companies;
nevertheless, solutions are often not executed.
Doctoral Program Factors
Several factors are associated with the persistence of business doctorate programs. Most
of the research has concentrated on different doctorate-level factors such as socialization, the
structure of the program, and mentoring. However, some researchers have found that faculty and
the institution administration provide more barricades in making variations that affect abrasion
rates.
Socialization plays a vital role in increasing students’ persistence in their business
doctorate programs. Socialization refers to how individuals get acquittances, language, values,
and social skills that conform with the standards and roles needed for incorporation in the
community (Rigler et al., 2017). Although the institution plays a vital role in ensuring students
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can socialize, it is essential for their academic life and the molding of their social life.
Incorporation and socialization are handled in momentous elements of the doctoral student’s
experience (Robinson & Tagher, 2017). doctoral business students’ socialization comprises
associations and experiences with faculty and learners within academic conditions and situations.
Another research Mitchell et al. (2021) found out that educators are among the most individuals
who influence socialization’s viewpoint and instructions.
Breitenbach (2019) found that the new doctoral learners can become acquainted with
predictable behaviors and values through the faculty and students. Learners’ perseverance is
reliant on their success in participating in the life of the business doctorate program. Teaching
and demonstrating socialization with the students will learn a sense of compassion and
generosity. Furthermore, the students will complete the doctorate program, be integrated into
society, and aid productively and positively (Rigler et al., 2017). The same source added that it is
vital for the faculty and administration to preserve positive social incorporation.
Similarly, dealing with the issue of socialization, institution administrations should
deliberate on factors like race, culture, counseling, and gender. Rockinson-Szapkiw et al. (2017)
focused on the experiences of doctoral learners in various divisions that tend to be in the
marginal of doctoral students such as women, learners with kids, those of color, and the old.
Nevertheless, the same source stated that all the individuals thrashed with incorporation apart
from women with higher high representation in the departments and higher levels of abrasion
than the general population.
Mentoring is another critical factor that enables doctoral students in the business field to
accomplish their degrees. McConnell & Geesa (2021) found out that doctorate programs have
created an official mentoring procedure that has obtained accomplishment in reducing the
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attrition rate of doctorate learners, especially between scholars that demonstrate a positive
experience of the mentor association and in curricula that provides the advisor early in the
procedures. For business students to persist in the doctoral program, both family members and
friends can offer inspiration in attaining the degree; however, allowing the learners to be
involved in the formal mentorship plan can aid them a lot (Robinson & Tagher, 2017). The same
source found that the doctoral mentor results in direct experience to the association, offering
valuable advice such as the guidelines for educational achievement and adapted directive.
The study conducted by Hanson et al. (2020) found that the mentors have a significant
part in assisting the learners to start viewing the disciplines required for effective doctoral
learning, including aspects such as choosing the dissertation topic and the quality of research.
also, Hanson et al. (2020) stated that “the connection that a learner has with their mentors is the
essential factor in realizing the one that will continue with learning and those that will not.”
Nonetheless, McConnell & Geesa (2021) claimed that the role of the mentor is different from
that of the dissertation consultant because the latter is allocated after the learners have become
the candidate and start to work on the dissertation. The former mentor is recognized early in the
scholar’s program and is engaged with the student during the dissertation.
Several pieces of literature have expressed essential information concerning the program
structure. Doctoral of business degree needs to have a system that will ensure the students finish
the program successfully and decrease the attrition rate. Breitenbach (2019) found that the
programs that develop their structure with a proper guiding value. Several areas would help the
students complete the business doctoral programs when structured appropriately. Some regions
are financial sustenance, learners choosing and admission, research support, and mentoring and
counseling.
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The study by Mitchell et al. (2021) discovered that most of the learners who were unable
to finish their doctorate programs did not fully realize the prospects and needs of their selected
programs. Also, the purpose of program structure is explored by Breitenbach (2019) and found
that it is the decisive factor in the attrition frequency of doctoral curricula by using interviews
with the students that finished and those who were unable to complete. Mitchell et al. (2021)
performed interviews by asking learners questions concerning how the programs helped them
pass comprehensive tests and the thesis’s uttered protection. Curricula that provide initial tests
before the final one and programs that offer mock orals were supported by learners more because
they had a higher finishing rate.
In summation, there is substantial research on the part of doctoral persistence. Business
students need to have proper support to complete their doctoral programs, including the
institution and the individuals’ levels such as the family and friends. Although the rate of
finishing the doctorate program in the United States is still low, the present insolences between
several students could influence the accomplishment of doctorate programs. Still, most argue that
more attrition rate is unique in attaining the doctorate. On the other hand, the institution faculty
and administration have the highest capacity to enhance the achievement rate based on previous
literature.
Moreover, more research would help enhance the research in obtaining an optimal
completion rate. A demanding program will be essential in increasing some parts of attrition.
When it is made easy for everyone to attain the business doctorate program, everyone would
have the capacity to have it. Furthermore, the institution needs to allow only those that have
qualified to be in the program and are motivated because it will mean that they can finish the
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business program. Nevertheless, the institution will be repudiating leaners that can be on the
edge of possibility for a journey of self-identification.
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