Doctor of Business Administration
The Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree program transforms mature learners into leaders. Doctoral candidates learn the most advanced decision-making techniques, while also developing the research and writing skills that accompany high-level responsibility in the academic and business environments.
Business executives must be able to perform in a dynamic environment where market expansion is global, where competition presents ever-changing decision-making challenges, and change is the norm. Excellence in leadership, strategic management, and organizational change management are essential to develop effective corporate executives and hence organizational viability.
To facilitate the interdisciplinary cross-fertilization of ideas, which drives innovation in business, the doctoral program will allow learners to select electives from all graduate level courses offered at CalSouthern, in any discipline to enable and facilitate them to build their own doctoral degree program.
Build Your Own Degree
CalSouthern offers DBA learners the opportunity to have direct input into which courses they believe are relevant to their doctoral studies, to the extent doctoral candidates can select up to 15 semester credits from any courses offered by the University that do not have prerequisites to fulfill the credit requirements.
Program Learning Outcomes
- Evaluate the application of core business practices using diverse perspectives and expert knowledge of the discipline.
- Evaluate quantitative data, logic, or analysis to inform business decisions or initiatives.
- Formulate substantive arguments based on evaluation of evidence and interpretation of results.
- Integrate knowledge from multiple perspectives to collaborate, manage, and lead diverse business teams.
- Communicate original research in oral and written formats to professional peers in the industry.
- Integrate professional standards for ethics, privacy, and integrity in research or practice.
- Design effective information systems that maximize achievement of organizational goals or objectives.
Degree Requirements
| DEGREE REQUIREMENTS |
CREDITS |
| Core Courses |
30 |
| Elective Courses |
15 |
| Comprehensive Examination |
1 |
| Doctoral Research Orientation |
0 |
| Doctoral Project Courses |
14 |
| TOTAL CREDITS REQUIRED FOR COMPLETION |
60 |
All program requirements for the Doctor of Business Administration degree program must be completed through CalSouthern in no less than two (2), no more than ten (10) years of initial course enrollment, regardless of continuous enrollment status. Courses taken over 10 years ago must be repeated in order to maintain program currency. Please refer to the Reinstatement: Re-Entry Requirements section of this catalog for information about returning to the program after separation from the University.
DBA Management Competency Assessment
Graduate degree programs in the School of Business and Management are built upon the expectation that learners will enter with foundational knowledge in core business disciplines to be successful. If the learner can show evidence of a GMAT score of 500 or above, the Management Competency Assessment requirement may be waived.
Learners entering without a master’s degree in business will be required to complete a Management Competency Assessment before starting courses. Learners must achieve a 70% or greater on the Management Competency Assessment in order to be admitted to the program. The Assessment covers the following areas of business: accounting; business law; business policy; business strategy; economics; ethics; finance; information technology; leadership; management; marketing; operations management; organizational behavior; and statistics. The Management Competency Assessment allows entering learners to assess their knowledge of fundamental core business disciplines. The Management Competency Assessment is provided free of charge.
DBA Bridge Courses
Cal Southern MBA learners who wish to complete a DBA can take two doctorate courses as electives in the MBA program: BUS 7300, Advanced Measurement and Statistics for Business, and MGT 7525, Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Governance.
Program Structure
The DBA degree program consists of an integrated sequence of courses and a Doctoral Project (an Applied Dissertation) that encompasses 60 credits beyond a master’s degree. The courses are structured to allow working professionals to complete their degrees while working full-time. The structure of the program encompasses:
- Ten integrated inquiry courses (30 credits) that are designed to develop applications of theory in a range of business, management, and research methodologies consisting of required and elective courses.
- Under the Build Your Own degree program, learners can select up to five courses (15 credits) from any of the graduate level courses from any school of the University that fits into their educational objectives or dissertation interests.
- A comprehensive essay to be completed prior to beginning the doctoral project. Successful completion of this essay demonstrates that the candidate has the knowledge and skills fundamental to the DBA degree (1 credit).
- Five required dissertation courses (14 total credits) focus on conducting research into applied business matters leading to the completion and defense of the Doctoral Project. This is a five-course sequence that takes the learner step by step through the dissertation process so that upon completion of the fifth course the learner is expected to have completed their dissertation.
- A Doctoral Dissertation in which the learner is required to demonstrate expertise by analyzing and presenting a business management problem, situation, or analysis. The research should include a theoretical framework, literature review, research design and an appropriate methodology.
Required Courses
First-Year Core Courses (18 Credits Required)
| ACT 7530 | Management Finance and Control | 3 |
| BUS 7300 | Advanced Measurement and Statistics for Business | 3 |
| BUS 7305 | Ethnography of Corporate Culture | 3 |
| MGT 7500 | Organizational Development and Design | 3 |
| MGT 7525 | Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Governance | 3 |
| MKT 7505 | Consumer Behavior, Theory, and Analysis | 3 |
Second- and Third-Year Core Courses (12 Credits Required)
| IB 6516 | Global Business Strategic Management | 3 |
| MGT 7515 | Information, Organization, and Strategy | 3 |
| MGT 7520 | Business Research Methods | 3 |
| MGT 7540 | Quantitative Research Methods | 3 |
Elective Courses (15 Credits Required)
The DBA program requires 15 semester credits of elective courses, and offers five preferred elective courses for this program, listed below. Courses from other CalSouthern post-graduate programs may be used instead to fulfill the elective requirements assuming prerequisite(s) are met. Transfer credits may also satisfy the elective credit requirement.
Comprehensive Examination (1 Credit Required)
The comprehensive examination is an opportunity enabling learners to transition to practicing scholars. During the examination, emerging emergent scholar-practitioners prepare to enter the doctoral project phase. The examination uses an activity-based approach to developing a prospectus containing a miniature literature review, purpose and problem statements, research questions, and other elements supporting the emergent scholar-practitioner’s vision of their doctoral-level research project and dissertation. Successful completion of the examination culminates in a prospectus demonstrating adequate preparation for engaging research and beginning the dissertation process.
Doctoral Research Orientation
Doctoral students entering the research phase of their program (Doctoral Project I, II, III, IV, V) are required to complete a Doctoral Research Orientation before starting Doctoral Project II. Students may complete this Doctoral Orientation at any time and are encouraged to do so during the term they enroll in BUS 7805 (Comprehensive Exam). Students must achieve 100% on the Doctoral Research Orientation assessment in order to begin Doctoral Project II. This assessment may be repeated as needed to achieve a passing score.
Doctoral Project Courses (14 Credits Required)
An essential feature of a doctoral program is a commitment to practical and applied scholarship. Learners complete a Doctoral Project that provides an opportunity to study an applied business-relevant topic. The DBA candidate may choose between four basic research designs: theoretical, qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods. The University encourages Doctoral Projects that extend the DBA candidate’s work and experiences into emerging fields of inquiry that address contemporary real-world problems and issues. Learners are given extensive support throughout the Doctoral Project.
This program is not designed to meet the educational requirements for a specific professional license or certification required for employment in an occupation. As such, CalSouthern has made no determination regarding prerequisites for licensure or certification in any state or jurisdiction.
While California Southern University, as a member of the AIU System, is part of a Title IV eligible institution offering Title IV eligible programs, CalSouthern has elected and designated this program as not participating in Title IV federal financial aid programs. This means students enrolling in this program may not use Federal Student Aid to help pay for this program. Instead, it offers a variety of zero interest payment options for students.