Preliminary Examination

The Strategy preliminary exam is a key step towards candidacy. Students are required to take the exam at the end of their second year, generally in early June. Preparation for the qualifying exam builds on previously taken strategy classes. It requires significant additional reading beyond coursework to add depth of understanding in the main research areas of strategy. Students are expected to develop a parsimonious intellectual map of research in the strategy field and being able to position research questions, theories, and perspectives within this overall map. This ability is critical to productive scholarship. 

A preliminary exam committee composed of four to six (4-6) faculty design exam questions and grade answers. Students are given five (5) days to answer all questions. Rules about taking the prelim and evaluating the prelim answers are listed in Appendix 2.

Second-Year Research Paper 

In their first two years of study, students are required to conduct a research project that will lead to a second-year paper. The purpose of the second-year paper is to prepare students to become not only discerning consumers of strategy research but also sophisticated producers of it. To that end, the second-year paper enables students to accomplish the following:

• develop capabilities to conceive and execute an independent research project
• establish an independent research stream
• prepare for the dissertation
• produce research that is clearly on a trajectory to be presented at a top strategy conference (e.g., Academy of Management or Strategic Management Society annual meetings) and published in a top strategy journal

The second-year paper will be completed under the supervision of two faculty members, one of whom serves as a primary reader (typically the student’s adviser), and the other as a secondary reader. The project will typically have an empirical and/or modeling component (exceptions require approval of the Strategy PhD Program Coordinator). 

The student must get approval from two faculty readers by August 25 after their first year on a 5-page proposal of the second-year paper. The actual paper must be approved by two faculty readers by August 25 just prior to the start of their third year. Extensions to the above deadlines can only be obtained with approval of both the Strategy Area Chair and the Strategy PhD Program Coordinator. 

Upon successful passing of the qualifying exam and the second-year paper, students are advanced to candidacy and will focus on their dissertation research.

Department Research Presentations 

Students are required to present once every academic year in the area’s internal research seminar series. Students are expected to confer with their adviser on what would be appropriate to present.

Dissertation Proposal Defense 

The Ross PhD Handbook details expectations of students and of faculty for the dissertation proposal defense. For more detailed information, please consult Rackham Graduate School Dissertation Handbook and Guidelines. 

The Strategy dissertation proposal will serve as an ex ante dissertation plan that is subject to the approval of the student’s committee. The committee will seek to “settle” questions of topic, methods, and scope so that students can proceed according to this plan.

At a minimum, a dissertation proposal for the Strategy PhD program will consist of the following:

1. an explicitly stated research question [or questions];
2. a theoretical motivation for the research question;
3. a clear statement of the dissertation’s intended contribution;
4. a thorough literature review, both theoretical and empirical in scope;
5. a novel theoretical argument with explicit assumptions, propositions, and – if and when sufficiently developed – falsifiable hypotheses;
6. a methodological framework for testing the argument [e.g., formal model, simulation, ethnography, experiment, econometrics]; and
7. a specific and suitable empirical context, if and when appropriate.

It is expected that some students will not yet have collected data before defending their proposal but also that some students will have already proceeded to the analysis stage. It is, therefore, not expected that students will present empirical results at their dissertation proposal but they are permitted to do so. 

Faculty who serve on the student’s dissertation committee are expected to evaluate the quality of the theoretical argument and the research design; the student’s ability to conduct the proposed research project; and the potential scholarly impact of a successfully completed project. Strategy faculty will provide developmental feedback to students along these lines.

Timing

• All students should inform the Ross PhD office of the chair of their dissertation committee and their dissertation committee members according to the deadlines specified in the Ross PhD Handbook.
• Students should solicit guidance from their adviser and dissertation committee members on appropriate timing of Dissertation Proposal Defense, subject to the following deadline.
• Students must earn approval from their dissertation committee for their doctoral dissertation proposal defense by the deadline listed in the Ross PhD Handbook.
• An extension of the deadline can only be granted by agreement of (a) the student’s adviser and (b) the Strategy PhD Program Coordinator.

Dissertation Final Defense

The dissertation final defense normally takes place in the last year of study in the doctoral program. The student is expected to present his/her thesis to the dissertation committee and any other interested parties. Upon successful completion of the defense, the student is awarded the doctoral degree.

Research Assistant Requirement

According to the Ross PhD Handbook, Ross PhD students are fully funded by the Ross School for five years. Funding includes a graduate assistantship, a stipend, and health care. As research assistants (RAs), students can be assigned to different faculty every year. The faculty member with whom the PhD student works in the first year is called the “start-up adviser” and has the role of introducing the student to how to conduct academic strategy research. There is no expectation that the student continues on with the same adviser after the first year. We encourage all students within their first year to talk with all the faculty members and to then decide later on in their first year or during the summer after their first year on their second-year adviser. The student can have a new adviser in their second year and beyond, or the student along with the first-year “start-up adviser” can choose to continue their collaboration. To the extent possible, students will be assigned to faculty members based on mutual interest, especially the first-year doctoral students. The RA-ships will ideally lead to publishable research, but they might not, and the RA should also be prepared to engage in some less immediately or directly rewarding activities, such as data processing, assisting in running experiments, and so on.

Teaching Requirement

The teaching requirement—teaching one section of a Strategy course (e.g., STR 290 Business Strategy)—is typically fulfilled in the winter or spring semester of the third year. In preparation for that class, students are required to take BA 830 and BA 831.

Last Updated: January 2025