A rising credential - doctorate of business

The Life: MBAs are sometimes seen as the pinnacle of business qualifications, so why study a doctorate? A professor explains the benefits.

Jean-Jacques Chanaron is the associate dean of the doctoral school at Grenoble Ecole de Management in France. Delores Johnson / The National

Professor Jean-Jacques Chanaron is associate dean at the doctoral school of Grenoble Ecole de Management in France. The organisation has teamed up with the Higher Colleges of Technology in Abu Dhabi to offer a doctorate of business administration (DBA). This is only one of six programmes worldwide to be accredited by the Association of MBAs. He speaks about the benefits of having a DBA.

MBAs are seen as the pinnacle of business qualifications. Why study for a doctorate?

[An MBA] is the pinnacle for managerial competencies. But it does not mean that the person is able to tackle the complex question or resolve a very complex problem. Because in a master's degree, usually they only learn what the professors are transferring. But in the DBA, it's knowledge creation. Another competence they acquire is that they have to be consistent over a four-year period. In a master's degree, you just have one year or one year and a half of study.

Who is the course aimed at?

We target three kinds of students - students in their 40s who want to improve their career through having the top diploma in the system; [and] students targeting a change in their career, from industry to academia, because you can teach with that, and then teachers who do not have a doctoral level, which is now a requisite in most good business schools around the world. The third are young consultants that as soon as they get the doctorate they get senior consultant instead of being a junior consultant.

What's the benefit in business to having a DBA?

I think all over the world being a doctor … gives you some kind of prestige. You have achieved serious research and [been] evaluated by academic people, because when they defend their thesis at the end of the four years, it is a public defence and you are evaluated by five professors that you don't know.

You say we need more doctors in business. Why?

For two reasons, one is the so-called doctoral shortage, because to be a full professor in a business school now, you need to be a doctor. In the US alone, the AACSB [the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business], which is the main accreditation office, evaluated last year a shortage, just for the US, of 2,500. So far you make more money with an MBA than a DBA. The second reason is that many people in business, with, let's say in medium or upper management level, they need to differentiate themselves from other people, and since everybody has an MBA these days, it's one way to make a difference.

Why Abu Dhabi?

They made an internet search and got a few schools in England, the Netherlands, in France, in the US and they made some kind of market study and then they said that this is the best one, because our programme is fully accredited. They [introduced it] because of the 2030 strategic plan for Abu Dhabi, [which] stated that education should be run by nationals, so they want part of the intakes to shift to academia.