PROGRAM GUIDE

Executive Doctorate in
Business Administration
The Executive Doctorate in Business
Administration (EDBA) is a professional
doctoral program for executives who have
a master’s degree in business or related
advanced degree. The EDBA is a 3-year
program culminating with a dissertation
that addresses issues and challenges
that apply directly to the executive’s own
interests in the business field.

The EDBA is a doctoral degree for executives who want a

pragmatic and relevant program of study and may work
full-time while completing their degree. EDBA candidates
pursue the degree to advance their careers, enhance their
skills and knowledge, and fulfill personal learning goals.
EDBA vs. Ph.D.
EDBA
RESIDENCY EDBA students attend classes
one weekend a month.
ACADEMIC EDBA students are executives
PROFILE with 10 or more years of
experience and a MBA or
other related master’s degree.
GOALS EDBA students pursue the degree
to bring high-level thinking skills
and applied research skills back
into the workplace.
RESEARCH EDBA research is interdisciplinary
and focuses on linking theory to
current business problems. EDBA
students apply qualitative and
quantitative methods to address
contemporary business issues.
Executive Doctorate in Business Administration l rollins.edu/business l 407-646-2405
Ph.D.
Ph.D. students attend classes
full-time.
Ph.D. students may or may not
have any work experience or a
master’s degree.
Ph.D. students pursue the degree
to quality for securing a position
as an assistant professor.
Ph.D. research is specialized by
subject area and focuses on
developing and testing theories
at a micro level.
EDBA Council

The EDBA Council serves as the primary point of contact and information
source for professional groups that offer an EDBA. The mission of the Council
is to foster excellence and innovation in executive doctoral degree programs
worldwide. The Council also provides general information on executive
doctoral degree programs to prospective students.

The Council serves its membership by establishing best practices for EDBA
programs, by enabling exchanges between program students, alumni, faculty
and staff, and by facilitating professional development of individuals that have
responsibilities for executive doctoral programs.

More information about the EDBA Council can be found on their website at
http://www.executivedba.org

Executive Doctorate in Business Administration l rollins.edu/business l 407-646-2405

EDBA Faculty

Greg W. Marshall, Ph.D.

Executive DBA Faculty Director
Charles Harwood Professor of Marketing and Strategy
Dr. Marshall believes strongly that in order to combine relevance with rigor in doctoral education
in business it is important to be directly connected with contemporary business practice. He
regularly works with firms and individual managers and executives that seek to create and
implement best practices within his sphere of expertise. He has a passion for doctoral education
and has mentored numerous doctoral students and beginning faculty members over the years.

As Academic Director, Dr. Marshall is responsible for ensuring high quality in all aspects of
the doctoral students’ educational experience at Rollins. He also works in academic circles
nationally and globally to bring in best practices that position the Rollins EDBA as one of the
top executive doctoral programs in the world.

Henrique Correa, Ph.D.

Professor of Operations Management
Dr. Correa is a strong believer in building bridges between academia and industry in teaching,
practice and research; he remains in touch with best industry practice regularly working as a
counsellor/ consultant for corporations and executives of companies such as Unilever, Pepsico
and Diageo in Brazil, Europe and the United States. He has taught in doctoral programs and
mentored numerous doctoral students in institutions such as the University of São Paulo
School of Engineering (Escola Politécnica) and Fundação Getulio Vargas Business School
(both in Brazil) over the years.

James P. Johnson, Ph.D.

Professor of International Business
Dr. Johnson is a strong advocate of “hands-on” learning. In international business, that means
traveling overseas and experiencing for oneself what it is like to do business in a different
political, economic, sociocultural and technological environment. “One has to touch it, feel it,
smell it, taste it to really understand what is different about doing business internationally.”
Dr. Johnson is active in international business research. He has published in several top-tier
business journals, including Journal of International Business Studies, Strategic Management
Journal, and Management International Review and he has made dozens of presentations
at prestigious national and international conferences. His latest research project is on the
sustainability of UNESCO World Heritage sites in Latin America, Asia and Europe.

Executive Doctorate in Business Administration l rollins.edu/business l 407-646-2405

EDBA Faculty
Mark W. Johnston, Ph.D.
Alan and Sandra Gerry Professor of Marketing and Ethics
Prior to receiving his doctorate from Texas A&M University Dr. Johnston worked in industry as
a sales and marketing representative for a leading distributor of photographic equipment. His
research has resulted in dozens of published articles in a number of professional journals such
as Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Personal Selling
and Sales Management and many others. He is co-author of Sales Force Management, 11e,
Contemporary Selling (4e), and Marketing Management (2e). His market-leading book, Sales
Force Management, has been translated in Spanish, Russian, and Chinese. Mark has been cited
by the Journal of Business Research as one of the most important researchers in the area of
personal selling and sales management. He continues to do research in sales and marketing
ethics as well as sales force performance and motivation.

Halil Kiymaz, Ph.D., CFA

Bank of America Professor of Finance
Dr. Kiymaz has spent ten years in industry and twenty years in teaching, research, and
consulting with various governmental and public organizations. Dr. Kiymaz believes life-long
learning bridges relevant theory with business practice. He is a recipient of Outstanding
Teaching Award at Crummer multiple times. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
designation and has served as a grader for the CFA Institute.

Dr. Kiymaz maintains an extensive research agenda and has published more than 75 articles
in scholarly and practitioner journals. He is recipient of several research awards including
McGraw-Hill Irwin Best Paper Award and Outstanding Research Award multiple times at the
Global Conference on Business and Finance. He is the finance editor of International Journal
of Emerging Markets. He also serves on the editorial board of numerous journals.

Craig M. McAllaster, Ed.D.

Steinmetz Professor of Management
Dr. McAllaster spent over a decade working for leading companies like Consolidated Foods,
AVX Corporation and Loral Corporation in executive positions. He has served on the faculties
of Alfred State College, Cornell University and the University of Central Florida.

Dr. McAllaster believes that an executive doctoral program must bridge the gap between
academia and the business world. It must be rigorous and relevant and it should provide the
doctoral student the opportunity to advance a personal learning agenda and give back to his/
her organization and field.

William Seyfried, Ph.D.

Professor of Economics | Associate Dean for Academics
Throughout his career, Dr. Seyfried has emphasized the applied nature of economics both in
terms of policy and business decisions. Dr. Seyfried thinks that it is vital for business leaders to
have a solid understanding of the economic environment within which they operate in order
to make superior decisions. As such, he emphasizes the need for a working-knowledge of the
economy with emphasis on the implications for businesses (companies). He has consulted
with a variety of companies including those operating in the home services, architectural, and
financial industries, while also presenting economic analysis on many issues to a variety of
business groups, ranging from local firms to foreign businesses.

Executive Doctorate in Business Administration l rollins.edu/business l 407-646-2405

 Courses

CORE CONTENT COURSES

EDBA 501
Theory and Contemporary Thought in Economics
Businesses are impacted by the economic
environment in which they operate. This course
introduces doctoral students to the theory
and research of select contemporary issues in
economics.

EDBA 502
Theory and Contemporary Thought in Finance
This course provides doctoral students with a
rigorous background in finance, theoretical as well
as empirical aspects, with special emphasis on
corporate finance.
One of the primary goals of this course is to
enable students to conduct independent research
and to make their own contributions to the
understanding of the complexities
of finance.

EDBA 503
Theory and Contemporary Thought in Global Business
No business today is insulated from global competition for resources and markets. This course will introduce doctoral
students to current theory and research in global business.

EDBA 504
Theory and Contemporary Thought in Leadership
Leadership in a global environment presents challenges to managers and organizations. This course is designed to focus
doctoral students on critical questions of what attributes are required of leaders. As business leaders themselves, course
participants will be expected to simultaneously look at the big picture and at themselves in a critically, self-reflective
way.

EDBA 505
Theory and Contemporary Thought in Marketing
All organizations face the challenge of creating, delivering and communicating value to their customers. This course
provides a forum for doctoral students to examine the fundamental relationship between the organization, its value
proposition, and its customers.

EDBA 506
Theory and Contemporary Thought in Operations Management
This course is designed to introduce doctoral students to theory and research in operations management (OM)
and supply chain management (SCM).

continued....

Executive Doctorate in Business Administration l rollins.edu/business l 407-646-2405

 Courses

EDBA 507 RMC 503

Theory and Contemporary Thought in
Organizational Behavior and Human Resources
This course is designed to introduce doctoral students
to theory, research, and best practices in organizational
behavior and human resources management.
EDBA 508
Theory and Contemporary Thought in
Organizational Strategy and Strategic Marketing
Strategy drives organizational success over the long run.
This course provides doctoral students the opportunity
to become familiar with key frameworks, classic research,
and promising areas for future research across the field
of strategy.
Introduction to Quantitative Methods
Research is used to guide many of the most important
decisions that organizations face. Most executives,
however, have not been trained to think critically about
research. This course serves to begin this training and will
provide doctoral students a set of tools and techniques for
designing quantitative research projects and collecting,
evaluating, and analyzing quantitative data.
RMC 504
Introduction to Qualitative Methods
This course will introduce doctoral students to the variety
of qualitative research techniques used to explore issues in
business and management.

EDBA 509
Integrative Experience
This course serves as a capstone classroom experience for
doctoral students. The aims of the course are to provide
an integration of learning from the content courses and
research methods courses and facilitate the successful
transition to the dissertation phase of the EDBA program.
PRACTICAL RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
RPC 601 and 602
Applied Research (Part 1 and Part 2)
In the second year of their program EDBA students work in
teams on a research project supervised by a faculty member.

DIS 701 and 702

RESEARCH METHODS COURSES Dissertation (Part 1 and Part 2)
The dissertation phase of the EDBA program provides
the opportunity for each doctoral student to develop and
RMC 501
execute a complete research project that aims to address
Introduction to the Philosophy of Science
practical problems that are relevant within the student’s
In general, philosophy of science is concerned with the
own workplace or interest areas. The dissertation is
assumptions, foundations, methods, and implications of
supervised by a committee of faculty consisting of a chair
science and with the use and merit of science. This course
and a second member.
will set the stage for the doctoral students’ journey toward
engaged scholarship - using research and interdisciplinary
instruction to enable students to solve practical problems
in the current business environment and grow as an
executive.

RMC 502
Introduction to Research Methods
This course will present the research methods commonly
used by social scientists when conducting organizational
research. The course will prepare doctoral students to
conduct reliable, valid, and practically-relevant research in
organizational settings by introducing topics such as the
scientific method, research design, statistical inference,
and concept validity.

Executive Doctorate in Business Administration l rollins.edu/business l 407-646-2405

Research Projects & Dissertation FAQs
How do I choose my research topic?
You will have a faculty advisor that will work with you from the beginning to help you identify research
areas of interest to you. You will have plenty of opportunities to interact with faculty members from
across the various business disciplines at Crummer.

What are the areas of expertise at the Crummer Graduate School of Business?
Broad areas represented are economics, finance, global business, leadership, marketing, operations
management, organizational behavior, human resources, and strategy. We encourage cross-disciplinary
work among these areas. When it comes time for your dissertation, you will
have a dissertation committee chairperson and a second member.

Should I choose a topic in my current field into which I want to delve more
deeply or should I consider selecting a topic in a different field in order to
stretch my research skills and knowledge?
Either choice works if it’s the right choice for you and your goals. You will work closely with a faculty
advisor who will help you determine which path is in your best interest.

Does my current employer/industry need to be factored into the research

area I choose?
This is entirely up to you. You may choose to research a topic in your current industry for your current
company, or you can choose a different area that you want to go into or in which you have an interest.
Regardless, you should choose a research area that you are passionate about studying in order to make
the EDBA experience meaningful and rewarding. Your choices will be made under the supervision of
your faculty advisor, and later your dissertation committee.

Will my research be published?

Both the second year research project and the dissertation should hold high potential for publication.
A caveat is that even for experienced researchers, there are no “guarantees” that a project will
ultimately result in a publication.

Executive Doctorate in Business Administration l rollins.edu/business l 407-646-2405

Profile of Tuition &
Candidates Financial Aid
The ideal EDBA candidate will have: Tuition for the Executive Doctorate in Business
• 10 or more years of senior-level business experience. Administration (EDBA) program beginning in
• A proven track record of impacting a company’s August 2018 will be $104,966* and is guaranteed
bottom line. not to increase for students who remain in their
• A commitment to becoming a leader that will add value entrance class. Books and supplies are not
to his or her organization and community. included.

Demographics* Fees
• Average Age: 50 • Parking: $210 (a one-time, nonrefundable fee)
• Average Work Experience: 26 yrs • EDBA Association: $200
• Female: 33% Male: 67% • Dissertation review and filing fees

Represented Industries *Tuition rate for Fall 2018, costs are subject to change
• Aerospace/Defense
• Banking/Finance A variety of financial aid options are available to
• Consumer Packaged Goods Rollins EDBA students, including loans and special
• Education funding programs for veterans.
• Engineering and Design
• Hospitality/Travel Please contact our Financial Aid Office at
• Independent Consulting and Training 407.646.2395 and our staff will help you find the
• Information Technology best option to fund your education.
• Marketing
• Physical Distribution/Supply Chain
• Telecommunications

*profile of candidates as of August 2017

Accreditation

The Rollins College Crummer Graduate Rollins College is accredited by the

School of Business is internationally Southern Association of Colleges and
accredited by the Association to Advance Schools Commission on Colleges
Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). (SACSCOC) to award baccalaureate,
In addition, the EDBA program at Rollins master’s, and doctoral degrees.
was the first accredited EDBA program
in the state of Florida.

Executive Doctorate in Business Administration l rollins.edu/business l 407-646-2405

 To learn more about the EDBA program, admissions requirements,

or to apply visit rollins.edu/business or contact us at 407-646-2405.

Let us help you stand out from your competitors and

align your career path with your educational goals.

Rollins Crummer Graduate School of Business Admissions Office

1000 Holt Avenue - 2722, Winter Park, FL 32789
1-800-866-2405 | 407-646-2405 | rollins.edu/business