The PhD program at the Shidler College of Business reflects the College's philosophy that a broad and cross-functional orientation is necessary to appreciate complex business problems that extend beyond the narrow confines of a particular discipline. It is small and individualized. It enables students to pursue their own areas of interest. Only full-time study is allowed.

Doctoral candidates choose one specialization from among six areas: Accounting, Finance, Information Technology Management, Marketing, Organization and Strategy, and Travel Industry Management.

Required Courses

PhD students must complete all the required courses within a specialization during the first two years in the program.

• Accounting: ACC 616, ACC 625, and 3 out of 4 accounting PhD courses, i.e., ACC 701 - 706
• Finance: FIN 701, FIN 702, FIN 703, ECON 606, and ECON 608
• Information Technology Management: ITM 704, CIS 703
• Management (Organization and Strategy): MGT 650, MGT 701, MGT 704
• Marketing: 3 out of 4 marketing PhD courses, i.e., MKT 701-704
• Travel Industry Management: TIM 702, TIM 703, TIM 704 (TIM 601 is a prerequisite for TIM 702-704. Prior to taking TIM 704, students should also complete ECON 606 and ECON 607  as well.)

In addition to the required course in their specialization, students are required to take four graduate-level courses in statistics. They also have to enroll in BUS 705 PhD Seminar in Business Administration for the first two years of their program. Subsequent enrollment in the BUS 705 is recommended but not required.

Departments for the specialized areas sometimes have additional requirements. Please double check with respective Program Representative.

• Accounting: You-il (Chris) Park (youil@hawaii.edu)
• Finance: Jing Ai (jinga@hawaii.edu)
• Information Technology Management: Bo Xiao (boxiao@hawaii.edu)
• Marketing: Yanmei Zheng (yanmeiz@hawaii.edu)
• Management (Organization and Strategy): Tarmar Kreps (tkreps@hawaii.edu)
• Travel Industry Management: Ingrid Lin (ilin@hawaii.edu)

Recommended Courses

Courses that students should consider taking include:

• Graduate-level courses in research methods
• Doctoral seminars (700-level courses) offered by Shidler College of Business that are outside students' specialty area
• Graduate-level courses in economics and econometrics
• Graduate-level courses in disciplines that meet students’ research interests
• Independent study with Shidler faculty 

Degree Requirements

To graduate with a PhD in Business Administration, students have to:

• Complete 44 total credits or more in a timely manner
• Depending on the area of specialization, complete a first-year paper or pass a first-year qualifying exam
• Pass a second-year comprehensive exam
• Pass the dissertation proposal defense
• Complete the dissertation and pass the dissertation defense