The Fox PhD program trains outstanding scholars who advance the state of their fields through research and teaching. Prepare to lead field research and pursue life-long academic careers at prestigious research universities around the world. The PhD program at the Fox School is a full-time, five-year program for hard-working individuals with exceptional intellectual skills who aim to tackle complex business problems. Our greatest resource – our faculty – is an internationally recognized group of leaders who conduct cutting-edge research that crosses disciplinary boundaries. Engage the changing world of management for years to come with the Fox PhD program.

Why the Fox PhD

The Fox School of Business PhD program combines top research faculty with small class sizes and a cutting edge curriculum to help students succeed in today’s academic world. Students have the opportunity to build their research portfolio, present work at international conferences and meet with top researchers from around the world as they develop their network.

Program Overview

The Fox School’s PhD program offers a degree in Business Administration, encompassing ten concentrations; a degree in Decision Neuroscience, and a degree in Statistics. Although tailored to meet the individual demands of field specialization, each program utilizes a similar structure. This includes coursework for approximately two and a half years, required research papers, screening examinations and a dissertation. The expected time for degree completion is five years.

For more information on each field of study, including any additional requirements, allowance for interdisciplinary study and financial aid information, explore each individual page below.

Disciplines

Business Administration: Accounting

The PhD concentration in Accounting produces high-caliber doctoral graduates who are ready to assume faculty responsibilities in accounting and related departments at major research universities. Candidates collaborate with full-time faculty members who hold doctorates from top business schools as they prepare for careers in research and teaching at leading academic institutions. 

The concentration houses award winning faculty. Six faculty members have received prestigious American Accounting Association (AAA) awards, including the Lifetime Contribution Award, Notable Contribution to the Accounting Literature Award, the Distinguished Contribution to Accounting Literature Award, the Notable Contribution to Auditing Literature Award, FARS Best Paper Award and Outstanding International Accounting Education Award. Our faculty is also active in journal editorial activities. Faculty serve in leadership positions on several high quality accounting journals, such as The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory and Accounting Horizons.

Concentration Advisor

Business Administration: Finance

The PhD concentration in Finance prepares students for academic positions through rigorous training in scholarship and university-level teaching. Our research-active faculty hold doctorate degrees from top business schools. Their areas of research expertise include corporate finance, asset pricing and financial institutions, with faculty publications consistently appearing in leading academic journals such as the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies and Management Science. Our faculty members also serve on editorial boards of academic journals such as the Review of Financial Studies, Review of Derivatives Research and Journal of Economics and Business.

Faculty members work closely with students and publish papers co-authored with current and former students in top academic journals such as the Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Management Science, The Accounting Review and Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.

Concentration Advisor

Business Administration: Human Resource Management / Organizational Behavior (HRM/OB)

The PhD concentration in Human Resource Management/Organizational Behavior (HRM/OB) at the Fox School prepares students for academic careers at prominent research universities. Research is one of the most important parts of a PhD student’s academic life. Our curriculum provides training in methodology and diverse content areas to enable students to achieve research excellence.

The PhD program integrates world-renowned research faculty with intimate class sizes and a forward-thinking curriculum in order to help students succeed in today’s academic world. As part of Temple University, our students have access to the technology and resources offered by one of the largest urban universities on the East Coast. Students enrolled in the PhD program enjoy dedicated research events that contribute to building robust research portfolios, the support to present their research work at international conferences and the chance to network with top researchers from around the world.

Faculty members employ diverse methodologies to explore topics including (but not limited to) leadership, organizational justice, mindfulness, person-environment fit and strategic human resource management. Due to this interdisciplinary approach, our faculty members regularly publish in premier journals, while also serving on the Editorial Review Boards for the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, and the Journal of Organizational Behavior. In addition, department members hold associate editor roles and prominent leadership positions in the Academy of Management, as well as the Society of Industrial & Organizational Psychology (SIOP).

Working in concert with our dedicated faculty, HRM/OB doctoral students explore a wide range of topical issues. Many students have already participated in top international conferences. Incoming students can expect to collaborate with their faculty mentors on joint research and publications.

Concentration Advisor

  • Profile Picture of Brian Holtz

    Brian Holtz

    • Fox School of Business and Management

      • Management

        • Associate Professor

        • Liacouras Research Fellow

Business Administration: International Business (IB)

The PhD in Business Administration with a concentration in International Business prepares individuals for advanced research and scholarship on issues that cut across national boundaries. The program adopts a multi-disciplinary approach to the phenomenon of cross-border business: faculty in the program use the lens of finance, economics, marketing as well as strategic management in their research and teaching.

The primary emphasis of the program is to prepare future faculty members for successful academic careers in international business and related departments at major research universities.

Graduates of the program have published their work in the top journals of international business and management, including the Journal of International Business Studies, the Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, the Academy of Management Journal and the Academy of Management Review.

Please note: The IB concentration will not be accepting students for fall 2022.

Business Administration: Management Information Systems (MIS)

The PhD Business Administration in MIS produces high-caliber faculty who are ready to assume responsibilities at top-tier research universities and generate high impact research. A hallmark of our program is the close collaboration between faculty and PhD students. The program includes highly acclaimed faculty with an excellent research record and extensive experience in mentoring doctoral students.

MIS faculty are on the editorial board of leading academic journals such as Information Systems Research, Production and Operations Management and MIS Quarterly. The MIS department is the only free-standing IS department in the Philadelphia area.

The MIS research portfolio covers a range of topics including e- commerce, innovation, cybersecurity, competitive strategy, social media, virtual teams and mobile computing.

Concentration Advisor

  • Profile Picture of Jason Bennett Thatcher

    Jason Bennett Thatcher

    • Fox School of Business and Management

      • Management Information Systems

        • Milton E. Stauffer Professor

Business Administration: Marketing

Prepare for an exceptional academic career with recognized experts and successful researchers. The Fox PhD program’s marketing concentration provides rigorous training in scholarly academic research and university-level teaching with support from distinguished faculty who hold doctorates from top business schools.

The PhD concentration in marketing produces high-caliber doctoral graduates who are ready to assume faculty responsibilities in marketing and related departments at major research universities. Candidates collaborate with full-time faculty members, who are leading scholars in the field as they prepare for careers in research and teaching at leading academic institutions.

Faculty members are research-active and span different specialty areas including quantitative marketing, consumer behavior and marketing strategy. In addition, the area of neural decision making is a unique strength of our program. The PhD students tend to gravitate to these specialty areas as they take on research projects and, ultimately, their thesis work.

The PhD program is structured to provide hands-on collaboration between students and faculty. First-year students get involved in research projects right away and students work with multiple faculty members as they progress. The primary focus is on research, with the objective that our graduates enter the job market with top-tier publications. In addition, students have the opportunity to teach undergraduate classes in their fourth and fifth years.

Concentration Advisor

  • Profile Picture of Monica Wadhwa

    Monica Wadhwa

    • Fox School of Business and Management

      • Marketing

        • Associate Professor

        • Liacouras Research Fellow

Business Administration: Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM)

The PhD concentration in Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM) prepares students in theoretical and empirical research to assume academic positions in operations-related departments at major research universities. This concentration’s interdisciplinary approach allows students to immerse themselves in the tenets of operations and supply chain and services, and to utilize cross-disciplinary methods from marketing, information systems, statistics, healthcare management, engineering and economics.

Working directly with faculty, students explore a wide range of topical issues, participate in top international conferences and publish in leading journals. The internationally recognized research faculty guide students in collaborative research opportunities.

Faculty have published in leading academic journals such as Management Science, Operations Research, Production and Operations Management, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly and Journal of Operations Management, among others. OSCM faculty also serve in the editorial positions in leading academic journals. Incoming students can expect to collaborate with their faculty mentors on joint research and publication in their first year and beyond.

The OSCM group is also home to the Center for Business Analytics and Disruptive Technologies. The center coordinates and seeds multidisciplinary industry projects that explore how business analytics and disruptive technologies can be used for better decision-making. The center aims to foster cutting-edge research, industry outreach, education and development of commercial tools.

Concentration Advisor

  • Profile Picture of Subodha Kumar

    Subodha Kumar

    • Fox School of Business and Management

      • Statistics, Operations, and Data Science

        • Paul R. Anderson Professor

Business Administration: Risk Management and Insurance (RMI)

The PhD concentration in Risk Management and Insurance (RMI) prepares students for academic careers at research universities so that they are competitive for positions in RMI-dedicated departments as well as specialized roles in finance, economics or actuarial science departments, depending on the interests of the student.

The Department of Risk, Actuarial Science, and Legal Studies (RALS) offers degree programs spanning the risk space including risk management/insurance, actuarial science, legal studies and healthcare management. Faculty specialize in risk management and insurance, actuarial science and legal studies. Our faculty’s research focus and department activities benefit our students in the job market, leading to research appointments at universities such as California State University, University of Florida, University of Mississippi, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, National Taiwan University, Fudan University and the Korean Institute of Finance.

Faculty members’ research focuses on a variety of risk-related topics including the productivity and efficiency of insurance firms, insurance regulation, behavioral insurance, enterprise risk management, household finance and risk, catastrophic risk management, longevity risk management, healthcare and health insurance markets and actuarial modeling, among others. Faculty also conduct leading research on important public policy issues such as insurance utilization in emerging markets (microinsurance) and consumer decisions related to catastrophic risk exposures including floods or hurricanes. Faculty publish in many leading journals including the Journal of Risk and Insurance, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, the North American Actuarial Journal and the Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance.

In addition to the seminars that are part of the doctoral student’s program of study, the RMI concentration provides a series of research activities designed to further develop the doctoral student’s knowledge of the relevant literature and the academics active in conducting research. These activities include the RALS Brownbag Seminar, a bi-weekly meeting where faculty and doctoral students present early phase research; and the Hedges Seminar, where well-known faculty from other universities are invited to campus to share their research. These activities, along with individual faculty support and guidance are hallmarks of the RMI PhD concentration and are instrumental in the professional development of doctoral students.

Concentration Advisor

  • Profile Picture of Benjamin Collier

    Benjamin Collier

    • Fox School of Business and Management

      • Risk, Actuarial Science, and Legal Studies

        • Associate Professor

        • Tuttleman Research Fellow

Business Administration: Strategic Management (SGM)

The PhD in Business Administration program with a concentration in Strategic Management (SGM) engages students in advanced research and scholarship. The concentration provides rigorous training in scholarly academic research and university-level teaching with support from distinguished faculty who hold doctorates from top business schools.

The primary emphasis of the program is to prepare future faculty members for successful academic careers. The SGM concentration produces high-caliber doctoral graduates who are ready to assume faculty responsibilities in strategic management and related departments, such as entrepreneurship or innovation, at major research universities.

Concentration Advisor

  • Profile Picture of Arvind Parkhe

    Arvind Parkhe

    • Fox School of Business and Management

      • Management

        • Laura H. Carnell Professor

Business Administration: Tourism and Sport

The School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management (STHM), in conjunction with the Fox School of Business and Management at Temple University, offers a PhD degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Tourism and Sport.

The PhD concentration in Tourism and Sport provides students with an opportunity to advance their research and teaching skills. Our goal is for graduates to secure university tenure-track positions. The course work takes approximately two years and provides students with an appropriate blend of theoretical and methodological courses to support their research program. This doctoral program provides the ideal environment for students to engage in rigorous academic and research training to begin a successful career at a university.

Statistics

The PhD in Statistics at Fox School of Business prepares students to pursue original research in academia, industry and government. The program instills within students:

  • The foundations necessary to understand new statistical theories and methodological tools as they are developed.
  • The ability to conduct original research that will make substantial contribution to the science of statistics.
  • The ability to understand the relationships and interactions of statistical science as a discipline with other fields.

Department specializations in theory and applications in many modern and fast-growing areas of statistical science and data science have enabled graduates to find success in a variety of fields.

Concentration Advisor

  • Profile Picture of Zhigen Zhao

    Zhigen Zhao

    • Fox School of Business and Management

      • Statistics, Operations, and Data Science

        • Associate Professor

        • Beury Research Fellow

Decision Neuroscience PhD

The interdisciplinary PhD program in Decision Neuroscience is a collaborative effort with the Department of Psychology in the College of Liberal Arts. The Fox School has been at the forefront of the field of decision neuroscience over the past decade. 

Students enrolled in the program gain a thorough understanding of the intellectual issues in the rapidly growing field of decision neuroscience and its subfields of neuroeconomics and neuromarketing. The program has the unique translational vision of integrating scientific findings with everyday real-world problems. 

The Center for Applied Research in Decision Making (formerly known as Center for Neural Decision Making) is one of the few research centers housed in a business school with the capability to collect behavioral, eye-tracking, and biometric data. Similarly, Temple University’s Psychology Department has long been a leader in brain and cognitive science research, with access to fMRI and EEG facilities. Students in the program will have access to all these resources as part of their research program. Prior to being formally approved as an independent program in the year 2017, the program was part of the interdisciplinary studies at the Fox School of Business.

  • Profile Picture of Vinod Venkatraman

    Vinod Venkatraman

    • Fox School of Business and Management

      • Marketing

        • Associate Professor

        • Washburn Research Fellow

Not ready for a PhD?

Develop research skills and experiences needed to be competitive for PhD study. The Master’s in Science in Business Research is uniquely designed to provide students who wish to eventually pursue a PhD with a distinct advantage by offering an immersive experience in research theory, methods, and advanced analytic tools. This program is ideal for individuals who wish to pursue PhD study, but first require more background in business research.

All students admitted to Fox PhD programs are considered for full financial support. Funding typically comes in the form of an assistantship and includes full tuition and a competitive stipend for at least four years, based on adequate progress and yearly evaluations. Students who apply before the January 5 deadline will also be considered for Temple’s prestigious university fellowships.