Orientation to Business and Management Research, 4.0 credits

Entry requirements

Please note that this is only a translation. It is the Swedish syllabus that is legally valid.

Admission to doctoral studies. Doctoral students in the ASP programmes in Industrial Engineering and Management and Business Administration at IEI are given priority for the course.

Specific information

The target group for the course is doctoral students conducting research in industrial engineering and management or business administration who have recently commenced their doctoral education. The course functions as a joint departmental course for all doctoral students admitted to the ASP programmes in Industrial Engineering and Management and Business Administration at IEI, but it is also open to doctoral students in related subjects.

Learning outcomes

The course is designed to introduce abilities and skills in accordance with the objectives of the Higher Education Ordinance for doctoral education, by:

• demonstrating the ability to identify and formulate research questions critically, independently, creatively, and with scholarly precision (objective 4),
• demonstrating familiarity with scientific methodology in general (objective 2a),
• and demonstrating capacity for judgement and approach by showing deeper insight into the possibilities and limitations of science, its role in society, and human responsibility for its use (objective 11).

After completing the course, the doctoral student should be able to:

• make well-founded choices in their own research (problem formulation, methods, theories, and delimitations),
• reflect on qualitative and quantitative research design and its relevance in different fields,
• reflect on different types of research design and their relevance in different fields,
• discuss the role of research and researchers in society and situate their own research in a wider context,
• reflect on the academic publishing process, including different options and their potential consequences,
• gain an overview of the breadth of research in business administration and industrial engineering and management.

Contents

The course comprises five seminars with different themes:

1. Ethos in science: academic norms and challenges.
2. 1How can research problems be formulated, addressed, and research processes designed?
3. Thesis analysis.
4. Publish or perish? Navigating the academic publishing process.
5. Conducting ethical and transparent empirical research?

Educational methods

The course consists of five seminars. Before or after each seminar, doctoral students complete an individual written assignment.

Examination

The course is assessed through active participation and completion of the prescribed written assignments for each seminar.

Grading

Course literature

To be announced at the start of the course.

General information

Detailed course information will be distributed at the start of the course. This will include the timetable, reading list, and further instructions.

The course observes principles of equal opportunity and seeks to make use of the resources that students with different competencies, backgrounds, and life situations contribute to the education.

The reading list and timetable are determined separately.

A course evaluation will be conducted by the course coordinator after each delivery.

The results of the evaluation will be communicated to participants of this and future iterations of the course, as well as to the Doctoral Studies Council at IEI.