I have come across excellent articles that combine well a first person narrative (which is simple) and keeping the focus on the object of analytics (which requires advanced skills). But to master both together usually takes years of training and practicing, as much as riding a bicycle at a high-wire does. And most people won’t start to learn riding a bike at a high-wire, and likely there is a good reason for that. What I want to point out in this post is, how easy it is for students to go off track once they adopt a first person narrative. Using a first […]

The doctoral journey is an open-ended journey and there are infinite ways doctoral students could follow. Those on a more structured professional doctorate, like the Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA), may have formal coursework that provides guidance in the initial phase. But ultimately, this is your research and you need to craft your pathway. There is an endless amount of literature to read, a myriad of methodologies, methods and frameworks to explore, skills and mind sets to trial and adopt; and all against little and vague feedback, and guidance that supervisors or peers might provide you with. There are no clear milestones, no […]

One of our scholars of the DoctorateHub is seeking a supervisor and host institution to undertake a PhD research project on the challenges with telecoms’ network quality ascribed to the operators’ ineffectiveness of their operations and management (O&M) practice in Africa. The applicant is a self-funded practitioner who is going to execute the research in his own company that operates a large telecoms infrastructure in Africa. The applicant is based in the UK, but subject to frequent travel requirements (expectable to resume post-pandemic). The candidate has a track DoctorateHub record for his previous research undertakings, demonstrating his writing skills and capability […]

This is to announce that with the November 2020 (beta) release of our new DoctorateHub educational community marketplace, we are going to finally move all webinar announcements and summaries to the new webinar spaces. Each webinar space has a dedicated discussion, which allows to keep discussions centralised and focused. We look forward to seeing you over at our new webinar spaces!  

As noted in my last year’ follow up post on this topic, there seems to be a common progression of doctoral research students where the early stage of their writing tends to mainly summarise, focusing on the author as the messenger rather than the message they are portraying, picking up conclusions rather than the process of reaching that conclusion. As the students progress the capabilities then gradually develop into a critical and focused engagement with the literature. And while this is perhaps natural and positive in itself, it also frequently leads to the fact that “old writing” and “new writing” […]

In this webinar we have been discussing why tackling wicked problems is perhaps one of the toughest challenges one can face. And the reason for this is that they have no ultimate solution, they are not even a problem to all. This post webinar blog post is drawing from an 2018 post that can be found here. The full slide set is available to registered users here. To those that have some follow up questions, be welcome to post them at the Webinar’s Message Board and we will get back to you. Tackling Wicked Problems is a tough challenge Tackling […]

This webinar provided an overview on how to identify, justify and apply research methods. Areas explored focused on where students struggle, and the reasons why such struggle exist. The point here is that students want to select a method before they know the research problem, existing studies of relevance, and the wider literature in the field. Contrary to this however, the research methods typically should be derived from such existing studies of relevance. And building on something that is still unknown is obviously tricky. The research method lends itself to you! There is actually not much need to spent much […]

In this webinar we have been discussing that the research questions are amongst the last things to be written up in your thesis. Though research questions are likewise one of the starting points of the research journey. The nature of the questions is however entirely different. Through the research journey the questions change. Initial questions are more geared towards understanding what is happening. Why is A happening once I do B? What is the exact problem here? What is broke and not as it is expected to be? The questions are therefore of an explorative nature. As the research progresses […]

We have been running another webinar dedicated to the Viva, and following the earlier webinars here, here and here. Some of the topics have remained over time, while others were added. And one of those additions was to enter the viva with a clear understanding on where you are. Basically, ask yourself: How good is your thesis? As I see it, there are the three following categories that can be frequently encountered: Not so good and you enter gambling on luck (e.g. deliberate choice or ignorance) Not so good and you enter aiming to improve it (e.g. you were running […]

In this webinar we have been looking at the mirroring technique and more specifically on how to gradually mirror out the structure of your literature review chapter and so to assure that literature review, data and findings, and analysis and evaluation all add up. The webinar was structured alongside four parts; in the first part we discussed more generally the mirroring technique, followed by the second part that looked into how mirroring could be applied in support of bringing together the data and the literature parts, the third part then looked into pre-requisites for the successful use of mirroring, and […]

In this webinar we have been looking at the critical elements of your initial thesis research proposal, the existing knowledge to be leveraged into it, and how to assure that the thesis research proposal is actionable and frontward compatible so to eventually converge into your draft thesis. The thesis research proposal as an entry chip For some programs the thesis research proposal is the entry chip, and latest upon enrolment in the doctoral program it will be the initial focus to compile an operational thesis research proposal to be approved by the supervisors and getting ethical clearance to be subsequently carried […]

In this webinar we have been looking at the difference of research and development, how it is the R can earn you the doctorate, but not the D; and how to align both. For the start we discussed why students are often getting caught by the D. One reason is of course that doing D is associated with getting to the desired solution and outcome expectation. But given that there is always some development happening in the work environment, given that we talk about a living organization, how shall we best approach such development from the perspective of our doctoral […]