- William Harry Willson Distinguished Chair and Professor, Department of Management
Preferred deadline: December 31
Program Overview
Our program is an ideal destination for anyone interested in a PhD in Business Administration with a Management focus, for four reasons:
Research Productivity
We are consistently ranked among the most productive departments in the field. For the Texas A&M/University of Georgia Rankings of management department productivity, we were number 1 outright in 2019 & 2020 and top 10 in each of the last 5-years. When adjusted for faculty size, we are the 2nd most productive department over the last 5-years. In the University of Colorado Per Capita Rankings of Management Departments, we rank 3rd in North America and 4th globally. In short, we are one of the most productive groups in the field.
Institutional Prestige
Founded in 1785 as the nation’s first public university, University of Georgia is ranked 20th in the U.S. News Top Public Schools ranking. It is considered one of the Public Ivies, alongside institutions like the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina, the University of Virginia, and the University of Texas. The Terry College of Business is home to the 11th best U.S. Public Undergraduate Business Program (21st overall, U.S. News & World Report) and the 8th best U.S. Public Full-time MBA program (27th overall, Bloomberg BusinessWeek).
Student Focus
Not only are we productive, we publish with our students as well. If you look at our vitas, you’ll see that almost all of our work is being done with our PhD students. This accelerates their training and positions them favorably when they enter the academic job market.
Editorial Experience
Our faculty includes 5 current or former associate editors at premier management journals including current associate editors of Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, and OBHDP, and recent associate editors at Academy of Management Review and Academy of Management Journal. This experience provides unique insights into the publishing process and helps position our students for success.
Concentrations
Strategy & Entrepreneurship
Strategy & Entrepreneurship research explores sources of competitive advantage and firm success – both for large publicly traded companies and newly formed ventures. This research builds on work in sociology, social psychology, and economics.
Strategy & Entrepreneurship students work with:
- Scott D. Graffin
- Mike Pfarrer
- Tim Quigley
- Daniel Gamache
- Susan Cohen
- Seung-Hwan Jeong
- Radina Blagoeva
- Maurice J. Murphy
Current Strategy & Entrepreneurship students:
Organizational Behavior
Organizational Behavior research focuses on understanding employee attitudes, emotions, and behaviors, in an effort to improve the work experience. This research draws largely from industrial, organizational, and social psychology.
Organizational Behavior students work with:
Current Organizational Behavior students:
PhD students work with faculty on all phases of the research process—from idea generation and study design to data analysis and writing. The culture is collegial and informal, with students viewed as colleagues and coauthors. Moreover, students are encouraged to work with multiple faculty members, not just their chosen advisor or dissertation chair.
Typical Program Sequence
Year 1
Fall
Year 2
Fall
Year 3
Assuming the passing of comprehensive exams, acceptable departmental evaluations, and the approval of the Associate Dean, PhD students are put on a five-year track. Year 3 is then focused on continuing to make progress on existing research projects while beginning lead-authored work.
Year 4
Year 4 is focused on existing research projects and the Dissertation Proposal.
Year 5
Year 5 is focused on interviews in the academic job market and completion of the final Dissertation Defense.
Placements
Our program has a consistent history of placing students at top universities:
- Indiana (Farhan Iqbal, 2023, Strategy & Entrepreneurship)
- Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (Emily Poulton, 2023, Organizational Behavior)
- University of Tulsa (Shubha Sharma, 2023, Organizational Behavior)
- Iowa State (“Elle” Hyunjung Yoon, 2022, Strategy & Entrepreneurship)
- New Hampshire (Emma Frank, 2022, Organizational Behavior)
- Arizona State (Rachel Burgess, 2021, Organizational Behavior)
- South Carolina (Edwyna Hill, 2021, Organizational Behavior)
- Pennsylvania State (Eric Lee, 2021, Strategy & Entrepreneurship)
- Texas A&M (Tyler Sabey, 2020 Organizational Behavior)
- Nebraska (Rob Campbell, 2019 Strategy & Entrepreneurship)
- Pepperdine (Cole Short, 2019 Strategy & Entrepreneurship)
- Oregon and now Purdue (Kate Zipay, 2018 Organizational Behavior)
- Georgia State and now Virginia (Abbie Oliver, 2018 Strategy & Entrepreneurship)
- Notre Dame (Tim Hubbard, 2017 Strategy & Entrepreneurship )
- Indiana (Ryan Outlaw, 2016 Organizational Behavior)
- Illinois-Chicago (John Lynch, 2016 Organizational Behavior)
- Arizona State (Michael Baer, 2015 Organizational Behavior)
- Oklahoma State and now Clemson (Jason Kiley, 2015 Strategy & Entrepreneurship)
- Pennsylvania State and now Arizona State (Jonathan Bundy, 2014 Strategy & Entrepreneurship)
Our students received offers and/or campus visits from a number of schools, including:
- University of North Carolina
- University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
- University of Virginia (Darden & McIntire)
- University of Washington
- Pennsylvania State University
- Boston College
- Indiana University
- University of Oregon
- University of Arizona
- Washington University in St. Louis
- London Business School
- Imperial College London