Hi Praveen
Welcome to GMATClub.

I am not sure of the query but would put my comments as under

1. I am not sure of your comment regarding Engineering PhD. A PhD is ALWAYS for Research and Teaching career. Why would you do a doctrate otherwise ? It is a very big commitment. How many doctoral candidates are there in industry around you ?

2. Your interests are better served by an MS/M Tech rather than an MBA or a PhD.

3. your name suggests you are posting from India. If you want a NPI focused course, perhaps M.Des at IIT Kanpur and IIT Mumbai are what you are looking for, the latter is well received by Indian Industry.

4. Alternatively, if you want a research career OUTSIDE a university surrounding, but in new product development and innovation related areas, then a Business PhD in operations stream is well suited for you. Teaching is NOT the only thing you can do after a biz PhD, you can also have (though rare) an industry career.

Net, I am sure you will agree that the answer to your question is "It depends". On you that is. Certainly motivations for an MBA are very different from that of a PhD, and I am not quite clear what is it that you want from your further studies that you do not have today. If you will care to post again and set a dialogue, perhaps you will get more replies and clarifications from me and other people.

Best of Luck !

Hi Praveen,

About the stipend thing...if you surf the web sites , you will find that they range from $12000 to $27000( that's the max I could find). This apart from tuition waver. Basic sustenance id possible!

Normally in the US , Ph.D. is only for Research and Teaching!

Hi Praveen

Praet has set the ball rolling. Thanks Praet.

Yes, contact profs and search university websites. Not only in US but also in Europe. Innovation research and allied areas of dynamics of strategy related research is at its peak at the following institutes, although it is Prof dependent and you will have a lot of choice once you start surfing and contacting profs

1. MIT - Sloan school
2. London Business School
3. University of Eindhoven, Netherlands

The area of operations that is coming close to what you are talking about is the area called "System Dynamics". Search MIT Sloan website and System Dynamics department there for more. Related reasearch is also in the area of entrepreneurship, going on at London Business School, Insead, MIT and Cornell. These are only some names that come top of the mind.

For living during the Phd :
Well, first, it is a long term commitment. Four-Five years.
Second, a PhD in Biz is ALWAYS funded. Mostly the stipends are generous.
Third, The tution fees is ALWAYS waived - at least at tier I institutes.

See more in previous posts by Praet and myself. Also see the page link that I have provided in another post of Dr. Pranab Majumder (who is a Asst Prof at Duke) for more info. Pranab's page details Simon School, Rochester but advice is applicable for any school.

Write back !

It doesnt matter. the ideal time depends on you. I would suggest taking all the time you can because it will help you to talk to professors at many other universities. four years is a long time to spend with your advisor. you better get to know him/her well. you can find info. about a prof. indirectly be contacting students from universities. Most of the students will be helpful and will give you the inside story.



The idea is that your application packet should speak for itself. They cant influence decisions based on what they know about you. Decisions are usually made a committee.

Talk about influencing decision, Letters of Recommendations can do a great difference. if your prof is well-known, its a good thing to have a recommendation from him.



Strong Math Background, Great Undergraduate and Graduate GPA, atleast 90 percentile on the quant and a similar percentile on your verbal, Relevance of your Undergrad and grad major to your Ph.D program, Fit of your Research Interests with the schools overall research emphasis.

If the undergrad major or grad major is closely related to the field you want to do your PhD in, its a plus.



Good question. maybe anupag can answer it better. all i can say is..MS and MBA are vastly different programmes. in your MS, you might take some research oriented coursework or do a masters thesis. that is why MS-PHD is very common model. MS is great preparation for a Ph.D. MBA courses are hardly research based. Plus, MS can get you some research experience, MBA cannot.

If you do a Ph.D in business without an MBA , the only difference is you might have to take some extra courses. at Bauer, i think its 5 extra courses. I like that actually. you are going to teach B- School students someday. you better know what you are talking about.

sorry i was not able to help here

Finally, your greatest asset is your industry experience. as a prof, you will have more to say to your students about real world experiences, team work , leadership than i would. you will be able to choose an area for your dissertation based on the problems you observed in your industry. my masters thesis was based on a supply chain problem in my industy. finally, most profs. consult for many industries. Success in consulting wont be as difficult for you as it would be for someone like me, who has only 15 months work experience.

hope this helps