by Katharina Kretschmer
ESCP-EAP European School of Management Berlin, Germany
katharina.kretschmer@escp-eap.de

Having participated in the 19th EIBA Doctoral Tutorial, I would like to share some experiences and impressions on this challenging event with you. It all began long before the actual tutorial took place when doctoral students were invited to hand in their proposals by the beginning of September 2005.

Twelve doctoral students were chosen out of 35 applicants. Thereby, the faculty tended to favour dissertation proposals in an intermediate state: the candidates should neither stand at the very beginning, nor have yet finished their thesis. The background of the participants was as international and diverse as the topics and methodology of their dissertation projects. The doctoral students were from business schools in Austria, Germany, Finland, the UK and the US and came originally from Austria, China, Finland, Germany, Greece, Japan and South Africa. The research interests ranged from the macro-level (e.g. FDI-flows into developing countries) to the micro-level of the whole MNC (e.g. internationalization of Chinese MNCs or R&D management in MNCs) and its subsidiaries (e.g. opportunity identification in subsidiaries or control of foreign subsidiaries). Intended methodology ranged from quantitative surveys to qualitative interviews or integrated both in a mixed-methodology approach. Despite of diverse topics and methodology, the common IB ground was easy to observe.

The Doctoral Tutorial was held in Oslo on December 10th to 11th, 2005, preceding the 31st EIBA Annual Conference. The international faculty consisted of a number of well-known and established professors in the field of international business: John Cantwell, Peter Buckley, Jean-François Hennart, Marina Papanastassiou, Torben Pedersen and Udo Zander. The faculty members warmly welcomed us and it was great to get to know the persons behind the famous names we had read on many publications. In the following, each participant had 20 minutes to present his or her proposal to the faculty and the other participants. It was evident that all doctoral students had put much effort and time into their work. After each presentation two main commentators from the faculty provided intense feedback and then all other faculty members joined in with their comments. Usually, there was not much disagreement among the faculty. The main shortcomings of each proposal became transparent. Thereby, one hint seemed to emerge over and over again: “Focus, focus, focus!” Still, the presenters were not left alone with the comments; instead, the faculty members provided insightful explanations and helpful suggestions.

All in all, the EIBA Doctoral Tutorial was a great opportunity for all doctoral students! I would like to thank Danny Van Den Bulcke and his colleagues from EIBA and EIASM for establishing this event and organizing it for years. I would also like to thank all faculty members for carefully reading and constructively commenting on our papers and presentations. You let us know, “what to do on Monday morning”☺. Thank you! Last but not least, as the winner of 2005’s Best Thesis Proposal Award at the EIBA doctoral tutorial, I would like to thank my supervisor Stefan Schmid, professor of International Management and Strategic Management at ESCP-EAP Berlin, for his support for my dissertation project. Stefan Schmid is challenging and questioning my research plan and thus keeps me going on this (sometimes tough) journey towards the Ph.D. I also would like to thank ESCP-EAP Berlin and our dean, professor Herwig Haase, for supporting my participation at the EIBA doctoral tutorial in Oslo.

(1) General guidelines for applicants

We are particularly keen to encourage applications from doctoral students that, although not yet being close to having completed their theses, have already developed a clear idea of the data they will use (or are in the process of collecting), and of their intended research design. That is, we welcome especially applications from doctoral candidates that are mid-way through the process of research for their thesis. However, despite this preference we do still tend to accept for the tutorial a mix of students at different stages of thesis preparation. We are also keen to encourage applicants from schools that do not as yet have established IB faculty research groups, but again with the aim of ensuring a reasonable mix of participants from different backgrounds in the tutorial.

We recommend that applicants divide their 3 page abstracts into the following sections in roughly the proportions shown as a guideline: (1) the central research question addressed (to include a brief statement of the topic, and of the issue or problem that motivates the research) [10%]; (2) theory and literature review [20%]; (3) research design, data and methodology (to include hypotheses in the case of quantitative methods, and the methods of measurement and the generative questions that will guide grounded theory building in the case of those using qualitative methods) [30%]; (4) expected results and summary of the evidence of the study thus far (to include if applicable an outline of any preliminary findings) [20%]; (5) expected contribution and its significance to scholarship in the IB field [10%]; and (6) conclusions, and remaining concerns or problems to be overcome [10%].

(2) Guidelines to be issued to applicants accepted for the tutorial

We require that papers should be a maximum of 10 pages long (excluding bibiography), and that PowerPoint presentations for the tutorial itself consist of a maximum of 10 slides. We strongly advise students that their 10 pages and 10 slides in each case should be divided into 6 mandatory sections in the following proportions: (1) the central research question addressed (to include a brief statement of the topic, and of the issue or problem that motivates the research) [1 page or 1 slide]; (2) theory and literature review [2 pages or 2 slides]; (3) research design, data and methodology (to include hypotheses in the case of quantitative methods, and the methods of measurement and the generative questions that will guide grounded theory building in the case of those using qualitative methods) [3 pages or 3 slides]; (4) expected results and summary of the evidence of the study thus far (to include if applicable an outline of any preliminary findings) [2 pages or 2 slides]; (5) expected contribution and its significance to scholarship in the IB field [1 page or 1 slide]; and (6) conclusions, and remaining concerns or problems to be overcome (to include any areas in which help would still be useful, and any questions for the faculty panel) [1 page or 1 slide].

John Cantwell & Udo Zander, Co-Chairmen EIBA Doctoral Tutorial