Meeting of the Minds: DBA, PhD Programs Convene at Inaugural Impact Summit

ATLANTA — Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business is home to two highly regarded doctoral programs. The seasoned senior executives in the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) are typically looking to evolve business practices, develop new perspectives through applied research, and create flexibility for future career change. By contrast, students in the Ph.D. program generally pursue full-time, research-focused careers in academia. During their studies and throughout their careers, research by Ph.D.’s is usually more theory-based and addresses broad, discipline-specific topics.

Robinson’s DBA and Ph.D. programs share a commitment to engaged scholarship conducted at the intersection of theory and contemporary business issues, which is what sparked the idea to bring together DBA and Ph.D. students, alumni, and faculty for the college’s first-ever Impact Summit on March 7 at Georgia State’s Buckhead Executive Education Center.

“Engaged scholarship thrives where theory meets practice and when curious minds from diverse fields collaborate to address real-world challenges,” according to Summit co-chairs Preston Davis (DBA ’23) and Ph.D. candidate Cazembe Monds. “By merging the rigor of academic research with industry-driven perspectives, we can co-create the influential theories and practical tools that advance both scholarship and society.”

The Power of Collaboration
Todd Maurer, senior associate dean for faculty and research, opened the conference by discussing how the goals of the Impact Summit align with the college’s mission. Maurer noted that Robison’s mission “emphasizes societal impact, saying in part that, ‘Robinson recognizes the unrivaled potential of free enterprise to improve lives. We design and implement solutions that advance how businesses and markets function to make a world where all citizens prosper.’ Impact is central to all that we do here at Robinson, and I have long believed that Ph.D.’s and DBA’s coming together makes a lot of sense.”

Emily Becklund, director of research and research operations at Meta, reinforced the power of joining forces in her keynote address. “You can drive impact as a researcher by collaborating,” she said. Becklund, who joined Meta in 2016 and leads teams that span product organizations, advised the audience that, “Impactful research delivers actionable insights at the right time, to the right people, with the right level of confidence, to drive the right level of business.”

Subsequently, participants attended paper and poster presentation tracks to examine broad topics and areas for future collaboration. Discussion subjects spanned strategic and relational management; technology, society, and the future of work; AI in organizations; organizational behavior; and society at large. See program highlights for details.

Upping the Ante
Making it into a doctoral program requires, among other attributes, a competitive nature, pithy writing ability, and persuasive presentation skills, all of which were put to the test through a hackathon in which teams crafted research ideas bridging theory and practice that were grounded in academic impact with potential for real-world application.

Teams comprising DBA and Ph.D. students developed research pitches, then prepared and presented a three-minute thesis covering motivation, novelty, and theoretical and practical background. More than bragging rights were at stake; three cash prizes were riding on the outcome. The first-place Apex Innovators bagged $500, the second-place Trailblazers claimed ($350), and the third place Rising Sparks took home $200.

Gauging Impact
Tempering one’s expectations lowers the potential for anticipointment – a neologism of “anticipation” and "disappointment” that describes the feeling of disappointment when something eagerly awaited does not live up to expectations. Neither of the Summit co-chairs experienced a shred of anticipointment.

“I underestimated how powerful this Summit would be,” co-chair Preston Davis said. The DBA alumnus, now on faculty at the Kennesaw State University’s Michael J. Coles College of Business, added, “I thought we’d get a polite gathering of academics exchanging a few business cards and maybe a decent snack spread. Instead, we got a room buzzing with energy, Ph.D. and DBA students actually collaborating, and real conversations about how to make research matter. This event didn’t just meet expectations; it crushed them.”

Davis’s co-chair, fifth-year Ph.D. student Cazembe Monds, agreed. “I have never interacted with DBA students like I did at the inaugural Impact Summit. Although I possess rigorous training in developing and advancing theory, I lack an in-depth understanding of industry and evolving phenomena currently affecting organizations and their stakeholders. A pressing question in my community is how academics can write and publish research that actually reaches practice-oriented individuals in business?’ One answer may be this Summit, which brought together Ph.D. and DBA students and to build networks that hopefully will produce influential research articles.”

Charles Dhanaraj, DBA program academic director, concurred with Davis’s and Monds’s assessments. “Robinson has long-standing globally reputed doctoral programs. The Ph.D. program prepares young minds for a serious academic career, whereas the DBA prepares seasoned executives to advance new research frontiers, and to build bridges from science to practice. Getting these two communities together along with our faculty helped everyone to see the phenomenal opportunities that are within reach for Robinson to raise its impact in the business and society.”

Learn more about the Doctor of Business Administration program.

Learn more about the Ph.D. program.