Influences and aspects of the Michigan state doctoral program

Abstract

The philosophical blend of rigor and relevance characteristic of the Michigan State program was instrumental in the development of many who graduated from this institution. The result has been an increase in faculty who understand the multiple constituencies that depend on our work, and look beyond the simple publication records of fellow academics. These constituencies, or stakeholders, include students of all levels, firms, employees/managers/executives, economies, our academies, and our institutions. In other words, it was instilled upon us that our responsibilities went further than incremental contributions to the literature, and in fact we should look at our profession as one that should take ideas from theories and concepts all the way to dissemination in the classroom and application in the field. As a result, we were encouraged to become full portfolio professors: those who can forecast real business problems, develop theories to address those problems, test those theories in a rigorous fashion, and publish the results in the best of the academic journals. Where many other programs would consider this the endpoint of our responsibilities, we were encouraged to extend our efforts to address the needs of all our stakeholders. This could be accomplished in a number of ways, but particularly we were taught to reformulate our writings to address a managerial audience, and to refine our research to provide undergraduate, MBA, and executive audiences with the tools necessary to address the problems they deal with, or would deal with, in their work routines. This perspective not only influenced others outside of the academic world, but also forced us to constantly consider the relevance of our research and avoid an incremental or esoteric research agenda which might fail to provide meaningful solution sets to those managers at the sharp end of the business stick.

Citation

Myers, M.B. (2008), "Influences and aspects of the Michigan state doctoral program", Tamer Cavusgil, S. (Ed.) Michigan State University Contributions to International Business and Innovation (Advances in International Marketing, Vol. 19), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 41-51. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1474-7979(2009)0000019008