Organizational leadership at the doctoral level requires a qualitatively different analytical capacity than management competence at the MBA level. Where MBA programs develop the capacity to apply established frameworks and best practices, DBA programs develop the capacity to investigate complex, ill-defined organizational problems systematically — drawing on the scholarly literature to generate insights that go beyond conventional wisdom and practitioner experience. DB8405 develops this investigative capacity across the core domains of organizational leadership: information systems management, organizational management, and marketing, approached through the integrative project-based lens that characterizes DBA scholarship.
Information systems management for organizational leaders
IS frameworks and theories for DBA problem analysis
- IS strategic alignment: DB8405 examines information systems management through the lens of strategic alignment — the degree to which an organization's IS strategy and capabilities support its business strategy. Henderson and Venkatraman's (1993) Strategic Alignment Model provides the foundational framework: it conceptualizes alignment along two dimensions (strategic fit — alignment between external positioning and internal structure, for both the business and IS domains; and functional integration — alignment between business and IS domains). Research consistently shows that organizations with higher IT-business alignment achieve better business performance — but achieving and maintaining alignment is a dynamic leadership challenge as both business strategy and technology capabilities continuously evolve. DB8405 examines alignment assessment methods (SAMM, alignment maturity models) and the IS governance structures (CIO reporting relationships, IT steering committees, enterprise architecture governance) through which organizations attempt to maintain alignment
- Digital transformation leadership: The course examines digital transformation as an organizational leadership challenge — the process through which organizations integrate digital technology into all aspects of their business, changing how they operate and deliver value to customers. Westerman, Bonnet, and McAfee's (2014) research on digital maturity distinguishes between digital intensity (the degree to which organizations use digital tools in operations and customer experience) and transformation management intensity (the leadership capabilities that enable digital transformation). Organizations with both high digital intensity and strong transformation management leadership (the "Digirati") significantly outperform competitors on revenue growth and profitability. DB8405 examines the leadership capabilities that enable digital transformation: establishing a clear digital vision, building digital talent and capabilities, managing the culture change that digital transformation requires, and governing digital investment portfolios
- IS project management and implementation: The course examines why IS implementation failures are so common — with research suggesting that the majority of large IS implementations miss their original schedule, budget, or performance targets significantly — and what leadership practices distinguish successful from unsuccessful implementations. The Standish Group's CHAOS Report findings (scope management, executive sponsorship, user involvement, and project management competence as the primary success factors) provide the empirical foundation for examining IS project governance.
Organizational management: theories and applications
DB8405 examines organizational management through the major theoretical lenses that the scholarly literature provides. Organizational design theory: how organizations structure their activities — functional, divisional, matrix, and network configurations — and how structure shapes coordination, information flow, decision quality, and organizational identity. Mintzberg's (1980) organizational configurations (Simple Structure, Machine Bureaucracy, Professional Bureaucracy, Divisional Form, Adhocracy) provide a theoretical vocabulary for analyzing the structural choices that organizations make and their consequences for performance. Contingency theory examines how the optimal organizational structure depends on environmental factors (stability vs. dynamism, complexity vs. simplicity), technological characteristics (routine vs. non-routine work), and organizational size and age. Institutional theory (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983) examines how organizations adopt similar structures and practices not because they are more efficient, but because institutional pressures (coercive pressure from regulators and powerful stakeholders; mimetic pressure to imitate successful organizations during uncertainty; normative pressure from professional associations and educational institutions) push organizations toward conformity. This theoretical perspective helps explain why large-scale organizational change is often harder than rational analysis suggests — organizations that deviate significantly from institutionally legitimate practices face legitimacy costs that can outweigh efficiency gains. DB8405 develops the capacity to apply these and other organizational theories to the analysis of management problems across organizational contexts.
Marketing management at the doctoral level
DB8405 examines marketing management through the scholarly literature — not merely marketing practice, but the theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence that explain why marketing strategies succeed or fail. The course examines market orientation (Kohli & Jaworski, 1990; Narver & Slater, 1990) — the organizational culture and processes that embed customer intelligence generation and dissemination into organizational routines, enabling systematic responsiveness to customer needs. Research consistently finds that market orientation is positively associated with business performance, though the mechanism (through new product success, customer satisfaction, or brand reputation) varies by context. Customer lifetime value (CLV) analysis and customer equity frameworks (Rust, Lemon, & Zeithaml, 2004) examine how marketing investment decisions should be guided by long-term customer value rather than short-term transaction metrics. The course also examines digital marketing transformation — how the shift to digital channels (search, social, programmatic advertising, email, content marketing) has changed the measurement, attribution, and optimization of marketing investment; and the implications of first-party data becoming the primary marketing intelligence asset as third-party cookie tracking is phased out.
Project-based problem solving across domains
DB8405 uses a project-based approach that mirrors the integrative nature of real organizational leadership challenges — where information systems, management, and marketing problems are rarely neatly separable and where solutions require leaders to draw on multiple domain knowledge streams simultaneously. The course examines project-based problem-solving methodologies: how to scope a complex business problem to a manageable investigation; how to apply the relevant scholarly literature to identify causal factors and promising interventions; how to evaluate alternative approaches using both academic evidence and practitioner knowledge; and how to develop an evidence-based recommendation that is both academically rigorous and practically implementable. This project-based framing connects directly to the DBA capstone project — where students investigate a specific problem of practice in their own organizational context using the same scholar-practitioner approach that DB8405 begins to develop.
DB8405 assignments include business problem analyses, literature-grounded management reports, and project-based organizational assessments
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Business problem analyses, management literature reviews, IS strategy reports, marketing analyses.
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Frequently asked questions
DB8405 is explicitly designed as early preparation for the DBA capstone project — the applied doctoral research project that culminates the DBA program. The connections are both substantive and methodological. Substantively, DB8405's problem-based approach to information systems, management, and marketing problems mirrors the problem-of-practice framing of the capstone. Many DBA students identify their capstone topics within the domains examined in DB8405 — information systems implementation challenges, organizational design problems, marketing strategy gaps, or cross-domain problems that span IS, management, and marketing. The course's emphasis on applying scholarly frameworks to real organizational problems develops the analytical habits that the capstone requires: starting from a real problem rather than a theoretical question, searching the literature systematically to understand what is known about the problem and its causes, applying theoretical frameworks to generate explanatory hypotheses, and developing recommendations that are both evidenced-based and practically implementable. Methodologically, DB8405 develops the professional writing, APA citation, and literature synthesis skills that the capstone proposal and final project require. Students who develop strong foundations in these skills early in the program avoid the common pattern of producing technically sound capstone research but struggling to write it up to doctoral standards — a situation that delays graduation and consumes dissertation committee time disproportionately. The project-based assignments in DB8405 are therefore not merely course requirements but deliberate investments in the skills and habits that capstone success requires.