DB9801 asks a foundational question: can you take a genuine, unresolved business problem and build a rigorous, defensible case for how you'll study it — grounded in the literature, a clear theoretical lens, and a methodology that actually fits the question?
Developing a business problem statement
DB9801 requires identifying a genuine, significant business problem — grounded in either the student's professional experience or a documented gap in the management/business literature — and articulating it as a specific, researchable problem statement rather than a broad topic area. Students learn that a vague problem statement ("leadership matters in organizations") cannot anchor a rigorous applied doctoral study the way a specific one ("mid-level manager turnover in remote-first technology firms") can.
Literature synthesis and methodology justification
The course requires a synthesized literature review establishing the problem's significance and identifying the specific gap the proposed study will address, alongside a justified methodology section explaining why the chosen research design (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods) is the right fit for answering the specific business research question, not simply the method the student is most comfortable with.
Key topics in DB9801
- Identifying a genuine, significant, and researchable business problem
- Writing a specific, well-scoped problem statement
- Synthesizing the business/management literature to establish significance and identify a gap
- Justifying research design and methodology choices against the specific research question
- Structuring the formal DBA proposal for committee review
- Common proposal weaknesses: vague problem statements and unjustified methodology choices
Working on your DBA proposal's problem statement or literature synthesis?
Our doctoral business experts build DB9801-level proposals with genuine problem-scoping and methodology rigor.
Worked example: sharpening a vague problem statement
- Vague version: "This study examines employee engagement in organizations"
- Sharpened version: "This study examines the relationship between remote-work policy flexibility and employee engagement among knowledge workers in mid-sized U.S. technology firms"
- Why it works: The sharpened version specifies the population, the specific variables of interest, and the context — giving the eventual literature review, methodology, and findings a clear, bounded target
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DBA proposal problem statement and literature synthesis assignments.
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Frequently asked questions
A DBA is an applied, practice-oriented doctorate, and its research is expected to be genuinely relevant to real organizational challenges, not purely an abstract academic exercise disconnected from practice. Grounding the problem statement in the student's professional experience ensures the eventual study addresses something with real applied significance, while grounding it in a documented literature gap ensures the study can also make a genuine scholarly contribution rather than simply confirming what's already well-established. DB9801 requires this dual grounding because a problem statement based purely on personal interest without literature support risks either duplicating well-established findings or pursuing a question the academic community wouldn't consider significant, while a problem statement based purely on an abstract literature gap without practical grounding risks producing research with limited real-world applicability. The strongest DBA problem statements sit at the intersection of both.
The methodology choice should follow directly from the nature of the research question: if the question asks about measurable relationships between variables, wants to test a specific hypothesis, or aims to generalize findings across a population (for example, "does remote-work flexibility predict engagement scores"), a quantitative approach fits. If the question asks about lived experience, organizational culture, or a process not yet well understood (for example, "how do managers experience leading fully remote teams"), a qualitative approach fits. A mixed-methods approach is appropriate when a single method can't fully answer the research question. For instance, using quantitative data to establish a pattern and qualitative interviews to explain why that pattern exists. DB9801 teaches that choosing a methodology based on personal comfort or familiarity, rather than genuine fit to the research question, is one of the most common and consequential errors in a DBA proposal, since a mismatched methodology will struggle to produce a study that can actually and rigorously answer its own research question.