NEOMA Business School’s PhD programme provides you with personally-tailored training, courses, and instruction to obtain the knowledge and skills you need on an international, academic career in the fields of business administration and management.
If you share the aforementioned four objectives with us, here is what NEOMA’s PhD programme offers you:
*You may also apply to NEOMA’s PhD programme if you are primarily interested in a career in the corporate sector, provided you are committed to studying full-time and have funding for your studies.
The first year includes up to 6 intensive courses, providing you basic skills and knowledge that you need for a researcher career. The courses cover such fundamental theories and research methods that are relevant for you regardless of your own discipline/specialisation and regardless of your own research topic.
Examples of these courses include: Basics of Business Research Methods (quantitative and qualitative methods), Economics and Business Studies, Social Psychology.
The six courses are organized during six intensive seminars, each lasting from a couple of days to a week (October, December, January, February, April, May), at one of our campuses : Reims, Rouen and Paris.
During the first year, you will also start to work with the faculty members will be assigned during Year 1 as your personal supervisors. This way you will start to familiarise yourself with the topic of your research project, which you will be writing your doctoral thesis on. The precise topic(s) will be decided in collaboration with your supervisors, who represent one of NEOMA’s Areas of Excellence. Towards the end of the first year, you will start preparing (in collaboration with your supervisors) a research plan for this thesis research of yours.
During the first year of studies, you will be conducting a limited number of research assistance tasks for the Area of Excellence of NEOMA’s which your own thesis research project and topic relates to. These research assistance tasks may not, however, directly relate to your own thesis research. At any rate, the research assistance tasks will provide you with additional training in various researcher skills, such as conducting systematic literature reviews, administering surveys or experiments, cleaning and reorganising data, and analysing and visualising data.
Whereas the coursework in Year 1 takes place at NEOMA, during Year 2, you may conduct a limited number (3-4) of courses or learning modules (a) either as independent learning courses, or (b) as organized by external parties (e.g., other French or international business schools or universities; doctoral education networks like EIASM.net). These studies are meant to provide you with a tailored set of specialised skills and knowledge that your own doctoral thesis research project especially calls for (e.g., special methodological skills).
Before the beginning of the second half of Year 2, you will be required to complete, in collaboration with your supervisors, the preparation of a research plan for your own doctoral thesis research. During the first half of Year 2, you will submit it for internal review at NEOMA, and defend it in a research seminar of your own Department. The research plan shall include a general literature review about your topic, study designs and plans for the empirical studies to be conducted, and plan for the structure of the doctoral thesis (including planned outline of the contents of three articles for article-based theses).
In line with the aforementioned research plan, you will start gathering or compiling the first data for your thesis research. This will be done in close collaboration with your supervisors. (In the rare case that your research plan did not include empirical studies, you will be starting your non-empirical research here.) Before the beginning of Year 3, you will be required to submit your first research article to an international academic conference or peer-reviewed journal. This article can be a conceptual study or an empirical research paper that is based on your first data set.
Like during the first year, you will be conducting a limited number of research assistance tasks for an Area of Excellence of NEOMA’s during the second year as well.
The bulk of the empirical research work as well as the majority of writing work for your doctoral thesis will take place during Year 3 and Year 4. Both the conduct of research (gathering/compiling data, analysing data, modelling) and the writing work will be done with intensive support from your supervisors. At the end of Year 3, you are expected to submit another research article to an international academic conference or peer-reviewed journal.
Ultimately, when you have three research articles accepted for presentation at international academic conferences or in the review process of high-quality peer-reviewed journals, you may submit your thesis to a jury/committee at NEOMA. (If your thesis is not article-based, but instead takes the monograph/treatise format, your supervisors will determine when the thesis can be submitted to the jury). Some months later, you will defend your thesis in front of the jury/committee consisting of two external experts of your research topic (from other institutions than NEOMA) as well as two internal experts (other faculty members of NEOMA than your supervisors).
During Year 3 and Year 4, most PhD candidates will be teaching a course directed at NEOMA’s MSc or BSc students, on a topic related to their expertise and research. Alternatively, you may be supporting and assisting NEOMA’s faculty members on their courses. Getting teaching experience will be highly useful for you when applying for a job after graduation.
Like during the first and second year, you may be conducting as well a limited number of research assistance tasks for an Area of Excellence during the third and fourth year.
Typically during the third year of studies, you will be making a few months’ scholarly visit to a business school abroad, as recommended by your supervisor. Financial support will be available for travel costs.
The programme is sanctioned by several levels of validation:
At the end of the training and after validation of these different levels of validation, the PhD diploma is awarded to the participants.
Source : *Jury 2023-2024
‘Areas of Excellence’ are the central pillar of NEOMA’s research strategy, and all admitted PhD students, from 2021 onwards, are affiliated with one of four Areas of Excellence.
The Areas of Excellence create a unique research environment wherein NEOMA’s faculty members as well as PhD students from various disciplines and departments focus on studying certain academically and practically topical research themes and phenomena.
The list below mentions selected top-tier scientific journals, in which NEOMA’s professors (who also act as supervisors to doctoral students) have published their research in recent years. Please see here for a full list of professors by department.
Please note, though, that even if one of the mentioned professors may become your supervisor as well, your supervisors will be assigned primarily based on the research theme of the open PhD position you are applying to. See the page “Admissions” for the positions).
Accounting
Economics
Strategy & Entrepreneurship
Finance
Management, Organisational behaviour, organisation theory
Information systems, Operations Research and Supply Chain Management
Marketing
Ethics and Sustainable Development Goals
Examples of universities and business schools wherein recent PhD graduates from NEOMA have obtained jobs are the following:
Internationally:
In France:
Dr Noura El Hassan, PhD 2024
American University of Beirut
“Completing my PhD at NEOMA Business School provided me with an exceptional academic foundation and advanced research skills. Today, I am proud to serve as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the American University of Beirut, one of the most prestigious universities in the MENA region, and I am already achieving significant milestones in research, with publications in progress.”
Dr Sandreen Hitti, PhD 2024
Lebanese American University
“Joining NEOMA’s PhD program was a pivotal step toward achieving my ambition of making a significant impact in the field of AI and marketing. The rigorous academic environment, world-class faculty, and collaborative opportunities provided me with the tools to delve deep into my research interests and refine my expertise.”
Dr Shuyi Hao, PhD 2024
ICN Business School
“NEOMA PhD program introduced me to outstanding mentors, colleagues, and co-authors. Thanks to the support and guidance of my exceptional supervisor and manager, I was able to enhance my research skills, critical thinking, and communication abilities. I am grateful for the opportunities the program provided to present my work at conferences and workshops, which not only boosted my confidence but also helped me refine my ideas.”
Do you want to join the PhD programme?
Admissions for 2025 will be open from 10 December 2024 till 23 February 2025.
Please see application instructions in the announcement of the PhD student positions and apply through our application system.
The deadline for submitting your complete application in English is 23 February 2025, 23.59 CET. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.
Admissions results will be communicated during April 2025.
High-potential applicants may obtain their admission results earlier.
Most of NEOMA’s new PhD students are recruited directly to one of the four Areas of Excellence. The goal is to have each new PhD student affiliated with one of the Areas, in order to closely integrate to and cooperate with research projects and faculty members working on those particular themes.
These positions, within our Areas of Excellence, are fully funded for the duration of the programme (up to 4 years). PhD students selected for these positions will receive a monthly salary, health care benefits, and support for research/study-related costs (e.g., conference travel). Further, due to your affiliation with one of the Areas of Excellence, you will benefit from supervision by and collaboration with top scholars in the Area, from the resources that the Area makes available to its members, and from joining a thriving community of researchers who are passionate about these topics.
In rare cases, applicants may also be admitted to the PhD programme independently of the aforementioned salaried positions within the Areas of Excellence. If you want to apply for such an independent position, you must still provide evidence that (a) you will be a full-time student (i.e., that you will not be working elsewhere for more than 30% of your time) and that (b) you will have secured funding for the full duration of your studies (e.g., a grant from a company, foundation, government, etc). You also still need to select one of the research themes listed in the announcement for the positions within the Areas of Excellence, while also notifying on the application form, that you are applying for an independently-funded position. Please also note that in an independently-funded position, you will also be responsible for paying tuition fees, without waivers.
For all types of admission, the following criteria apply.
Eligibility criteria:
Ranking criteria:
* The ‘relevant other field’ can be any field relevant to the research theme of the position you are applying for. For instance, for marketing and consumer research-related themes, Master’s degrees in psychology, sociology, social anthropology, communications, information systems, computer science, statistics, systems analysis, industrial engineering, or logistics may be relevant, while for finance-related themes, Master’s degrees in econometrics, statistics, mathematics, or behavioral economics may be relevant.
Our dedicated point of contact for personalised advice and support.
4 years
Exemption from fees for students obtaining a research grant.
October
Master’s degree
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Management
