The DBA program is a tutorial program that revolves around guidance in writing the DBA thesis. ICS offers a supportive learning environment with formal coursework and interaction with other DBA students and faculty, while the student engages in his or her own individual research initiatives.

A DBA thesis considers a set of theoretically consistent hypotheses using data that has been gathered and analyzed through social scientific approaches and methods. By presenting objective evidence and comparing the presented hypotheses with alternative hypotheses, the DBA thesis is essentially different from a general management book, which typically expresses ideas based on unsupported conjecture. Writing the DBA thesis puts the theoretical consistency behind the hypotheses, the feasibility of practical application, and the thoroughness behind the investigation, to the test.

The DBA program values independence in learning. As a DBA candidate, you’ll determine the course and nature of your own personal specialization, while learning to produce unique research at the leading edge of a management field. Your thesis will identify a research question and assess a range of theories and frameworks for resolving it. You’ll develop a set of hypotheses and explore/examine those using social scientifically rigorous approaches and methods. Once your thesis project is approved, you will qualify for a grant from the DBA committee to cover related expenses (maximum per DBA candidate: JPY 100,000).

Some DBA students serve as a research assistant (RA) or teaching assistant (TA) for their supervisor or other ICS faculty member, and/or conduct joint research with ICS faculty. ICS offers scholarship opportunity for full-time students if the student is not fully supported by an external agency such as MEXT. Full-time students are expected to commit to the program and to create and maintain an effective learning community. In addition, full-time students are strongly encouraged to work as a paid researcher of a well-funded faculty research project.

Program structure

Curriculum policy

The purpose of the curriculum of the DBA Program in School of International Corporate Strategy, Graduate School of Business Administration at Hitotsubashi University (hereafter referred to as the DBA Program) is to cultivate (1) research capabilities with high communication skills that enable students to present creative research results not only to Japan but also to the world, (2) leadership skills that enable students to lead the "knowledge development" in the academic world on a global scale, and (3) a high level of research ethics to contribute to the sound development of the social sciences. In addition, it aims to cultivate insights into the problem consciousness of practitioners and a high awareness of the quality of the practical implications of research.

In order to achieve the above goals, the DBA program provides students with the opportunity to learn, through required and elective courses and seminars, a wide range of research results in the fields of commerce and business administration, from the classics to the most advanced, as well as research methodologies and analytical methods, including experimental methods, quantitative modeling, and quantitative and qualitative analysis approaches, including case analysis. Students will be able to learn a wide range of approaches. Students will complete and present a doctoral thesis as the culmination of their studies to receive their degree.

Required courses consist of those from the first year to the third year, those from the first year to the second year, and those in the first year only. These courses are the basis for theoretical construction of the thesis and are the foundation of the DBA. The elective courses are systematically structured to cover a wide range of methodologies in the disciplines of commerce and business administration and related fields to build a solid intellectual foundation and steadily enhance research skills. For the methodology courses, students will learn about the logic and applications of the methods - starting from understanding them, to be able to critique research articles that use them, and even to be able to write their own articles using them. In courses on research content (literature) in specific fields, students learn about the accumulated knowledge in the field up to the most recent frontiers, and aim to be able to think by themselves about how to expand that knowledge in meaningful directions. In the required and elective courses, students will be evaluated on the basis of discussions in lectures, presentations of assignments, and term papers.