Information Systems Program Structure

Objectives
The objective of the Ph.D. in Business Administration with a concentration in Information Systems is to prepare scholars for careers at leading educational institutions.  This program allows students to develop the capability to review, analyze, conduct, and publish research through a series of research seminars and additional supporting course work.  In addition, Ph.D. students participate in ongoing research projects in conjunction with faculty members in the Department of Information Systems, and with other faculty in the W. P. Carey School of Business and other colleges at Arizona State University.

Program of Study
The doctoral program of study consists of a minimum of 84 semester hours of graduate-level course work beyond the bachelor's degree. Approved master-degree-level course work up to 30 hours beyond deficiency and prerequisite courses may be included. A minimum of 42 hours of doctoral course work and 12 hours of dissertation credits are required to be taken at Arizona State University, Main Campus.

The 42 hours of doctoral course work consist of three components:

1. Basic Program (12 hours) – research tools and techniques including economics, behavioral science, and quantitative methods.
2. Area of concentration (15 hours) – four required doctoral seminars and one additional graduate course in IS.
3. Supporting course work (15 hours) – additional graduate course work in IS and other disciplines. Includes two required supervised research project courses in IS (6 hours) and 9 hours of other graduate course electives related to the student’s research interests.

The area of concentration includes four required IS doctoral seminars:

1. Foundational Readings in IS research – this course provides the participant with a broad-based exposure to research that occurs in Information Systems, and related disciplines where researchers are pursuing a blend of technology and disciplinary studies. Three separate referent areas of theory and methods are represented in the course: organizational and behavioral themes and methods for research; technical, computer science and design science themes and methods for research; and management science and economics themes and methods for research.

2. Theory Building and Testing for Technology and E-Commerce Research – this course provides the participant with background on approaches to theory-building and theory-testing for technology and e-commerce research. A number of disciplines are represented in the readings, theories and methods discussed in the course: Information Systems, Strategy, Marketing, Finance, Computer Science, Statistics and Economics. The methods discussed will primarily focus on modeling building and empirical analysis in support of testing theories in a variety of research contexts. The selected contexts include: pricing in the presence of Internet technology, electronic auctions and electronic markets, and technology adoption and diffusion. The discussion of these applied areas will be interdisciplinary as well, spanning a variety of functions of modern organizations and the marketplaces and industries in which they operate and compete.

3. Information Systems Theories – this course provides a broad exposure to the various theories used in IS research. Much of the theory cited in information systems literature is adapted from other disciplines.  Participants will read original works addressing some of these theories and investigate how they have been applied in information systems research.  The primary objective is to gain sufficient background to assess articles that profess to base a research model in a theory (or theories) and to investigate how theoretical underpinnings map to causal models.  

4. Special Topics. Content varies from year to year.  Focus is on current leading topics for research in IS, such as IT services, knowledge management, technology project valuation, customer relationship management systems, standards and standardization, IT and auditing, sponsored search on the Internet, outsourcing and offshoring, etc.

The supporting course work includes two guided projects courses, CIS 790 and 792, taken during the first and second years in the program. In these courses, faculty mentor students through all phases of a research project from inception to writing up the finished paper. Students usually have the opportunity to present the results of these projects at premier IS academic conferences – including the International Conference on Information Systems, INFORMS Conference on Information Systems and Technology, the Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science, and the Americas Conference on Information Systems, as well as other specialty conferences and workshops. Often, the results of these projects are also eventually published in premier IS journals, including Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, the Journal of Management Information Systems, and the Journal of the Association for Information Systems.

Program Stages

Comprehensive Examinations
The IS concentration requires a written and oral examination that is taken once students complete their course work. The two day written examination is designed to demonstrate mastery of identified domain areas, research methods in IS and a pre-proposal area. The oral examination takes place after the written exam and is designed to allow the student's examination committee to request further clarification from the written exam. Upon passing the examinations, students begin work with a personally-selected faculty committee to complete a research-based dissertation of an original and creative nature.

Dissertation
The student works carefully with his or her dissertation chair and committee to develop a research proposal.  When sufficient progress has been made, the student will propose his or her research to the committee and other interested faculty and students. If the proposal is successfully defended, the student then advances to candidacy. After advancing to candidacy status, students must enroll for a minimum of 12 hours of CIS 799 (dissertation credit). 
The final oral examination in defense of the dissertation is mandatory and must be held on the main campus. 

Graduation
The student is eligible for graduation when the Graduate College scholarship requirements have been met, the final oral examination in defense of the dissertation has been passed, and the dissertation has been approved by the supervisory committee and accepted by the Associate Dean in the W. P. Carey School of Business and the Dean of the Graduate College.