Executive PhD Dissertation

From Executive Challenges to Rigorous Research

• Research with Real-World Relevance

The dissertation is the culmination of the Executive PhD journey, a rigorous, original, and meaningful contribution to management knowledge that addresses a complex organisational, societal, or technological challenge. Its purpose is not merely to demonstrate academic mastery, but to generate insights with real-world relevance: insights capable of informing strategic decisions, improving organisational practices, and shaping the future of business.

Grounded in advanced research design and methodological rigor, the dissertation invites candidates to engage deeply with a topic that matters both intellectually and professionally. It transforms lived managerial challenges into theoretically sound questions and empirically grounded contributions. In doing so, the dissertation becomes a bridge between scholarship and executive practice, offering fresh perspectives on issues that organisations confront today—such as technological disruption, sustainability transitions, ethical dilemmas, global competition, and human behaviour within complex systems.

• Faculty Expertise and Research Methodologies

This ambition is made possible thanks to EDHEC’s diverse and world‑class faculty, whose supervision guides candidates across a broad spectrum of contemporary management domains. Depending on their interests and profile, candidates may explore subjects such as AI‑enabled customer experience, sustainable consumption and CSR strategy, family business psychology, circular service models, responsible product innovation, organisational change and paradox navigation, strategic foresight and transformation, supply chain analytics and digitalisation, international strategy, healthcare innovation and data ethics, entrepreneurship and sustainability transitions, biodiversity accounting, consumer emotions and decision‑making, or competition law in digital markets.

These supervisors bring expertise in qualitative, quantitative, experimental, mixed-methods, data-driven and historical research approaches, ensuring each candidate is equipped to investigate complexity with methodological depth and intellectual rigor. They support Executive PhD researchers in navigating competing institutional logics, paradoxes of leadership, technological uncertainty, and multi-level organisational phenomena.

Through this mentoring, the dissertation becomes not only an academic achievement but a transformative intellectual endeavour. It empowers candidates to build a distinctive analytical voice, contribute original ideas to their field, and create impact that extends across their organisations, industries, and beyond.

Ultimately, the Executive PhD dissertation embodies the programme’s core mission: to develop research‑driven leaders capable of producing knowledge that is both scholarly robust and executively relevant, advancing a more responsible, innovative, and sustainable future for business.