When continuing education to the Strata-3 (S3) level, business students will be faced with two program choices, namely Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and Doctor of Business Administration (DBA). Quoted by Compass.com, those who chose the Ph.D. wish to have a career in the social sciences and become full-time professors or pursue a career in an academic field, such as conducting research that contributes to knowledge or business theory.
Whereas a DBA is a professional doctorate degree with a focus on theoretical knowledge and its use in business. Most people who take a DBA are already successful in business and are looking for a new intellectual challenge.
One of the lecturers of the Management Study Program, President University (PresUniv), namely Pandu Adi Cakranegara, S.E, M.Sc.Fi, MBA, DBA, chose the 2nd path. In December 2021, he managed to get a DBA from the Conrado Benitez Institute for Business Education, Philippine Women's University, Philippines.
Pandu said, the DBA is a professional doctorate program or an applied doctorate that is different from the Ph.D. in terms of the course structure and research proportions. “The DBA program mostly consists of lectures with article outputs for each subject as well as research worth 12 credits. So in total I completed 16 courses before taking my dissertation,” he explained.
After completing 16 courses, Pandu wrote his dissertation. He chose a topic that matched his background and teaching field on campus, namely Banking and Finance.
Choosing a research topic, according to Pandu, is a challenge in itself, because the field he chooses is very broad. So, on the advice of his supervisor, he chose the topic of liquidity. According to him, liquidity is a crucial factor in banking, especially modern banking, which is based on trust. Pandu explained, “If banks experience liquidity problems, this will affect customer trust. This has happened in Indonesia. A large bank in Indonesia once lacked liquidity, due to massive withdrawals of funds by customers. This happens because customers lose confidence in the bank. In the end the bank was helped by the government.”
In his research on liquidity, Pandu uses various approaches. Not only a financial approach, but also from a management perspective, such as strategic management, operational management, HR and marketing. He found that banking liquidity is not only influenced by general factors that have existed so far, but also from the structure of the banking industry, bank character, and regulations in a country.
Beside the challenge of choosing research topics, writing, studying, conducting research in a systematic and structured manner was also a challenge for him while completing his DBA, explained Pandu. This was very different when compared to his master's degree which he took at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands. Pandu hopes that his research in the field of management will continue and he can share the results either through teaching, writing, or community service. (Silvia Desi Betrice, PR team. Photo: Pandu Adi Cakranegara).
