The thesis written in the course of a Doctorate of Business Administration (or DBA) raises many questions for future DBA candidates concerning its specific orientation, content and scope.

Given the central role of the thesis project in the process of educating DBA candidates, who will hold a practice-oriented doctoral degree in management, it appeared to be the perfect time to stimulate a collective reflection process on this crucial phase of work on a doctoral thesis: the development of the DBA thesis proposal and project.

This book is the latest in the series of publications launched in 2015 by the Business Science Institute in partnership with the publisher EMS, with the aim of producing a set of books that will guide the academic work of doctoral candidates on the threshold of the scientific education process that culminates in a DBA. The collection published in 2015, La création de connaissance par les managers, was intended to establish the main benchmarks for the new role managers are assuming in their practice: producer of new scientific knowledge. Then the imposing Research Methods for the DBA (published 2019) presented a diversified set of methodological approaches and tools new researchers can use to conduct their DBA research.

The articles collected in this book are written mainly for candidates who need guidance and orientation as they start to formulate their thesis research project. Among other things, it presents the various steps in the process of developing a detailed thesis proposal, describes the factors that ensure a high-quality thesis project statement, and clarifies the roles and expectations candidates must handle as they initiate their research projects.

With contributions by: Paul BEAULIEU, Pierre-Jean BENGHOZI, Marc BONNET, Françoise CHEVALIER, L. Martin CLOUTIER, Emmanuel JOSSERAND, Michel KALIKA, Sébastien LIARTE, Jean MOSCAROLA, Vincent MOTTET, Isabelle WALSH.