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Degree Programs

Doctor of Business Administration

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The Doctorate for Human-Centered Leaders

hospitality business school

Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University and EHL Hospitality Business School have joined forces to offer you the Doctor in Business Administration (DBA). We’ve designed the program for accomplished senior executives who seek to lead by example and with impact, and to create positive change in their organizations and their own lives. This program is an intellectual pursuit that empowers you to engage in meaningful discussions on global leadership, business, and societal challenges driven by cross-disciplinary thinking, original research, and strategic insights.

Prioritizing a human-centered philosophy, the program incorporates the timeless ideas from Peter Drucker, enriched with the customer and people centric principles of hospitality management from EHL as well as cutting-edge research in management. You will, therefore, explore the intersections between leadership, organizational behavior, humanities, and various business disciplines to navigate global challenges with a people-first mindset.

The DBA is an exclusive forum where senior leaders come together with faculty experts around a shared purpose: to build thriving, functioning organizations and societies.

 

Program Benefits

You will develop rigorous (yet relevant) research skills and master complex concepts, enabling you to engage in informed dialogue on topics of your choice. You’ll amplify your career (and this includes your career-transitions) by maximizing your impact within your current organization, while opening new doors in academia, consulting, and thought-leadership. You’ll also gain an exclusive international network of like-minded senior leaders to challenge and support you along the way.

 

Program Highlights

  • Focus on Human-Centered Management: This program offers a unique approach to humanistic management, blending the time-honored insights from hospitality with leadership, organizational behavior, deep customer insight, humanities, social sciences for concrete business, non-for profit, and public sector applications.

  • Practical Integration for Real-World Results: Courses and your own research agenda combine academic rigor with practical application, building on the experience you accumulated over the years to address management challenges and offering hands-on leadership training for real-world impact.

  • Designed for Full-Time Executives: We are confident that you can fit this into your schedule thanks to a curriculum that’s primarily online, offering and a ‘doable’ blend of asynchronous and synchronous lecture material. You’ll also complete your Doctoral Research Project progressively throughout the 3-year program. The program’s curriculum is designed with a clear goal in mind: helping you finalize (and publish) your dissertation so that it can inspire the next generation of leaders.

  • Global Network and Perspectives: The program includes three weeklong seminars in the USA, Europe, and Asia, offering international exposure and opportunities to connect with peers and faculty. We value human interaction and strive to maximize real-time and, where possible, real-space interaction.

  • Accredited by AACSB and WASC: Almost needless to say - the program offers global recognition via the renown accreditation bodies. Even more interestingly, as a graduate, you gain membership to both EHL and Drucker alumni networks.

Career Paths

The DBA enhances your expertise and leadership skills, allowing you to make a greater impact in your current career or explore new opportunities which may be adjacent to your existing career path or – indeed – be off the beaten track. You decide. We feel certain that our graduates will receive an extra-boost of confidence enabling you to take the next level as business leaders, shaping practices and driving innovation; university instructors, contributing to teaching and research; consultants, offering expert advice to organizations and policymakers; speakers, presenting original ideas at conferences; and board members, guiding organizational strategy and oversight. You may also wish to consider applying for faculty positions on the Professor of Practice level at Drucker or EHL upon successful completion of the program. Are you ready?

 

Ideal Candidates

Our DBA program is designed for:

  • Senior executives with at least 10 years of professional experience, including significant leadership roles and responsibilities.
  • Professionals from diverse industries, organizations, and disciplines. This diversity is intended to enrich the participants’ learning experience and network.
  • Leaders who align with the program's with human-centered purpose.

Key facts

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Degree Awarded
Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) by Claremont Graduate University

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Estimated Completion Time
3 years | part time

 

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Modality
Hybrid

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Start Date
August 2025

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64 units
required units

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Price
135,000 - 175,000 CHF
(see Tuition & Fees section)

Program Directors

Dr. Michael Gibbert

Professor at Universita Della Svizzera Italiana; Adjunct Professor & Director of the Sustainability Lab at EHL

Michael (Ph.D. St. Gallen University, M.Com. Stellenbosch, South Africa) is full professor of sustainable consumption at Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Lugano, and Adjunct Professor at EHL. He previously served on the faculty of Bocconi, was a research associate at INSEAD, and completed part of his Ph.D. at Yale School of Management. He is also academic director of EHL’s Sustainability Lab, which was founded to explore how using fewer resources can lead to surprising new customer experiences (after all, popular parlance suggests that sometimes ‘less is more’).

Before making his own career transition into academia, Michael was a professional chef. His other great passions are 'La Bionda Piemontese' (a type of chicken) and 'La Bergamasca' (a handsome sheep breed with floppy ears), both of which can sometimes be seen in the background during his Teams meetings.

Dr. David Sprott

Drucker School of Management Professor of Marketing

David Sprott is the Henry Y. Hwang Dean and a professor of marketing in the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management and is on faculty at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. His research interests include retailing, branding, influence strategies, and marketing public policy.

He received his PhD in Marketing from the University of South Carolina and earned a BA in Business and an MBA from Kent State University. Prior to his arrival at the Drucker School, Sprott served as professor of marketing and dean of the College of Business at the University of Wyoming.

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Dr. Michael Gibbert

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Dr. David Sprott

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Curriculum

Degree Requirements

Participants must successfully complete the DBA program in its entirety, a total of 64 units, to obtain the DBA degree.

  • The core of the program is 48 units of coursework, including courses, intensive seminars, and the doctoral research project
  • The remaining 16 units needed to obtain the 64-unit DBA degree may either be transferred from prior graduate studies, or must otherwise be completed from a proposed list of courses offered by the two schools.  This will be assessed on a case basis.

Curriculum Overview

The core curriculum of the DBA program offers 48 units of coursework. Alongside the Doctoral Research Project, the curriculum entails a set of dedicated doctoral level courses delivered by EHL Hospitality Business School and the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. The remaining 16 units needed to obtain the 64-unit DBA degree may either be transferred from prior graduate studies or taken from a proposed list of courses offered by the two schools.

Coursework of the core DBA curriculum is grouped into four main streams:

  • Methods and Theory (12 units)
  • Leadership Core (8 units)
  • Multidisciplinary Core (14 units)
  • Doctoral Research Project (14 units)

The DBA courses are delivered mostly online, with three week-long intensive seminars taking place in the U.S. (Claremont), Switzerland (Lausanne), and Singapore. The intensive seminars combine experiential coursework and doctoral discussions at key moments throughout the program journey.

Capstone

The program culminates with the completion of the 3-year Doctoral Research Project. The program’s guided research journey is structured as follows:

  • Year 1: Define your groundbreaking research topic and craft your research proposal
  • Year 2: Conduct your empirical research
  • Year 3: Develop your findings and discuss how they transform practice

The journey is designed to ensure success as outputs at each milestone build up to a complete thesis.

Learning Outcomes

  • Understanding and applying management practice concepts.
  • Utilizing analytical and methodological tools
  • Formulating action plans for organizational impact
  • Communicating research results to stakeholders

Tuition & Fees

Tuition is based only on the units you are required to take to achieve the DBA. Depending on whether you have a prior graduate degree, the units you are required to take to complete the program may range from a minimum of 48 units to a maximum of 64 units (see degree requirements or talk to a recruitment advisor).
  • Tuition per unit: 2,500 CHF (120,000 CHF for 48 units of coursework or 160,000 CHF for 64 units of coursework).
  • Program fees: 5,000 CHF for each of the 3 global intensive seminars (15,000 CHF total). These fees include accommodation and meals, but not airfare, airport connections, or other expenses related to traveling for the intensives.  
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Recruitment

Nidhika SUNEJA

RECRUITMENT OFFICER
If you're exploring our DBA program and want to know if it aligns with your goals, get in touch.