A Content Analysis of Dissertations on Business Topics

March 22, 2023

A Content Analysis of Dissertations on Business Topics

LA GRANDE, Ore. – Eastern Oregon University’s April Colloquium will highlight the work of Kat Yamamoto as she presents her study on dissertation research methodology choices, page lengths, and research topics that have not been studied extensively. 

Yamamoto’s presentation will take place on April 13 from 4-5 p.m. via Zoom using this link. Yamamoto has been working for EOU as an adjunct for several years teaching various business courses for the College of Business. She recently completed her PHR (Professionals in Human Resources) certificate and is currently teaching Human Resource Management.

“I chose to study dissertations on business topics because originally I was interested in studying business dissertations published by business programs around the world, but after some research, I discovered that doctoral students choose to study business topics even when their degrees are not from business programs such as education, liberal arts, engineering, nursing, music, and so forth,” Yamamoto said. 

This presentation will discuss how Yamamoto’s study examined dissertations written on business topics over the last ten years using content analysis to address these gaps.

“It is also challenging to distinguish dissertations that are from business programs and dissertations on business topics that are not from business programs. Thus, I decided that since business topics are popular research areas for both business students as well as those studying other disciplines such as educational leadership or other management studies such as information management or engineering management, it would benefit future students, existing professors, and administrators to understand which business topics students are choosing to research and over the current ten years whether students used qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods more or less and whether they were writing more or less for their dissertations in page lengths,” Yamamoto said. 

In her study, Yamamoto found that from the years 2015 to 2020, there was an increase in the number of qualitative dissertations compared to that of the year 2010. The mean page length of dissertations was longer for Ph.D. programs compared to practitioner doctoral counterparts. The mean page lengths of quantitative dissertations were shorter than qualitative dissertations. Tune into Yamamoto’s zoom presentation on April 13 as she breaks down her results in further detail.

For more information visit eou.edu/colloquium/