harvard phd accounting

• Harvard Business School →
• Doctoral Programs →
• PhD Programs

Accounting & Management

• Business Economics
• Health Policy (Management)
• Organizational Behavior
• Technology & Operations Management
• Program Requirements

Accounting & Management

Curriculum & coursework.

Our programs are full-time degree programs which officially begin in August. Students are expected to complete their program in five years. Typically, the first two years are spent on coursework, at the end of which students take a field exam, and then another three years on dissertation research and writing.

Students in the Accounting and Management program must complete a minimum of 13 semester-long doctoral courses in the areas of business management theory, economic theory, quantitative research methods, academic field seminars, and two MBA elective curriculum courses. In addition to HBS courses, students may take courses at other Harvard Schools and MIT.

Research & Dissertation

Students in accounting and management begin research in their first year typically by working with a faculty member. By their third and fourth years, most students are launched on a solid research and publication stream. In Accounting and Management, the dissertation may take the form of three publishable papers or one longer dissertation.

Recent questions students have explored include: the ways in which managers use retail-level marketing actions to influence the timing of consumer purchases in relation to their firms’ fiscal calendars and financial performance as well as those of their competitors; the role of accounting information in strategic human resource decisions; the evolution, consequences and institutional determinants of unregulated financial reporting practices; the effects of adopting rolling forecasts on forecast quality.

Elliot Tobin

“ I’m constantly inspired to look into new research angles by the brilliant people I run into on campus every day. ”

Current HBS Faculty

• Brian K. Baik
• Dennis Campbell
• Srikant M. Datar
• Aiyesha Dey
• Susanna Gallani
• Gunther Glenk
• Brian J. Hall
• Jonas Heese
• Robert S. Kaplan
• V.G. Narayanan
• Trung Nguyen
• Joseph Pacelli
• Lynn S. Paine
• Krishna G. Palepu
• Ananth Raman
• Edward J. Riedl
• Clayton S. Rose
• Ethan C. Rouen
• Tatiana Sandino
• David S. Scharfstein
• George Serafeim
• Anywhere Sikochi
• Robert Simons
• Eugene F. Soltes
• Suraj Srinivasan
• Adi Sunderam
• Charles C.Y. Wang
• Emily Williams

Current Accounting & Management Students

• Yaxuan Chen
• Ji Ho Kim
• Botir Kobilov
• Yiwei Li
• Trang Nguyen
• Konstantin Pavlenkov
• Ria Sen
• Terrence Shi
• Albert Shin
• Elliot Tobin
• Wenxin Wang
• Yina Yang
• Siyu Zhang

Current HBS Faculty & Students by Interest

Recent placement, wilbur chen, 2022, alexandra scherf, 2021, jody grewal, 2019, andrew jing liu, 2018, hashim zaman, 2022, wei cai, 2020, matthew shaffer, 2019, jee eun shin, 2018, patrick ferguson, 2021, jihwon park, 2020, carolyn deller, 2018, aaron yoon, 2018.

• Harvard Business School →
• Doctoral Programs →
• PhD Programs

Accounting & Management

• Business Economics
• Health Policy (Management)
• Organizational Behavior
• Technology & Operations Management
• Program Requirements

Accounting & Management

Curriculum & coursework.

Our programs are full-time degree programs which officially begin in August. Students are expected to complete their program in five years. Typically, the first two years are spent on coursework, at the end of which students take a field exam, and then another three years on dissertation research and writing.

Students in the Accounting and Management program must complete a minimum of 13 semester-long doctoral courses in the areas of business management theory, economic theory, quantitative research methods, academic field seminars, and two MBA elective curriculum courses. In addition to HBS courses, students may take courses at other Harvard Schools and MIT.

Research & Dissertation

Students in accounting and management begin research in their first year typically by working with a faculty member. By their third and fourth years, most students are launched on a solid research and publication stream. In Accounting and Management, the dissertation may take the form of three publishable papers or one longer dissertation.

Recent questions students have explored include: the ways in which managers use retail-level marketing actions to influence the timing of consumer purchases in relation to their firms’ fiscal calendars and financial performance as well as those of their competitors; the role of accounting information in strategic human resource decisions; the evolution, consequences and institutional determinants of unregulated financial reporting practices; the effects of adopting rolling forecasts on forecast quality.

Elliot Tobin

“ I’m constantly inspired to look into new research angles by the brilliant people I run into on campus every day. ”

Current HBS Faculty

• Brian K. Baik
• Dennis Campbell
• Srikant M. Datar
• Aiyesha Dey
• Susanna Gallani
• Gunther Glenk
• Brian J. Hall
• Jonas Heese
• Robert S. Kaplan
• V.G. Narayanan
• Trung Nguyen
• Joseph Pacelli
• Lynn S. Paine
• Krishna G. Palepu
• Ananth Raman
• Edward J. Riedl
• Clayton S. Rose
• Ethan C. Rouen
• Tatiana Sandino
• David S. Scharfstein
• George Serafeim
• Anywhere Sikochi
• Robert Simons
• Eugene F. Soltes
• Suraj Srinivasan
• Adi Sunderam
• Charles C.Y. Wang
• Emily Williams

Current Accounting & Management Students

• Yaxuan Chen
• Ji Ho Kim
• Botir Kobilov
• Yiwei Li
• Trang Nguyen
• Konstantin Pavlenkov
• Ria Sen
• Terrence Shi
• Albert Shin
• Elliot Tobin
• Wenxin Wang
• Yina Yang
• Siyu Zhang

Current HBS Faculty & Students by Interest

Recent placement, wilbur chen, 2022, alexandra scherf, 2021, jody grewal, 2019, andrew jing liu, 2018, hashim zaman, 2022, wei cai, 2020, matthew shaffer, 2019, jee eun shin, 2018, patrick ferguson, 2021, jihwon park, 2020, carolyn deller, 2018, aaron yoon, 2018.

Business Administration

Harvard Business School offers a two-year, full-time MBA program with a general management curriculum focused on real-world practice. Becoming a student at HBS means joining a global community that propels lifelong learning and career support alongside peers, faculty, and staff who will both challenge you and cheer you on as you find and accelerate your path. Learn about joint degree programs.

Jointly administered by HBS and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Ph.D. in business administration grounds students in disciplinary theories and methods and trains them to apply these theories and methods in academic research on important business problems. The program has four areas of study: accounting and management, marketing, strategy, and technology and operations management. The program prepares students for a career in academia at top business schools and research institutions around the world.

Program Type

• Combined Degree (4)
• Degree Granting (72)
• Summer Programs (1)
• Visiting Students (4)

Academic Areas

• Arts & Architecture (4)
• Biological Sciences (4)
• Engineering & Applied Sciences (10)
• Harvard Integrated Life Sciences (14)
• History (14)
• Humanities (22)
• Languages (9)
• Mathematics (2)
• Medical Sciences (7)
• Physical Sciences (6)
• Social Sciences (21)

Degrees Offered

• AB/AM, AB/SM (1)
• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) (68)
• Master of Arts (AM) (8)
• Master of Engineering (ME) (2)
• Master of Science (SM) (4)

GRE Requirement

• Not Accepted (28)
• Optional (28)
• Required (14)

African and African American Studies

American studies, anthropology, applied mathematics, applied physics, architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning, bioengineering, biological and biomedical sciences, biological sciences in public health.

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