PhD in Management
Lang's PhD Management program prepares you for tenure-track positions at top universities around the world.
You will work alongside Lang's prolific, world-class faculty who are on a mission to use business as a force for good.
With the Lang's PhD in Management program, you'll explore complex challenges in modern business management and scholarship, and develop relevant research within one of three unique academic fields in which the University has a distinct strength - marketing and consumer behaviour, services management and organizational leadership. Throughout your time here, you'll be conducting innovative and relevant research, presenting your ideas at conferences, writing papers for journal publications and networking with peers from other universities.
Program timeline
This PhD program consists of five semesters of coursework within the first two years. Students take five core and six field courses along with one teaching course and a subsequent qualifying exam. The remainder of the program is devoted to completion and defense of a full doctoral dissertation.
"The School's values and research being conducted by its faculty aligned with many of my core values and interests - that is why I chose Lang over other business schools. It is rare that one finds a graduate program that is committed to helping its students achieve a healthy work-life balance while preventing burnout but the Lang Doctoral program appears to be just that. This program offered everything that I was looking for in a grad school experience."
Amanda Wuth
PhD Management student and Lang Scholar
Meet the Lang Doctoral Scholars
Applicants must meet the following requirements to be considered for admission:
- A recognized master’s degree in a management field with a first class (A- / 80%) average.
- Acceptable GMAT or GRE Score (Minimum Scores - GMAT: 600; or GRE: 60th percentile)
Although the GMAT or GRE remains an admission requirement for applicants to our programs, we are aware that some students may be currently unable to complete one of the tests at an official testing centre or via the online testing platform due to COVID-19 closures. Accordingly, we are temporarily instituting the following policy:
- All applicants who are able to access physical or virtual GMAT or GRE testing are required to submit current GRE or GMAT scores with their application.
- If an applicant is unable to access the testing services at this time due to COVID-19, they may submit their remaining application materials for the time being, with the expectation that they will complete the GMAT or GRE test when the testing becomes available, before the admissions deadline. Applications without a GMAT or GRE score will be considered incomplete and will not be reviewed for admission until a score is provided. We will reassess the situation as we approach the application deadline, as the pandemic unfolds.
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Proof of English proficiency for applicants whose first language is not English. Please note that test scores must be valid for the start of the program.
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Applicants who completed a post-secondary degree from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, or New Zealand may request that this requirement be waived. This request will be reviewed by the graduate selection committee, who may ask for an interview and/or supplementary documentation in their consideration.
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The application deadline is February 1.
To apply to the University of Guelph, follow these steps:
- Create your OUAC account online.
- Complete the online application form through the OUAC portal (this will take about an hour – save your application regularly to avoid losing your work) by listing your demographic information, academic experience, work experience and referee information.
Statement of Research: Please do not enter your statement into the OUAC online application. You will upload your statement later in the application process.
Application Fee: Your application will not be submitted until you have paid the application fee.
- Following the completion of your online application, you will receive an email from the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies staff with login information for the University of Guelph’s WebAdvisor portal. Please note that access to WebAdvisor will be granted within a few business days, but may take up to 5 days during peak periods.
- Upload the necessary application documents to WebAdvisor. All documents, including references, statement, and transcripts must be received by the application deadline
- Monitor your email and WebAdvisor for your admissions decision. You will receive email notification when your admissions decision has been posted to WebAdvisor.
- Completed online application form.
- Unofficial transcripts from each post-secondary institution attended.
- Two (2) Referee Assessment Forms from individuals familiar with your academic work. Reference forms are completed online by the referee directly; you do not need to upload a reference letter.
- Statement of Research. This is a 1-2 page document outlining your research interests and discussing how this program is a good fit. When writing the statement of research, applicants are encouraged to investigate faculty research interests and publications to find whether there is alignment. Admissions priority will be given to applicants who demonstrate strong synergies with faculty in their statement of research.
- A current copy of your CV or resume.
- Proof of English Proficiency if English is not your first language. If you have written one of the accepted proficiency tests, please upload a copy of your results and use school code 0892 to send an official copy to the University.
- A copy of your GRE or GMAT exam score report. You will not be able to upload this through WebAdvisor. Please email a screenshot of your results from the test taker report page to the Graduate Program Assistant, and arrange for the testing agency to send your score report to the University using the following school codes: BHN-71-08 (GMAT) or 0892 (GRE).
Note: when uploading documents to WebAdvisor, you will have 5 minutes to replace an uploaded document if you wish to (ie. if you’ve uploaded the wrong document). Once the document link is inactive, you must contact the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (gradapps@uoguelph.ca) to replace a document.
Faculty research explores the following topics:
- Consumer decision making
- Innovation adoption
- Sustainable tourism management
- Food and beverage industry
- Social identity and organizational change
- Leadership and psychological capital
- Sport management
Meet our faculty
Our faculty are a vibrant, engaged group of researchers, who have conducted industry-changing research within their chosen field.
Read more about our faculty
Expertise: Positive organizational behaviour and well-being in the workplace
Expertise: Food value chain management
Expertise: Advertising and brand strategy
Full faculty and staff list for the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics.
Overall, the proposed program consists of five semesters of coursework (five core courses, four required field courses, two electives and the teaching course), followed by the qualifying exam, presentation and defense of a research proposal, and finally, the completion and defense of a full doctoral dissertation.
Students are required to take a total of 6.0 credits (12 courses), the PhD Research Project Seminar course in the third (summer) semester (0.0 credit) and the Marketing & Consumer Studies Seminar course (0.0 credit) each fall and winter semester the student is registered.
YEAR 1
SEMESTER 1
- MGMT*6950 [0.00] Doctoral Research Seminar
- MGMT*6820 [0.50] Theory of Management
- MGMT*6830 [0.50] Applied Univariate Statistical Analysis for Management
- Required field course
Marketing and Consumer Behaviour stream: one of
- MCS*6000 [0.50] Consumption Behaviour Theory I
- MCS*6100 [0.50] Marketing Theory
Organizational Leadership stream:
- BUS*6830 [0.50] Foundational Theories of Leadership
Services Management stream:
- HTM*6710 [0.50] Services Management Theory I
SEMESTER 2
- MGMT*6950 [0.00] Doctoral Research Seminar
- MGMT*6840 [0.50] Quantitative Research Methods: Multivariate Techniques
- MGMT*6850 [0.50] Qualitative Research Methods
- Required field course
Marketing and Consumer Behaviour stream: one of
- MCS*6010 [0.50] Consumption Behaviour Theory II
- MCS*6120 [0.50] Marketing Management
Organizational Leadership stream
- BUS*6840 [0.50] Foundational Theories of Management
Services Management
- HTM*6720 [0.50] Services Management Theory II
SEMESTER 3
- MGMT*6800 [0.50] Philosophy of Social Science Research
- MGMT*6900 [0.00] PhD Research Seminar Project
YEAR 2
SEMESTER 4
- MGMT*6950 [0.00] Doctoral Research Seminar
- UNIV*6800 [0.50] University Teaching: Theory and Practice
- Required field course
Marketing and Consumer Behaviour stream: one of
- ECON*6600 [0.50] Labour Economics
- MCS*6070 [0.50] Introduction to Structural Equation Modeling
- MCS*6810 [0.50] Experimental Design and Analysis for Behavioural Research in Management Studies
Organizational Leadership: one of
- BUS*6800 [0.50] Readings in Leadership I
- BUS*6820 [0.50] Readings in Management
Services Management: One of theory or methods courses:
- ECON*6000 [0.50] Microeconomic Theory I
- ECON*6140 [0.50] Econometrics I
- FARE*6380 [0.50] Applied Microeconomics for Agricultural Economists
- MCS*6000 [0.50] Consumption Behaviour Theory I
- MCS*6070 [0.50] Introduction to Structural Equation Modeling
- MCS*6100 [0.50] Marketing Theory
All fields: One elective course [0.50] from Elective Course List below.
SEMESTER 5
- MGMT*6950 [0.00] Doctoral Research Seminar
- Qualifying Examination
- Required field course
Marketing and Consumer Behaviour: one of
- ECON*6160 [0.50] Econometrics II
- ECON*6610 [0.50] Topics in Labour Economics
- One course in Psychology/ Sociology/ Microeconomics/Econometrics/ Economics/Marketing/Consumer Behaviour/ upon agreement with program co-ordinator
Organizational Leadership:
- BUS*6810 [0.50] Readings in Leadership II
Services Management: One of theory or methods courses:
- ANTH*6140 [0.50] Qualitative Research Methods
- BUS*6810 [0.50] Readings in Leadership II
- ECON*6010 [0.50] Microeconomic Theory II
- ECON*6100 [0.50] Experimental Economics
- FARE*6970 [0.50] Applied Quantitative Methods for Agricultural Economists
- MCS*6010 [0.50] Consumption Behaviour Theory II
All fields: One elective course [0.50] from Elective Course List below.
SEMESTER 6
- Thesis Proposal Defence
YEAR 3
SEMESTER 7, 8 & 9
- MGMT*6950 [0.00] Doctoral Research Seminar
- Thesis Research
YEAR 4
SEMESTER 10, 11 & 12
- MGMT*6950 [0.00] Doctoral Research Seminar
- Doctoral Thesis
ELECTIVE COURSE LIST
All fields: Two elective courses [1.00]
The elective courses can be one from the required courses list or another course from the list below. Other electives from other University of Guelph academic units can be considered if agreed to by the Graduate Program Coordinator.
- HTM*6730 [0.50] Cases in Management
- MCS*6800 [0.50] Best Worst Scaling and Discrete Choice Analysis
- TRMH*6100 [0.50] Foundations of Tourism and Hospitality
- TRMH*6200 [0.50] Contemporary Issues in Tourism
- TRMH*6250 [0.50] Tourism and Sustainable Development
- TRMH*6310 [0.50] Research Applications in Tourism and Hospitality
- BU*842 [0.50] Consumer Behavior, Marketing, Wilfrid Laurier
- BU*862 [0.50] Research in Brand and Product Management, Marketing, Wilfrid Laurier
- SOC*760 [0.50] Social Networks, Department of Sociology and Legal Studies, University of Waterloo
For more information on this program, contact us at:
Graduate Program Assistant
mgmtphd@uoguelph.ca