Issue link: http://ncumarketing.uberflip.com/i/970581
In February, Dr. Allen joined the School of Business as a full-time faculty member. Dr. Allen started with NCU in an adjunct capacity in March 2016 serving in dissertation committee and chair roles. Dr. Allen's experience includes more than 25 years of international business, operations and project management work. Dr. Allen's work experience includes service in the United States Air Force, as an owner and president of several startup companies and joint ventures, as a COO in two company turnarounds, and as the CIO of a multinational retailer. His international leadership experience includes project and operations leadership in more than 35 countries throughout North America, Central America, South America, Western Europe, Australia, South Africa and Asia. Narrowing Your Dissertation Topic: Purple Toenails Dr. Brian M. Allen One of the hardest challenges that doctoral candidates face is figuring out how to narrow the focus of their research. Often when the chair and the mentee communicate for the first time the conversation begins with the mentor asking a question like, "So, what are you considering as your topic for research?" A very common answer from students is that they have a big idea that they want to study but have not yet figured out all the details. What follows is a narrative that helps new mentees to understand the process. In this example the student desires to study elephants and the chair provides a roadmap for thinking through how to narrow down the study topic to a problem worthy of study. Chair: Thank you for telling me a little about yourself. Now that I know a little bit about you and your interests, let's talk about your dissertations topic. What are you considering as your topic for research? Mentee: I am really interested in researching elephants. Chair: That is a big topic, why do you want to study elephants? What is it you hope to accomplish or find in your study? Mentee: Well, I know elephants are endangered and I think a study about elephants would be interesting. Chair: As I mentioned, you have a big topic. Let me see if I can help you understand what is needed to conduct a study on elephants. What I would like you to do is to think about this process as filling a giant funnel. Considering we are talking about elephants, it is going to have to be a big funnel. I know, I should quit telling jokes and keep my day job. Anyway, at the top of the funnel is the whole topic of elephants. We will call this the 10,000-meter level. At this level the funnel contains all information available that is topically related to elephants. As we go down in this funnel there are going to be filters at different levels. I will explain the filters as we go through this discussion. Are you with me so far? Mentee: Yes, I understand the idea. Chair: I think you and I can both agree you are probably not going to have the time to cover everything about elephants within your research. Mentee: Oh yeah, that is true. I guess I need to narrow it down some. But how do I do that? Chair: Great question. Let's break the elephants down into two broad categories. There are Asian Elephants and African Elephants. Which would you like to study? Mentee: I think probably African Elephants. FACULTY HIGHLIGHT Brian Allen, Assistant Professor - Entrepreneurship