A peek into the PhD journey

It is a new year again. Many of us take time to reflect about the past and also look to plan for the future, especially the kind of learning journey one should embark on and set it as a new year’s resolution. In that light, I believe that this article or blog would largely serve them. Since I started my PhD journey, many of my friends, comrades, and well-wishers have been curious to know what pursuing PhD is all about.? I have come across several good blogs as to why anyone should take up a PhD and what kind of skillsets it adds to one’s repertoire etc. Pursuing PhD or the world of research is a world in itself. Hopefully, in this humble attempt, I will be able to share a keyhole peek into this world, from my experiences and learnings, that I have yet to come across in any other blog or article. In other words, it is about PhD in a nutshell for relative novices in academic research. I have also taken this opportunity to highlight the differences between academic and commercial research and how the industry should view academic research and make the best out of it. One disclaimer though – being in the middle of my PhD journey, there are still many learnings in store for me. As I advance in this journey, I am sure, I will have more things to share at a later point in time.

The beginning of the beginning!

I enrolled for my PhD in Business Analytics with the KJ Somaiya Institute of Management part of the Somaiya Vidyavihar University, Mumbai. My coursework is complete and I am working on my research topic on the Sustainability of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). I am part of the first batch of the PhD curriculum by the university. I wanted to appreciate the commitment, enthusiasm and efforts of our institute to provide some gruelling coursework, covering the key common subjects for all PhD scholars – Research Methodology and Research and Publication Ethics – by forty-three faculty members with around 190 teaching hours, both internal and external! Many people inquire with me – is so much teaching warranted in a PhD curriculum, as we do not see that elsewhere? My response would be – “I have little idea. Even I am pursuing a PhD for the first time! But no doubt these sessions were thought-provoking and useful.”

I prefer to call the PhD curriculum, a journey – and it is. Even if, one is part of the same PhD batch, the journey trajectory that each one has to undertake is very different and unique. The initial part – the coursework – is the only place where one shares a common ground with other fellow research scholars. But post that it is more of an individual journey, where one is the captain of one’s ship! That does not rob out the scope of collaborating with others, with many such occasions in the offering – to collaborate with peers, guides, academicians, companies and the society at large.

Into the realm of philosophy

PhD means Philosophiae doctor in Latin and Doctor of Philosophy in English. This essentially implies that one is earning a degree in Philosophy. Philosophy means “love of wisdom” in ancient Greek. It is intriguing to note that irrespective of one’s educational background or the discipline in which one has done study or work – Arts, Mathematics, Science, Humanities, Engineering etc. essentially leads to philosophy. There is an amazing confluence and convergence in all disciplines we pursue that eventually leads to wisdom to guide our way of life. The question arises – Is philosophy the ultimate goal for all knowledge pursuits? Well, academics suggest so. This also resonates well, within the realms of religious belief that all God is one and each religion, in its different way, is a means to attain God (the ultimate power). The idea is quite thought-provoking, inclusive, inspiring and profound. Ultimately, earning a PhD, whether one is an artist, scientist, accountant, manager, engineer or musician, ends up being a philosopher!

This also implies that, as philosophy is discipline agnostic, so becomes the researcher. A PhD program enables the researcher with aptitude and competencies to dabble into any discipline by choice or circumstance, with equal flair and adeptness. The current trends of research demand a cross-functional approach working across multiple disciplines – such research initiatives are also valued more. The PhD curriculum essentially supports that. Some educational degrees like management (MBA), already have cross-functional disciplines in one curriculum, but the PhD curriculum continues to reinforce that on a much bigger scale. This encourages the researcher to unleash her / his boundaries, going beyond the comfort zone and exploring new ways of solving problems that the world has not seen yet. This instils immense confidence and inspiration, that mastering any discipline is within anyone’s radar through application and hard work, at any stage of one’s life. In that spirit, one can take up a topic for PhD, that may be completely different from the background and still deliver excellent research, thereby transforming oneself to be more versatile. This compels even a novice to realize that even rocket science is not rocket science!

When I look back on my interactions with people with PhD, I realize that many conversations would drift into discussions on philosophy, without me overtly realizing that. I found such conversations always fascinating, making me feel that learned people derive solace from philosophy.? I would tend to believe now, that such philosophical inclinations got shaped by going through the PhD program.

I was particularly interested in epistemology – the theory of knowledge. It is also fascinating to see how the different philosophical paradigms or world-views about knowledge, determine the way we approach research. Let me share some glimpses.

• Post-positivism – mainly challenging the status quo – the basis of quantitative research
• Constructivism – assigning subjective meanings to one’s experiences – the basis for qualitative research
• Transformationalism – viewing the world from the perspective of marginalized individuals of the society – primarily for issues of power or social justice
• Pragmatism – arising out of actions, situations and consequences rather than antecedent conditions – the basis for mixed method (qualitative and quantitative put together) research

Transition from books to research papers

In academia, I have seen a distinct evolution in the way students are expected to acquire knowledge – from their bachelor's to master’s to PhD curriculum. Students in Bachelor courses would go by what has been taught in classroom sessions. While the college or institute would encourage using textbooks, most students would smoothly sail through the course, just referring to class notes. So quite some student effort goes around writing or recording classroom lectures. A more relaxed student survives studying last minute xerox notes of their classmates!

In the Masters's degree courses, books mainly remain the primary source of learning. Here students’ effort is directed to scout for the appropriate books and authors. Often books on a subject by different authors are studied and compared. Students often rely on recommendations by their professors, peers and senior students to identify books and authors of their choice.

In contrast, in a PhD curriculum, research papers from reputed journals remain the primary source of gaining knowledge. Generally, professors of different disciplines would share research papers or would encourage the research scholars to search for research papers in their domain of interest and go through them. This helps the research scholars to continuously refer to the body of knowledge that is dynamic, ever-evolving and updated in the field of their interest.

Importance of literature review

Research aims to contribute something novel to the existing body of knowledge that the world already carries. The prime question is – where does the existing body of knowledge reside? The vast compendium of research papers that get published in journals primarily comprise the existing body of knowledge. This is huge and beyond anyone’s imagination and not everything from this knowledge reserve may be available with the click of a google search. It is years of slow, systematic and disciplined compilation of work done by researchers all over the world and made available for anyone to further research. There are research databases eg. Elsevier, Scopus or Web of Science, which compile different journals with all the research papers published within them, that may be made available for a fee or free. The companies maintaining research databases are big ones and their earnings are comparable to that of top companies in the world. Many times research reports by reputed commercial companies, might also be considered to form the existing body of knowledge, but academicians mainly like to rely on the research papers. What about books then? A quick look into books garnering academic importance shows that they are the collection and synthesis of a lot of research papers. For instance, take the book on Marketing Management by Philip Kotler, which is considered the bible on that subject prescribed in almost all B-schools. Each chapter in that book has a section on references and citations of the research papers used to create the manuscript of the chapter.

One of the biggest roles of the researcher is to examine the existing body of knowledge and come out with findings of what this body of knowledge is pointing at, in the field of the researcher’s interest. Over and above, he also needs to identify the research gaps that can be taken up for future research. Based on the interest and sensibilities, the researcher may take up a research area to work on further. This is a herculean task for the researcher and is known as Literature Review. The researcher has to go through several research papers (at times it might run into hundreds!) to undertake a good literature review. This forms one of the major parts (in my view almost half) of the research work. A literature review is also among the key contributions of the researcher in that area. Many research papers are literature review papers on a subject, summarizing findings of the major research that has happened in the past.

There are learnings for everyone, tied to the process of research itself. Firstly, there is no need to “start from scratch” or “reinvent the wheel” for conducting any research work. Always build on the work of others and that is what determines the progress of humankind in its quest for knowledge. It is also simultaneously important to give credit to all previous researchers, for their work that has been used in the literature review. This system of referencing and citations helps determine the credibility of the researcher, through various metrics generated out of it. A researcher whose works are cited more are deemed more credible, as they pave the path for future research. Secondly, anyone can conduct and utilize these literature reviews or research papers to gain knowledge and may not be restricted to only academicians.

Another question that automatically arises, is not the knowledge that is gathered through one’s own experiences and research, is an integral part of the body of knowledge? While any such knowledge is also knowledge, but not available in the public domain. So may not be utilizable for building up further knowledge on that. One role the researcher could assume is to bring such knowledge into the ambit of formal research by publishing them in reputed journals.

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The concept and practice of peer review

One of the most striking revelations, that hit me pursuing a PhD, was the fact that publishing one’s book is easier than publishing ones research paper in top journals! This is because of the concept of peer review. Any research paper that gets published in a journal has to go through a formal process of getting reviewed by the experts in that area of research. This makes the process of research paper publication quite rigorous, as experts across the world would assess the research output for its quality, impact and utility for future research, thereby rendering credibility to the research work. This process is known as peer review. Often the reviewer would suggest modifications or may reject the paper completely to be put in that journal. This is a time taking and labor-intensive process. Thus, a publication of research work in a reputed research journal comes as a eureka moment in the life of a researcher.

On the other hand, publishing a book does not bear the obligation of getting peer-reviewed. Referring peer-reviewed papers adds to the authenticity and credibility of any work that the researcher proposes to undertake in the future.

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From ambiguity to clarity?

The biggest challenge for the researcher is to bring in clarity in the world of eternal ambiguity. In my PhD journey, I have often felt like “being blindfolded, chasing a black cat, in a dark room, that is not there!”. One of my research guides came to my rescue “If you are feeling insanely lost in any stage or most stages in the research effort in your PhD, means that you are in the right direction!”. It is part and parcel of the game. After all, giving something new, that the world has never seen before cannot be so easy! One of the key competencies that a researcher has to develop is to assimilate huge amounts of information and make sense of it. Storytelling skills, one of the most sought-after skills in the areas of Analytics and Data science, also get developed to connect information from various research papers into a well-knit story. The use of theory to explain or disprove various phenomena also helps emerge clarity from ambiguity. Further, there is space for immense creativity on the part of the researcher to figure out the direction she/he wants to take this research work forward. Even with the same research objectives, different researchers can approach it with different research designs.

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Academic v/s commercial research

It has been quite a while since I have been part of the Marketing Research profession. When I joined the PhD curriculum, I thought that I had an edge over others to go through this journey, as I have already conducted many commercial research projects, in the course of my profession. Going through the PhD journey, I found that there are some stark differences between the academic and commercial approaches to research. So, what is the difference? Commercial research is much more focussed on a specific problem-solving that an internal or an external client face. Here, the researcher’s role is to identify the problem areas through discussion and help to chalk out the research objectives. Once there is an agreement, the researcher progresses with the next step of developing a research design considering resources like budget and time available and goes around with the execution of the research project.

In academic research, there is a huge amount of effort and intellectual real estate that the researcher needs to spend to identify the research problem. The research gap needs to be identified through a careful literature review, as stated earlier. Even the non-existence of any research literature also needs to be established, if the researcher wants to take up a topic for research that no one has ever touched upon so far. In other words, the researcher has to check the existing body of knowledge about the topic she/he wants to work on and justify its relevance. In commercial research, the researcher is not bound by such compulsions to justify her / his domain of work. However, if undertaken it is a welcome step and adds value to the research work. Such considerations remain at the discretion of the researcher. Also in commercial research, many times, the researcher may choose to conduct the research in line with commercially available models, which are proprietary to some research or consulting firms, which may not be available in the academic domain.

Thus, topic finalization in a PhD curriculum is a significant milestone in the life of a researcher. While it might be the starting point, but often the quest to bring more clarity into the research direction continues, even after the finalization of the topic. These blurring lines between topic finalization and execution of the research project make it more challenging for the researcher to pursue the project, which is not normally seen in commercial research projects. The stages of research in commercial research appear more well-defined and distinct.?

Even while reporting the final findings in academic research, it is imperative that the researcher compares and collates the same in light of existing research literature and provides an analysis of the same. Such practices, although desirable, are again left to the discretion of the researcher in commercial research projects.

All these points out that, conducting academic research is much more rigorous and difficult than commercial research. The processes like thorough literature review and peer review, help to install high levels of credibility to academic research, which are difficult to emulate in commercial research endeavors.

Leveraging academic research by industry

Businesses and commercial ventures are often quite blunt in stating that academic research outputs are the product of a utopian world, where academician is disconnected from the practical realities. There will always be pros and cons of academic research. I feel, that to an appreciable extent, that is desirable. This allows the researcher to look into facets and dimensions that normally get missed by practitioners, who are more consumed by the mundane practicalities of running the show. Outside thinking, often contributes to the diversity in thinking in the workplace and has the power to promulgate innovation in any company.

The commercial world should look to collaborate with academicians to get research outputs that help to transform research-based learning into reality. This would be the ultimate success of any research work, to promote the innovation, efficiency and effectiveness of the world, making it a better place to live.

In the commercial world, each individual doesn't need to conduct research themselves, but every individual must become informed and knowledgeable consumer of research. The annals of knowledge accumulated by rigorous academic research that is already in the clasp of humankind are huge and phenomenal. It would help the world to take more advantage of it. Consumption and usage of research outputs should be viewed by companies, as a source of competitive advantage. What determines this competitive advantage? Firstly, the organizational learning rate should be faster than the competition. Secondly, the organization’s execution is better (and not necessarily faster) than the competition. In both cases, research has a key role to play. The need is to change the lens with which practitioners look at academic research. This also paves the way for many practitioners to take up research as a choice for their profession. In a lot of industries and companies, I observe that there is some recognition and use of academic research happening, but still, there is a long way to go.

Final words

Many people look at a PhD curriculum, as a means to add the prefix “Dr.” to her / his name. Well, there is much more to that. Individuals can look forward to an overall transformation in the way they look at life, getting exposed to philosophical perspectives. It is a journey of persistence, struggle, patience and resilience that develops automatically moving forward in the journey. There will be challenges in each step that need to be overcome, which is not less than any Bollywood drama. It is also necessary to enjoy the journey as one progresses. Again, every individual’s journey is a different story and a movie in itself! However, collaboration is welcome.

I also observe a concern among pupils about the brand of the institution from where one pursues a PhD. While each institute has its advantages, I believe that given the rigors of the curriculum, the brand PhD is a niche brand in itself, that emerges and connects everyone as part of the same doctoral fraternity. Further branding for a researcher can be enhanced by delivering quality research work and publishing research papers in reputed research journals.

Last but not least, the role of a guide in a PhD is crucial and cannot go without a mention. PhD a long journey, so it is necessary to have a good rapport with the guide, with discussions going beyond academia. A good guide is like a mother who nurtures and facilitates the ideas of the researcher with timely support and help. The guide also simultaneously challenges and pushes the researcher out of the comfort zone, to look into new horizons of creativity. An essential quality of a guide should be unending patience and persistence to handle the researcher’s frustrations, distresses, idiosyncrasies, fancies, and egos, sometimes spilling in from situations outside the academic domain. A lot of experiences about the PhD journey are shaped by the way the guides treat you. I am grateful to have guides that are a source of constant motivation and support.

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