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Complex Exam and Proposal Defense

Doctoral Complex Examination closes the first phase (study and research phase) of the doctoral programme. To be eligible for the second phase, you must fulfill the following requirements:

  • Fulfilling all the study requirements (120 credits);
  • Fulfilling partly the publication requirements; collecting a minimum of 3 points
  • participating at the Proposal Defense and having an accepted research proposal
  • passing the Complex Exam (to be eligible for entering the Complex Exam, you have to fulfill the above-mentioned requirements.)

 

1. Fulfilling all the study requirements (120 credits): 

ALL modules are completed and the final requirements of the lecturers are satisfied. ALL grades must appear in NEPTUN  at least two weeks prior to the Complex Exam.

Please note: you have to have all the study credits to be eligible for the Complex Exam exam. If you have even one credit missing then you cannot participate, and consequently, we have to dismiss you! There is no other possible way of doing the Ph.D. If you have outstanding credits, you cannot come to take the complex exam. Only those students can repeat the complex exam at the end of August who failed. If you were ineligible for missing credits, you cannot come at any later date.

We at program management have to abide by the Hungarian law; so, we wanted to warn you in time to finish all courses. We all wish that all of you can fulfill all the necessary requirements and can enter the second phase of your studies.

2. Fulfilling partly the publication requirements; collecting minimum 3 points

Students have to register their publications in the Database of the Hungarian Scientific Works (Magyar Tudományos Művek Tára) MTMT https://www.mtmt.hu/

Points can only be awarded for publications registered in MTMT.

Please register your publications as soon as possible.

Points will be defined based on the following table:

 

3. Proposal defense

Early June

Before you can embark on your individual research, you have to defend your research proposal at an open presentation. This process is called the proposal defense. It is organized in conjunction with the Doctoral Complex Examination. 

You have to be physically present at this occasion.

Candidates can apply by submitting a one-page abstract and 5-6 pages long Research Proposal via e-mail to the Program Director, Dr. Zsuzsanna VITAI, vitai.zsuzsanna [at] ktk.pte.hu (vitai[dot]zsuzsanna[at]ktk[dot]pte[dot]hu)

Deadline:  early May (the exact date will be announced later)

Students cannot hand in the same research proposal that they handed in when entering the program!

The research plan will be evaluated by the supervisor and an independent reviewer - a lecturer at the Faculty - in writing and rated as Accepted/Rejected.

At the research forum, the research plan and its progress so far must be presented in a presentation of max. 15 minutes. 

The forum will be attended by the supervisors and the referees, after the presentation the research plan will be evaluated orally.

The proposal has to contain

-              the preliminary structure of the dissertation,

-              clarify the applied research methods/data sources,

-              determine the literature base,

-              the plan for dissertation research.

 On the basis of the research proposal/topic, each student will be assigned 1 "personalised" theoretically complex topic (i.e. covering as much of the business sciences as possible), which will be selected by the chair of the forum after the presentation with the topic leader and the referee.

 

4. Passing the Complex Exam

 

Oral exam: Mid-June, which includes the presentation of two topics.

- 1 topic drawn at random from a general set of 12 (identical for all) topics (list of topics)

- 'personalised' topic

 

Input requirements for the complex examination:

- Completion of all study requirements (completion of all courses; all grades must appear in Neptune by 10 June 2024); 

- partial fulfillment of the publication requirements; minimum 3 points earned.

Students are required to register their publications in the MTMT database: the Hungarian Database of Scientific Works (https://www.mtmt.hu/) 

Only publications registered in MTMT will be awarded points.

If you have not yet registered your publications, please do so.

 

If the doctoral student fails to pass the complex examination, his/her student status will be terminated on the day of the failure. 

The student may only enter Phase 2 of the study programme after successfully completing the complex doctoral examination. In the case of failure in the doctoral complex examination in accordance with the national law on higher education, the student is entitled to retake the examination in the semester in which the attempt was unsuccessful (i.e. by 31 August).

 

Failure is understood as:

- Failing the complex examination (one or both parts of the complex examination are not passed with a pass mark and the requirements are not fulfilled in the re-examination)

- the doctoral candidate fails to appear for the regular and/or the retake complex examination

- Failure to meet the input requirements for the complex examination: the doctoral candidate fails to complete the subjects specified in the curriculum (missing 1 subject is also a disqualifying criterion) and/or fails to obtain 3 publication points.

 

Complex Exam topics 2025 spring

I. Behavioural Economics

1. Rationality/irrationality vs. smart decision making: the methods of simplifying decisions and factors limiting rational decision-making

2. Decision biases: reasons, manifestations and consequences

  • DellaVigna, S. (2009): Psychology and economics: evidence from the field. Journal of Economic Literature, 47(2): 315–372. https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.47.2.315

  • Frederick, S.–Loewenstein, G.–O’Donoghue, T. (2002): Time discounting and time preference: A critical review. Journal of Economic Literature, 40(2): 351–401. https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.40.2.351

3. Relative consumption in a behavioural economic perspective

II. Innovation management

1 - The interpretations of innovation. The development of innovation models

  • Varadarajan, R. (2018) Innovation, innovation strategy, and strategic innovation", Innovation and Strategy, Review of Marketing Research, Vol. 15, Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, 143-166. 
  • Miller P., Wedell-Wedellsborg T. (2013) Clearing the path to innovation, IESE Insight 16, 52-59.
  • Taferner, B. (2017) A next generation of innovation models? an integration of the innovation process model big picture towards the different generations of models. Review of Innovation and Competitiveness: A Journal of Economic and Social Research, 3(3), 47-60.
  • Piller F., West J. (2014) An interactive model of coupled open innovation, In: Chesbrough H. W. et al.  New frontiers in open innovation, Oxford University Press, 29-49.

2 - The role of innovations in creating consumer value

  • Christensen C.M., Hall T., Dillon K., Duncan D. (2016) Know Your Customer’s “Jobs to Be Done”, Harvard Business Review, 94(9), 54-62.
  • Day G. S., Shea G. (2020) Changing the Work of Innovation: A Systems Approach, California Management Review, 63(1), 41-60.
  • Dell’Era, C., Magistretti, S., Cautela, C., Verganti, R., Zurlo, F. (2020) Four kinds of design thinking: From ideating to making, engaging, and criticizing. Creativity and Innovation Management, 29(2), 324-344.
  • Nakata, C. (2020) Design thinking for innovation: Considering distinctions, fit, and use in firms. Business horizons, 63(6), 763-772.

3 - Market and economic impact of disruptive innovation

  • Christensen C. M., Raynor M. E., McDonald R. (2015) What is disruptive innovation?, Harvard Business Review, December, 1-11.
  • O’Reilly, C., & Binns, A. J. (2019) The three stages of disruptive innovation: Idea generation, incubation, and scaling. California Management Review, 61(3), 49-71.
  • Si, S., Chen, H. (2020) A literature review of disruptive innovation: What it is, how it works and where it goes. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 56, 101568.

 

III. Operations Management

1 - The role of operations capabilities in achieving business strategy

  • Porter, M.: What is strategy, Harvard Business Review (HBR), 1996, November-December, 61-78.

  • Hayes R. H. and G. P. Pisano: Beyond World-Class: The New Manufacturing Strategy, HBR, 1994 Jan-Feb, 77-86. 

  • Sadun R, N. Bloom and J. van Reenen: Why do we undervalue competent management? HBR, 2017, Sept-Oct, 121-127

  • Pisano, G. P. and W. C. Shih: Does America Really Need Manufacturing? HBR, March, 2012, 94-102

  • Kim, W. C. and R. Mauborgne: Innovation doesn’t have to be disruptive, HBR, May-June,  2023, 73-81

2 - Inventory management: replenishment policies, evaluating the cycle service level

  • Chopra, S. and P. Meindl: Supply Chain Management, Pearson, 2013, 318-321

  • Fisher M. L.: Making Supply Meet Demand in an Uncertain World, HBR, 1994 May-June, 83-93

  • Fisher M. L.: What is the Right Supply Chain for Your Product? HBR, 1997, March-April, 105-116 

  • Vörös, J.: An analysis of the dynamic price-quality relationship, European Journal of Operational Research, 2019, 277, 1037-1045

3 - Competing through operation in the age of AI

  • Iansiti, M. and K. R. Lakhani: Competing in the age of AI, HBR, 2020, Jan-Feb, 60-68

  • Porter, M. and J. Heppelmann: How smart, connected products are transforming companies, HBR, Oct 2015, 97- 114

  • Zeng, M.: Alibaba and the Future of Business, HBR, Sept-Oct, 2018, 88-96

  • Eapen, T. T., D. J. Finkenstadt, J. Folk and L. Venkataswamy: How generative AI can augment human creativity, HBR, July-August, 2023, 57- 64.

  • Barney, J. B. and M. Reeves: AI won’t give you a new sustainable advantage, HBR, 2024, Sept-Oct

 

IV. Real options theory and practice

  1. What is the fundamental concept of real options, and how can they be employed in the context of business decision-making? (Explain the similarities between real options and financial options and how they can assist companies in maintaining flexibility in their decisions.)

  2. What is the relationship between strategic flexibility and real options, and what is the function of real options in assisting companies in managing uncertainty? 

  3. How can a company that is interested in entering a new market, but faces an uncertain environment, apply real options theory to increase the flexibility of its entry strategy? What methods can they employ to enhance the adaptability of their entry strategy by utilizing the theory of real options?

 

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