Air Force Commanders and Barriers to Entry Into a Doctoral Business Program

Abstract

The authors examined professionally qualified Air Force commanders’ barriers to entry into a business doctoral degree program related to the factors of time, financial means, academics, and motivation. Of the 116 present commanders, 63% were interested in pursuing a doctorate in business. For the commanders interested in obtaining a doctorate degree in business, time was the largest barrier whereas financial, academics, and motivation were, on average, not found to be large barriers to entry. For the barrier of time, the commanders indicated a willingness to first sacrifice personal time and then family time to pursue the doctoral degree.

Keywords:

• Air Force commanders
• business
• doctoral program
• entry barriers