“Is there a doctor on board?” - A Theoretical Model for More Relevant Entrepreneurship Doctoral Programs

Adequate training of doctoral candidates in entrepreneurship requires persistent focus on rigor and relevance to increase impact for society and academia. To improve doctoral training, extant research suggests cross-disciplinary approaches to intensify impact-oriented research in entrepreneurship doctoral programs. In this paper, we turn to two such influential frameworks that incorporate rigor and relevance into the core design and philosophical grounding of program development, namely engaged scholarship and design science research. These paradigms enable practitioners and academia to solve future problems based on entrepreneurship and innovation. Therefore, we ask the following research question: What are the theoretical antecedents for designing impactful doctoral training programs in entrepreneurship? Methodologically, we adhere to the principles of an integrative literature review, wherein an initial set of studies concerning doctoral training in entrepreneurship prompted a more extensive and targeted search for literature that critically examines the dimensions of academic rigor and practical relevance. This allows us to develop new frameworks and perspectives on the topic.