# Beginning your journey Whether you are embarking on a PhD or pursuing a Master's thesis, every academic journey has its starting point. The adventure beckons you. You are at a stage where you are wondering whether to do a PhD. Or you have a pre-project, mostly based on practitioners literature, on your experience, on your industry insights, on your professional expertise. I am always asking the same questions at that stage[^1]. The following question will help you better understand your project: 1) Why did you submit this research proposal in particular? what drives your passion? Can you share your feelings? What aspects particularly engage your interest? > [!info|no-title] > (*Consider this as one comprehensive question; please limit your response to one paragraph*) 2) What are your top 3 keywords, areas of interest or themes, that capture your scholarly attention? > [!info|no-title] > (*Provide only three main themes, aiming to focus on those closely related to your research interest*) 3) Give me three major theories that you find particularly compelling. Additionally, for the theories you favor, could you succinctly summarize each of them in 1-2 sentences? Provide as reference 1-3 research articles for each theory. Ressources on IS theories: [BYU Library](https://guides.lib.byu.edu/c.php?g=216417&p=1686139); [Theorize IT](https://is.theorizeit.org/wiki/Main_Page); [MISQ Research Curations](https://misq.umn.edu/research-curations/#:~:text=The%20purpose%20of%20MISQ%20Research%20Curations%20is%20to,on%20which%20to%20further%20build%20or%20extend%20research.); and one of the best ressources, but in French: [SI et Management](http://www.sietmanagement.fr/theories-en-si/). > [!danger] Beware: > (*only mention articles you have read, and select only from major journals ranked in the ABS or FNEGE journal rankings*). Carefully read these three questions, three times each[^2]. Then, once you’re done, come the last (but not the least one): 4. Can you relate a concept and/or theory **you selected** with several area of interest? Create three questions, that relate and tie together several components of your previous replies. For each question, briefly justify its importance and relevance (so what?). > [!info|no-title] > *Question 4 comes after Q1, Q2 and Q3… which means it the end of the process, not the beginning. Don’t come up with unrelated questions. I need to see the trail of thoughts.* The aim of these questions is not to challenge your motivation (you were already accepted into the program!) or waste your time. From experience, if you do not write that on paper, you will flit from one topic to another without settling and inevitably waste your own time. A PhD thesis is an exercice of abstraction; you are not writing an industry white paper. But all PhD advisors understand that when you begin the journey, it is hard to abstract yourself from the field, from your own professional experiences, from what you already know. This is your strength, because what you will research will be relevant for practice. However, at the beginning of your project, it is a cognitive constrain: if you fail to abstract from practice, your project will not be relevant for research[^3]. In fact, these questions are framed as a dialogic approach to your problem, a maïeutic method for creativity & critical thinking. At the end, you will develop your understanding, explore the scope of your proposed thesis and characterize better what you intent to research. Footnotes: [^1]: If you are one of my master of research students, please read these questions, and answer them in an email. This is a prerequisite before discussing your project. [^2]: I cannot count the number of times a student send me partial responses, missing references, or just a proof that he/she hasn’t read the assignment. [^3]: in very blunt terms: it is impossible to do a PhD in management science in France if your PhD project has no theoretical or conceptual contributions to research.