The Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) is an applied, professional doctorate, as opposed to the more research-heavy Doctor of Philosophy or Ph.D., and is typically aimed towards senior executives.

Some observers believe the DBA might start to achieve the sort of recognition the Master of Business Administration has won over recent years.

At the moment, no league table is available to show that DBA is the same or higher than MBA, particularly for those global top tier ranked in league table by poll of polls.