Performance in neo-liberal doctorates : the making of academics

Purpose: This study aims to better understand how academics-in-the-making construe doctoral performance and the impacts of this construal on their positioning in relation to doctoral performance expectations. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on 25 semi-structured interviews with PhD students from Canadian, Dutch, Scottish and Australian business schools. Findings: Based on Decoteau’s (2016) concept of reflexive habitus, this study highlights how doctoral students’ construal is influenced by their previous experiences and by expectations from other adjacent fields in which they simultaneously gravitate. This leads them to adopt a position oscillating between resistance and compliance in relation to their understanding of doctoral performance expectations promoted in the academic field. Research limitations/implications: The concept of reflexivity, as understood by Decoteau (2016), is found to be pivotal when an individual integrates into a new field. Practical implications: This study encourages business schools to review expectations regarding doctoral performance. These expectations should be clear, but they should also leave room for PhD students to preserve their academic aspirations. Originality/value: It is beneficial to empirically clarify the influence of performance expectations in academia on the reflexivity of PhD students, as the majority of studies exploring this topic mainly leverage auto-ethnographic data.