The growth in the use of article-based theses, when compared to the traditional monograph-style thesis raises the question why students, supervisors and academic institutions are pursuing this particular route. This study explores the views of experienced supervisors involved in doctoral studies. The study aims to explore the advantages, disadvantages, caveats and various routes that doctoral students can take in completing their thesis. The study was exploratory in nature, employing a qualitative research design and made use of semi-structured interviews with nine doctoral supervisors from Canada. Data was collected from experienced doctoral supervisors from Canada, selected by means of a snowball sampling approach. Data was analysed by means of thematic content analysis. Findings show that supervisors preferred the sandwich-based thesis approach, as it allowed for more rapid time to completion. In addition, the main benefits for both institution and student included having a larger volume of published research output at the end of the doctoral supervision process, as well as more rapid career advancement owing to development of both research and soft skills. The finds hold value for universities who are considering an article-based thesis as an alternative to the traditional monograph style, as well as universities who have not used this option extensively. Findings also provide an impetus for supervisors and faculties in management education to adopt the article-based thesis approach more widely and rapidly owing to the multitude of benefits it holds. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BUSINESS ECOSYSTEM & STRATEGY 7(1) (2025), 222-228 * Corresponding author. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-9133-2590 © 2024 by the authors. Hosting by Bussecon International Academy. Peer review under responsibility of Bussecon International Academy. http://dx.doi.org/10.36096/ijbes.v7i1.672 Article-based thesis or thesis by monograph? Supervisors’ views on the route to completion of doctoral studies Chris Schachtebeck (a)* (a) Department of Business Management & DHET-NRF SARChI Entrepreneurship Education, University of Johannesburg, South Africa A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 12 November 2024 Received in rev. The study was exploratory in nature, employing a qualitative research design and made use of semi - structured interviews with nine doctoral supervisors from Canada. Data was collected from experienced doctoral supervisors from Canada, selected by means of a snowball sampling approach. Data was analysed by means of thematic content analysis. Findings show t hat supervisors preferred the sandwich-based thesis approach, as it allowed for more rapid time to completion. These change s include greater frequency of publishing articles, often termed the ‘publish or perish’ phenomenon, growth in mass higher education, as well as growth in the number of journals in every field (Gabriel, 2019). These changes have had a profound impact on stude nts completing a PhD, as well as on management education in general. There are generally two commonly accepted methods for writing a doctoral thesis, the first being the more traditional thesis by monograph, with the second taking the form of an article-based thesis, which is gaining popularity in universities across the world, regardless of discipline. As more higher education institutions include different options in the thesis writing process, the question also arises what the benefits of each approach are and whether the vari ous approaches are beneficial to the student, supervisor and/or institution. Ideally, these goals should be aligned as both the student supervis or and institutions should reap positive benefits from a specific approach to completion of doctoral studies. The study therefore investigates these concerns and makes suggestions for theory, practice as well as other fields of study, notably in management education. This is in direct contrast to the traditional monograph style thesis, where doctoral students need to invest substantially more time, in addition to the time spent on the doctoral thesis, to produce a manuscript that will pass academic muster through peer review. Jowsey, Corter and Thompson (2020) summarize the main benefits of a sandwich -style thesis as students (and supervisor) being able to gene rate a greater number of publication, having the opportunity to develop as an author, a much more rapid time to completion, as well as opportunity for parts of the thesis to be peer reviewed while it is still being written. The importance of selecting the correct examiner for such a thesis therefore cannot be underestimated, as the examiner would need to be sensitized to the specific approach, as well as had prior experience in article-based thesis, as the repetitions within the text could be perceived as a lack of writing ability. Conclusion Findings for the study indicated that all doctoral supervisors preferred the article-based thesis as it provided several benefits for both supervisors, students and institutions. Primary advantages included a more rapid time to completion, greater number of peer-reviewed publications as well as improved skills in academic writing. This implies that the journey a doctoral student would have experienced would have been better captured in a longitudinal study. Furthermore, the focus of the study was on doctoral supervision, thereby not capturing the views of Master’s supervisors who might also supervise by means of the article method. Future research can include Master’s supervisors in the sample, as the article- based method is becoming more prominent at the Master’s-level. Future research could also investigate the productivity of the various approaches, completion success rate, as well as time to completion. Academic writing in scientific journals versus doctoral theses. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 17(2), 78- 94. https://doi.org/10.18261/njdl.17.2.1 Kubota, F. I., Cauchick -Miguel, P. A.,