Chris Liberatore is a student in the Ph.D. program in Human Capital Management currently knee-deep into his dissertation, which focuses on how one’s degree of entrepreneurship affects their stress management, potential for burnout and the need for breaks from work demands. He’s a prime example of the goal of the Ph.D. dissertation, which is for students to walk away from the experience ready to immediately apply that high-level knowledge to the workplace. Liberatore is an entrepreneur who has owned and operated two restaurants over the past 12 years. He and his partner have seen a steady increase in burnout among franchisees during that time.
“I know the knowledge gained during my program could revolutionize my company. The ability to understand the effects of an entrepreneurial mindset on how franchisees engage stress management will provide an actionable path for the organization to develop interventions for decreasing burnout,” said Liberatore, who also spent seven years managing restaurants and worked for a franchisor’s corporate office as a trainer. “In addition to that, demonstrating scale validity and reliability for measuring entrepreneurial mindset will allow the brand to better select candidates and identify franchisees most at risk for burnout.”
Much like his management style, Liberatore doesn’t mince words when describing his experience in the Human Capital Management doctoral program. “Simply put, ‘wonderful,’” he said. “As a husband, father, youth sports coach and entrepreneur, adding the title of Ph.D. student felt daunting. But Bellevue University provided the perfect environment for me to pursue this educational goal while still serving in all my other roles. As a practitioner, today I feel equipped to view the marketplace from a whole new perspective.”