MBA Specializations: Rise of the MBA Entrepreneur

MBA programs that contain elements focused on entrepreneurship are in demand by MBA applicants, according to business school faculty, independent experts, and industry research.

Conversely, as a result of the significant economic events over the past few years, less important to MBA applicants are financial electives.

Séan Rickard, director of the full-time MBA program at Cranfield School of Management from 2006-2011, explains why he thinks that entrepreneurship on MBA programs has become more popular and commonplace.

“Governments have come to the view – rightly or wrongly – that their influence on their economies is greatly weakened in a globalizing world and now put great emphasis on business start ups and entrepreneurship to generate jobs and growth. Not surprising therefore that entrepreneurship has a higher profile in business schools,” Rickard says.

Carrington Crisp’s Tomorrow’s MBA survey has found that, while traditionally popular MBA specializations in leadership, strategic management and managing people or organizations top the MBA applicants’ most wanted list, entrepreneurship has climbed in recent years. This year, 30% of the 476 respondents noted it as one of their five most important MBA program content areas.

The QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey 2011, which was released earlier this year, and surveys almost ten times the amount of MBA applicants, concurs with the findings, with 34% of the survey’s 4,527 respondents noting entrepreneurship as important to them on an MBA program.

“I think there has been a shift in the way business schools see their role in society,” says Dan LeClair, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business' (AACSB) senior vice president and chief knowledge officer. “Different people will argue different things about this, but business schools for a time seemed to be content at being good at providing management education… but increasingly they seem to be thinking that their role in society is to make the world a better place.

“I think that change in mindset is already being reflected in, not only the students and the faculty but also the school and the way it positions itself worldwide. My view is that because of this we increasingly see graduates interested in social entrepreneurship.”

MBA finance still popular, just not as much

It is also evident from the QS survey that finance elements are gradually becoming less important to MBA applicants, with 4% less respondents to the survey noting the MBA specialization as important to them.

However, with 38% of respondents still naming it as important to their future MBA degree, even with a drop in popularity it is still important, standing fourth in the list of most popular MBA specializations behind general management (which 52% of respondents value), strategy (50%), and international management (47%).

Expressing his hopes that applicants are beginning to agree with his belief that specializing on an MBA is an oxymoron, Rickard admits “I suspect it has more to do with the fact that after the financial crash [at the end of the last decade] the finance sector was offering fewer career opportunities to MBA students and this is likely to be the case for some time as banks and other institutions come under greater regulatory control.”

Nigel Bannister, chief global officer at Manchester Business School summarizes that as a result of reportedly fewer jobs available in finance industries, MBA applicants have chosen to pursue careers involving entrepreneurship as a more realistic option.

“There have been fewer opportunities for MBA graduates to move into have the financial services sector,” he says. “This has meant that students have looked at other sectors and have chosen electives such as entrepreneurship or project management which may fit their career aspirations better than maybe corporate finance.”

At the beginning of December, TopMBA.com will release the QS Global 200 Business School Report 2012. The seminal report, which rates business schools according to what MBA employers think of the employability of their graduates, is made up of ratings according to region and ten separate specializations.