Entrepreneurs are increasingly turning to an MBA to help their chances of business success with more than 1-in-4 prospective students indicating that they plan to start their own businesses, either before, during, or after earning their degree.
The survey — of nearly 12,000 registrants to GMAC’s mba.com website and conducted throughout 2014 — showed 28% of respondents worldwide in 2014 expressed entrepreneurial ambitions, compared with 19% five years ago.
Respondents in Africa (45 percent), Latin America (44 percent) and Central and South Asia including India (43 percent) were the most likely to have entrepreneurial ambitions.
Only one in 10 prospective students who are classified as aspiring entrepreneurs are currently self-employed. More than half (53%) are working for an employer and 32 percent are not currently working. This group’s top hesitation about school is how they will pay for their education.
Aspiring entrepreneurs tend to be male and reside in the Middle East and Africa, Central and South Asia, and Latin America. Besides seeking entrepreneurial opportunities, these candidates are motivated to pursue graduate management education in hopes of helping to solve some of the world’s problems and increasing their impact on their communities.
“Given such goals, these candidates see a graduate management education as a means to help them influence people and institutions and learn how to control situations more effectively,” the report said. “Aspiring entrepreneurs are considering business school as a way to develop their leadership and management skills and expand their opportunities for networking.”
Other major group’s of respondents to the survey were categorised as career enhancers and career switchers.
Career enhancers, who comprise 34 percent of all survey respondents, seek a graduate management education to develop their careers, either with their current or a new employer.
Career switchers, who represent 38 percent of all respondents, are individuals who plan to use their management education in order to seek new opportunities in industries or job functions in which they were not previously employed.
To download the report, visit gmac.com/prospectivestudents.
