Being entrepreneurial and being innovative are two of the most cherished human qualities. These are the attributes of some of the most successful people in the world, no matter what profession they pursue, what geography they operate in and what part of human history they come from.

Entrepreneurship

Being entrepreneurial means being inquisitive, able to take the risk that is intertwined with highly rewarding pursuits and able to create systems, processes and organisations that excel. This includes the creation of new and successful businesses.

However, entrepreneurship is not about business creation alone. It is about building any organisation that generates and delivers enduring value and touches and transforms the lives of many more, beyond the entrepreneur.

Innovation

Being innovative involves employing a novel approach in how we think, what we think about, what we do and how we do it. The novelty of thought and action in innovation is not just in being different. It is in being better than anything that was thought and done before.

It is obvious that innovation involves entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship needs innovation. However, each of these two qualities needs its own distinct learning and sharpening process.

Building competencies through formal education

Some people are born with both these qualities, many develop and hone these through self-learning and practice. However, over the last two decades, a very large number of people around the world have built these competencies through formal education.

MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship at the University of Portsmouth is one such course that has been facilitating this.

Research in recent years (please see below the selected sources) has shown that people with formal education have better outcomes as entrepreneurs than people who are not educated.

People with business education have better outcomes as entrepreneurs than people who have other formal education and people with entrepreneurship education have better outcomes than people with business education.

The value of entrepreneurship education

No wonder entrepreneurship education is the fastest growing branch of business education in the world. More and more people are realising the value of a university course in entrepreneurship that prepares and propels them to the highly rewarding journey of self-discovery through innovative self-employment.

In contrast the MBA, the former Queen of Business Education is losing its shine. As John Byrne writing for Forbes in August 2019 says “…for the second consecutive year, even the highest-ranked business schools in the U.S. are beginning to report significant declines in M.B.A. applications and the worse is yet to come…”. He attributes it to, among other things, the value that the applicants see in specialised master's programmes.

I am sure you will see the immense value that the University of Portsmouth specialised master's programme in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship offers and I welcome you to be a part of this exciting and challenging journey.

Dr Vijay Vyas, Course Leader

Sources:

Byrne, J (2019) It’s Official: The M.B.A. Degree Is in Crisis, Forbes, August, https://www.forbes.com/sites/poetsandquants/2019/08/20/its-official-the-mba-degree-is-in-crisis/?sh=16c695d252df

Daneshjoovash, S. K., & Hosseini, M. H. (2019). Evaluating impact of entrepreneurship education programs. Education+ Training. 61 (7/8), 781-796

Gerba, D. T. (2012). Impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intentions of business and engineering students in Ethiopia. African Journal of Economic and Management Studies, 3(2), 258–277.

Matlay, H. (2008). The impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial outcomes. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 15(2), 382–396.

McMullan, W. E., & Gillin, L. M. (1998). Developing technological start-up entrepreneurs: a case study of a graduate entrepreneurship programme at Swinburne University. Technovation, 18(4), 275-286