Comparing Entrepreneurial Spirit in job descriptions seeking business undergraduates and graduates

Abstract

Employers hiring candidates with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) indicate that the Entrepreneurial Spirit (ES) concepts of teamwork, creativity, innovation and adaptability are important. This replication study examined the ES concepts most often appearing in job descriptions seeking to hire MBA candidates. These concepts were used to compare those ES concepts employers most often seek when hiring undergraduate business degree candidates. The literature review provides a background on the development of MBA programs, ES concepts and entrepreneurship education, how innovation is developed, and the perceived gap regarding the development of ES concepts between employers and MBA graduates. The study follows a quantitative content analysis methodology to compare two external datasets: undergraduate job descriptions and MBA job descriptions. The results show that the most desired ES concepts sought by companies were implementation, collaboration, and innovation. There was not a significant difference in ES concepts by job title category in job descriptions between undergraduate business degrees and job descriptions requiring an MBA. There was a significant difference in the concept of innovation. The findings suggest that the ES concept of innovation is more highly desired by companies seeking people with MBA degrees than by those seeking undergraduate business degree holders.

Keywords

Entrepreneurial Spirit Master of Business Administration entrepreneurship education innovation implementation collaboration

Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs have long focused on preparing graduates with the functional and managerial aspects of leadership. Driven by the needs of employers, MBA programs have purposefully revised curricula to include developing Entrepreneurial Spirit (ES) concepts such as collaboration, creativity, adaptability, and risk-taking, among others. Datar et al. (2011) described the change in MBA programs as rebalancing MBA education to include skills, attitudes, and beliefs. Developing ES involves more than developing soft skills. Smith (2013: para 1) defined it as “a mindset … to an approach that actively seeks out change, rather than waiting to adapt to change. It’s a mindset that embraces critical questioning, innovation, service and continuous improvement”. More recently, Wickam et al. (2020: 3) conducted a study in which they defined ES as a “mindset held by individuals within organizations aspiring to create and implement new and improved products, processes and services through collaboration”. Their findings indicated that this definition was more aligned with the characteristics employers seek in MBA graduates.

Many industries are using ES to run and promote their organizations. For example, the Southwest Initiative Foundation helps support business development in 18 rural counties in Minnesota. It has been stated (Turner-Lovsness and Grasmon, 2011: 14) that “even during economic downturns, an entrepreneurial spirit has remained a strong characteristic of the region’s people.” The agriculture (Scaife, 2017), construction (Barista, 2011), beverage (Kaplan, 2013), and insurance industries (Stelmakowich, 2015) have all written about ES in their trade magazines. Some companies have tried to promote it internally, such as the Hyatt Hotels Corporation, which helped employees set up their own internal businesses by providing start-up capital (Denton, 1993).

MBA programs have long been driven by managerial education, which is critical to the development of effective leadership but can miss the mark on developing ES concepts. Binks et al. (2006) identified the need for business schools to incorporate entrepreneurship education into MBA programs. Business schools that adopt entrepreneurship education expand the curriculum to include skills and aptitudes in creativity, independent thinking, opportunity recognition and exploitation, etc. Entrepreneurship education has included the development of entrepreneurial competencies such as innovativeness, opportunity skills, adaptability, and perseverance (Lackéus, 2015). Equally important, Nieuwenhuizen et al. (2016: 534) identified that at the postgraduate level “there seems to be a greater degree of specialization by means of Entrepreneurship-focused qualifications”, cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset that is attractive to today’s employers. Although there is a strong presence of entrepreneurship education in the USA, employers have indicated a gap regarding the development and perceived importance of these skills between employers and MBA graduates (Ahmad and Pesch, 2017; Rao et al., 2014).

Other evidence exists about the disconnect between employers and MBA graduates. According to the Financial Times Skills Gap Survey (2018), employers want MBA graduates to possess the ability to work in a team and with a wide variety of people, solve complex problems, network with people, and prioritize. Ahmad and Pesch (2017), in their study of work skills and readiness, discovered that MBA graduate students rated skills such as developing creative solutions, thinking analytically, and flexibility/adaptability lower in importance than employers. Additionally, Rao et al. (2014) reported leadership, creativity, innovation, critical thinking, communication, and understanding the purpose of business as important to employers but not developed in MBA programs.

Purpose and research questions

MBA programs and employers alike agree that ES concepts are crucial competencies for employees. In an effort to better align MBA curricula with the needs of employers, the purpose of this study was to identify the ES concepts employers most often seek when hiring MBA graduates. A comparison of the most frequently identified ES concepts found in job descriptions requiring an undergraduate business degree with those desired by employers hiring MBA graduates provided further evidence of how undergraduate and graduate programs align with the needs of employers. The study investigated two research questions:

1. RQ1: What Entrepreneurial Spirit concepts do companies using job descriptions posted on Indeed to seek MBA graduates identify?

2. RQ2: How do Entrepreneurial Spirit concepts desired by companies seeking MBA graduates compare to concepts desired by companies seeking business undergraduates?

The study explores the ES concepts associated with employers seeking MBA degree holding candidates and can be used to inform business schools, employers, faculty, and administration to help narrow the gap between employer needs and MBA graduate qualifications. The findings are useful to educational institutions looking to align MBA programs to the most desired entrepreneurial skills sought by employers. In addition, the findings contribute to the literature by better aligning the needs of employers, the skills development of students in MBA programs, and MBA curricula. The study may also be useful in continuing the dialog between higher education institutions and employers on the skills needed by MBA graduates. These conversations can help align employer needs with program outcomes and move from what Rhew et al. (2019: 363) described as “program–employer misalignment” to a “more actionable route for identifying and remedying gaps between employer needs and graduates’ employability”.

The literature review below summarizes ES concepts, expanding on innovation as a key component of strategies used in business and industry. It also details instructional approaches in MBA programs that focus on developing effective managers and the role entrepreneurial education plays in developing innovation.

The study followed a non-experimental, descriptive design. Two datasets were analyzed using a quantitative content analysis methodology as outlined in the Research Design and Methodology section. The presentation of results indicates that implementation and collaboration are ES concepts desired by employers hiring both graduate and undergraduate degree holding candidates. However, it is the concept of innovation that is more highly desired by employers hiring MBA candidates. The Findings section expands on the ES concepts of implementation, collaboration, and innovation and examines the limitations of the study. Finally, the concluding section details the needs of employers and sets out the implications for employers, business schools, faculty, and administrations.

Literature review

The MBA is perhaps one of the most prominent degrees in the world. Originating at the Harvard Business School, the first MBA program was established in 1908 (Kaplan, 2014). Forty years later, in 1948, the University of Western Ontario in Canada offered the first MBA program outside the USA. The University of Pretoria in South Africa began its MBA program in 1951, followed by the University of Karachi in Pakistan, which became the first Asian university to offer an MBA in 1955 (MBA Central, 2021). Finally, in 1957 INSEAD became the first European business school to offer an MBA program. Worldwide there are currently more than 2500 MBA programs (Henricks, 2020), with the USA having more than any other global region and representing 109 out of 252 of the best ranking programs (QS Global MBA Rankings, 2019).

The long history of developing MBA programs supports the value-added attributes MBA graduates offer to employers. According to a report by the Graduate Management Admission Council (2019a: 6), “MBA hiring projections remain strong relative to historic trends, but for the second consecutive year a smaller proportion of companies overall report plans to hire MBA talent compared with the previous year.” However, the literature is sparse on just how relevant US MBA programs are to employers. Fisher (2019: 12) identified that employers want new MBA hires to have both real-world experience and soft business competencies, but concluded that new MBA hires have neither. Interestingly, he determined that employers’ assessments of MBA employees were that they did not meet the critical thinking or problem-solving competencies, but did meet the competency of ES, contradicting the contention that critical thinking and problem-solving skill requirements are not being met as these are part of ES.

The definition of ES often includes the traits used to describe successful entrepreneurs. Ionescu and Bolcas (2017: 101) credited entrepreneurs as a main contributor to the economic system, while ES is described as a model that “generate(s) economic growth and prosperity”. They further defined ES as consisting of contextual (i.e., recognizing an opportunity and then capitalizing on it), psycho-sociological (i.e., risk-taking), and economic variables (i.e., perseverance, creativity, and vision), but more importantly they identified specific forces that determine ES. These forces include passion, optimism, adaptability, leadership, and ambition—again, many of the same traits as those associated with an entrepreneur. A more recent definition of ES provided by Bartolucci Rubino (2019), who described it as a mindset in which one takes ownership of responsibilities. Wickam et al. (2020) argue that ES is not only a mindset, but that this mindset must be held by individuals in a business who contribute by creating, implementing, and improving business initiatives.

MBA programs are designed to prepare students for a managerial role. Rubin and Dierdorf (2011) identified that the core competencies of the MBA curriculum include managing decision making, human capital, strategy and innovation, task environment, administration and control, and logistics and technology, and of these managing decision making, managing strategy and innovation, and managing human capital are underrepresented in the core curriculum. In light of the knowledge-based society, the role of the university needs to establish a new mission to meet the needs of employers. There is some evidence of this shift; for example, Davey et al. (2016: 173) note that universities can contribute to entrepreneurship through entrepreneurship education, the development of entrepreneurial thinking and acting, supporting entrepreneurship activity and entrepreneurial leadership. More specifically, a new kind of university has emerged, known as an entrepreneurial university: “The entrepreneurial university facilitates the creation of value for society and economic wealth for society through new and innovation undertakings” (McGowan et al., 2008: 51). This shift is helping to bridge the gap between industry and higher education: as Etzkowitz et al. (2021) highlight, this idea can occur by having an entrepreneurial university move from a research university to one more focused on innovation.

Historically, MBA programs focused on preparing graduates by developing in them learning outcomes associated with management education. The literature explores several approaches used in MBA programs that develop entrepreneurial characteristics associated with effective managers. Entrepreneurial orientation and corporate entrepreneurship focus on strategic approaches, while intrapreneurship focuses on the skill development of managers in addition to a culture that supports entrepreneurship ventures. Intrapreneurship leaders have the ability to move their focus from the current day-to-day operations to demonstrate a deep understanding of their markets and a vision to turn that understanding into a source of growth for their business (Rivera, 2017). It is human capital within the organization that is driving the success of the venture (Parker, 2011). Yet, intrapreneurship does not solely rely on the skill characteristics of managers. According to Reibenspiess et al. (2020) intrapreneurship needs management to actively nurture an innovation culture that values diversity and experimentation across all departments and levels of the organization to build an intrapreneurship culture. These approaches shape university-level entrepreneurship education curricula and seek to develop an entrepreneurial intention that cultivates innovative talent.

A common viewpoint of entrepreneurship education is that it fosters innovation, utilizes market opportunities, and investigates viable business ventures (Elmuti et al., 2012). Entrepreneurship education is responsible for developing technical skills, business operational skills, and individual entrepreneurial skills, such as innovation and risk-taking (Henry et al., 2005). Elmuti et al. (2012) indicated that students can learn the skills needed to be successful entrepreneurs through entrepreneurship education. They also concluded that a “major consideration as we go forward should not be a matter of whether or not it (entrepreneurship education) can be taught, but how it should be taught” (Elmuti et al., 2012: 96). Over time, multiple models have been developed that address the teaching and learning of entrepreneurial competencies.

Rae (2005) identified the triadic model with three overarching themes of personal and social emergence, contextual learning, and the negotiated enterprise. The triadic model is a holistic approach in which entrepreneurial learning develops through interactions with both the environment and other entrepreneurs. Rae (2014) would then go on to research graduate entrepreneurship in relation to the post-2008 economy. Emerging from this research is a New Era of learning dynamics that relies on higher education institutions, students, and employers to develop entrepreneurship as a collective unit. Rae (2014: 89) described this model as characterized by networks of experienced and inexperienced practitioners, experts and advisors, all exchanging information that informs innovation and opportunity development. While Rae focused on interactions, Gedeon (2014) focused on identifying and applying best practice to MBA university entrepreneurship education.

The teaching model framework for entrepreneurship education developed by Fayolle and Gailly (2008) served as the foundation for Gedeon (2014) to formulate an Entrepreneurship Program Design Framework (EPDF). The teaching model framework has both a philosophical and a didactical level. The philosophical level defines the objectives and conception of education that guide the delivery of entrepreneurship education and defines the roles of the instructor and students. The didactical level includes target audience, content knowledge, objectives and goals, methods of teaching, and assessments (Fayolle, 2013). The EPDF integrates psycho-cognitive and social-cognitive theories, social theories and personalist and spiritual/ethical theories, resulting in a framework in which each element can be “analysed in order to identify best practice guidelines and apply them to the creation of the new MBA program” (Gedeon, 2014: 233).

Corporate entrepreneurship is yet another strategy that involves the “generation, development, and implementation of new means of doing the right things” (Morris et al., 2011: 13). Technology entrepreneurship, as defined by Bailetti (2012: 5), “is an investment in a project that assembles and deploys specialized individuals and heterogeneous assets to create and capture value for the firm” and which includes a collaborative effort and the production of a new product within an organization. Entrepreneurship strategies have the potential to influence the culture of a business or identify a process, but have they been effective?

Entrepreneurship education at the university level is complex because the content of the curriculum taught is inconsistent among faculty and is delivered using a variety of formats. Recently, Chaker and Jarraya (2021) have examined the “for,” “about,” and “through” approaches to teaching entrepreneurship. Their findings reveal that combining teaching about and through entrepreneurship is more effective than just teaching about innovation. While progress is being made at the university level to develop the skills associated with entrepreneurship, a further investigation of the MBA literature reveals a difference in perception between the essential skills of MBA graduates and the needs of employers.

The gap in perception of MBA graduates’ skill development has become a criticism of some MBA programs (Rubin and Dierdorff, 2011). Nilsson (2018) found that leading employers were questioning the value of an MBA qualification as a credential of the development of the hard and soft skills needed of graduates. Ahmad and Pesch (2017) revealed that employers value the following skills and competencies: flexibility, teamwork, honesty/integrity, strong work ethic, interpersonal skills, professionalism, developing creative solutions, and the ability to think analytically. Almog-Bareket (2011: 1601) raised awareness that MBA programs should focus on developing skills that would “identify problems related to the assimilation of change and successfully lead that change process”.

It is important to note that, according to CareerBuilder’s Annual Forecast (2018), 66% of employers reported they were willing to hire and train employees who did not have all the required skills for the position to be filled, but who had the potential to excel. To this end, a report by the Graduate Management Admission Council (2019b) highlighted the two most important skills identified by employers as the ability to problem solve and the ability to work with others. This shift to an entrepreneurial mindset is characterized by Sharma (2017: para. 4) as a “critical, analytical, and fundamentally disruptive perspective” and is encompassed in the definition of the ES mindset (Wickam et al., 2020).

There is no doubt that entrepreneurship education is commonplace in higher education institutions. The unique factor associated with entrepreneurship education in its simplest terms is the development of ideas associated with exploiting business opportunities and then putting into action those ideas (Vesper and McMullan, 1988). Entrepreneurship education is not without its controversies: among the more prominent of these are the debate concerning whether or not entrepreneurial skills can be taught; the lack of a widely accepted definition of entrepreneurship education; and how the content of entrepreneurship education, once defined, should be taught. Yet, entrepreneurship education continues to evolve and, within entrepreneurship education, innovation is one specific area that attracts the attention of employers.

Innovation has been identified as a component of ES (Aghajani and Abbasgholipour, 2012) and is defined by Garcia-Granero et al. (2015: 1095) as “the successful implementation of new ideas”. Tajeddini et al. (2006: 533) found a lack of a cohesive definition of innovativeness, even though the term was used in both business and in academia. They proposed this definition: “the willingness and ability to adopt, imitate, or implement new technologies, processes, and ideas and commercialize them in order to offer new, unique products and services before most competitors”.

To provide context for the relationship between ES and innovation, it is important to understand how entrepreneurship is developing in organizations. Strategies and approaches occurring in organizations to develop an entrepreneurial environment include entrepreneurial orientation, corporate entrepreneurship, technology entrepreneurship, and social entrepreneurship, among others. For each of these terms, there have been debatable and complicated definitions. For example, entrepreneurial orientation is considered to be a strategic approach that is an important factor in facilitating information relating to innovation and peak business performance (McGrath, 2001). Entrepreneurial orientation details how a new business venture progresses through the entrepreneurial process, including innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness, among other factors (Shan et al., 2016). In a recent study, Lahindah et al. (2020: 4033) argued that “product innovation and process innovation could support company performance while innovation could emerge through an entrepreneurial mindset, culture, leadership, and through creativity”. Regardless, employers are utilizing strategies and approaches to inspire innovative practices among their employees and new hires.

Universities work to continuously improve employability for their graduates by defining key competences, which include entrepreneurial skills in higher education curricula (Sewell and Dacre Pool, 2010). Innovation has emerged as a key skill important to employers and can also be described as creative problem solving, leadership, strategic thinking, and effective communication (Levy and Cannon, 2016). Research supports the argument that entrepreneurial education can develop the skill of innovation. Zhou et al. (2020) suggested that creative individuals who are able to establish an entrepreneurial identity have the potential to contribute to work-related innovations; Fayolle and Gailly (2008) argued that the approach to teaching entrepreneurship education might impact attitudes of creativity and innovation, among others; Wei et al. (2019) found a positive relationship between perceptions of entrepreneurship education and innovation; Galloway and Brown (2002) concluded that entrepreneurship education might change a student’s attitudes toward entrepreneurship; and Guerrero et al. (2016) identified the role of the entrepreneurial university as a driver of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Theoretical framework

This is a replication study grounded in the theoretical framework of Human Capital Theory and the jack-of-all-trades theory of entrepreneurship. MBA graduates have been credited with developing economic growth. Schultz (1961) identified human capital as assisting individuals in acquiring skills and knowledge and as an important factor in economic growth. A more recent longitudinal and comparative study of nascent (developing) entrepreneurs living and working in Sweden, compared with a control group of non-nascent entrepreneurs, was performed. Members of the sample were considered nascent if they had initiated at least one start-up business. Respondents were asked to indicate their highest level of education, and findings showed that the number of years of schooling had a significant and positive effect on the likelihood of being a nascent entrepreneur. This contrasted with years of management experience, which was not found to increase that likelihood. Explicit knowledge due to schooling had helped the entrepreneurs start a business (Davidsson and Honig, 2003).

Human Capital Theory has played a significant role in education policy by promoting the ideology that education is an investment which benefits individuals, organizations, and economic growth (Gillies, 2015). Human Capital Theory is also grounded in the idea that greater productivity is achieved by those completing higher education degrees. According to Van Der Merwe (2010), there is an underlying belief that employers consider formal education as contributing to employee productivity. In this context, and specifically with reference to innovation, a key skill sought by employers, Diebolt and Hippe (2019: 588) stated that “human capital appears to be the most important factor which is related to today’s innovation and economic development”.

Unger et al. (2011) conducted a meta-analysis of 70 theoretical articles to estimate the effects of human capital on success; the human capital variables used in the analysis were education, experience, knowledge, and skills. The findings showed that there was significance between human capital and success, especially for knowledge and skills. The researchers suggested that entrepreneurs should focus on acquiring more knowledge and skills because these variables increase success more than past experiences.

Lazear (2004) introduced the jack-of-all-trades theory of entrepreneurship, emphasizing that entrepreneurs should develop a diversified set of skills in the core areas of business, including accounting, human resources, management, and marketing, instead of specializing in one area. The jack-of-all-trades theory has been tested with workers in countries including Germany, Sweden, and Italy. Soon after Lazear proposed and tested his theory in the USA, Wagner (2006) tested it with a German dataset of 12,000 paid employees and self-employed entrepreneurs. The results showed that the number of different types of work experience and the number of professional degrees had a positive influence on the probability of being a beginning entrepreneur.

The jack-of-all-trades theory has also been tested on students (not just on employees). Backes-Gellner and Moog (2013) studied 2007 German undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students, some with and some without work experience, to test the theory. The findings supported the theory in that the broader the skill set of a respondent, the higher the likelihood of becoming an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship requires a balanced set of skills.

Research design and methodology

The present study used a non-experimental, descriptive design. The quantitative content analysis methodology used two external datasets: undergraduate job descriptions from a previous study and a dataset of MBA job descriptions. Content analysis identifies patterns in various forms of communications by examining and recording their occurrence in the data. Stemler (2000) notes that a major benefit of using content analysis is that each rater follows a systematic, replicable technique. In addition, inferential statistics were used to compare differences between two independent samples.

Reliability and validity

In content analysis, Krippendorff (2004) noted that reproducibility is arguably the most important interpretation of reliability. This replication study adhered to reliability measures not only in the procedures of collecting data, but also by following the same processes to analyze data. Each researcher examined and recorded the ES concepts and synonyms in the job descriptions. Synonyms were included in the analysis process because, according to Weber (1990), synonyms may be used for stylistic reasons and therefore their omission could lead to underestimation of the importance of a concept.

Validity in content analysis is highly connected to reliability. Folger et al. (1984) identified that the reliability of coding systems is the minimum requirement for validity. For this study, a coding scheme was developed that guided the analysis of the content in determining ES concepts as well as a predetermined list of synonyms. This process produced a standard for correct decision making when determining whether an ES concept or synonym was present in the job description. According to Potter and Levine-Donnerstein (2009: 266), if the coding scheme is accurate in guiding the coders it is regarded as a valid scheme, and if the codes match the predetermined standard for correct decision-making, it is regarded as producing valid data.

Data collection and analysis

This replication study followed the same data collection and analysis as the previous study, using the same top five occupations—Computer and Information Systems Managers, Financial Analysts, Financial Managers, Logistics Managers, and Marketing Managers—and analyzing job descriptions with the ES concepts and their synonyms. The same process was followed as in the original study to gather job descriptions from the Management of Companies and Enterprises Industry in O*Net. The Management of Companies and Enterprises Industry was used for both studies because it was most closely related to occupations that MBA and undergraduate business students would seek. The top five occupational titles were identified using Projected Job Openings (2018–2019). A cross-check was conducted to ensure that the Management of Companies and Enterprises Industry did, in fact, match up with the correct Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) Code. In the Education Crosswalk in O*Net, the search was conducted using CIP Code 52 (Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services) and the titles matched the CIP Code 52 occupational titles.

Search results were retrieved on 22 November 2019. Twenty-five job descriptions, five in each Job Title Category, were retrieved from Indeed. The five job descriptions for each Job Title Category were based on the five most recent full-time job postings that also matched the job title, requiring a Master’s Degree in Business Administration, in the USA. A master codebook was generated and all three researchers examined and recorded the concepts and synonyms. As an example of how these data were collected, all three researchers viewed a job description titled “Senior Product Marketing Manager.” We used the list of ES concepts developed through the literature review and in the Wickam et al. (2020) study and methodically searched through the entire job description, line by line. Once a concept was found, it was discussed among all three researchers and, if there was agreement, it was tallied on an Excel spreadsheet. This same data collection process was used on all 25 job descriptions. When the researchers disagreed on the coding, which was rare, discrepancies were resolved by a majority-rules approach; that is, two of the three researchers had to agree on whether a concept should be coded and tallied.

There were two independent sample groups: an undergraduate group and an MBA group, and both descriptive and frequency statistics were performed on the variables in each. The following descriptive statistics were analyzed using SPSS v. 20: frequency distributions and means. Inferential statistics were performed to conduct the comparison. A t-test was performed for independent samples, calculated at the p < 0.05 alpha level of significance, in order to measure whether the means of each of the variables in the two groups were statistically different from each other.

Results

The first research question examined what ES concepts were identified by companies seeking MBA graduates. The results showed that the top three concepts sought were implementation (25%), collaboration (18%), and innovation (16%). The word “implementation” and its synonyms of “execute” and “execution” were the most used ES concepts in job descriptions. Overall, implementation was used 46 (25%) times, and Computer and Information Systems Managers used it 16 (34%) times. The Marketing Manager Job title used implementation 10 (21%) times and Logistics Manager used it 9 (20%) times.

Analysis of Job Title Category results

Additional analysis was conducted to examine the number of ES concepts each category contained. The Marketing Manager Job title category (26%) and the Logistics Manager Job title category (24%) had the most concepts and the top three were innovation, implementation, and collaboration. An independent-samples t-test compared ES concepts by job title category in job descriptions requiring undergraduate business degrees and job descriptions requiring MBA degrees. There was not a significant difference in ES concepts by job title category in job descriptions requiring an undergraduate business degree (M = 25.4, SD = 16.7) and job descriptions requiring MBA degrees (M = 37.2, SD = 14; t (8) = −1.213, p = 0.260). These results suggest that ES concepts by job title category are not significantly different between employers requiring MBA degrees and employers requiring undergraduate business degrees.

A notable difference is in the area of adaptability. For the Computer and Information Systems Manager job title category, adaptability appeared 10 (24%) times in the list of the top three concepts. This is different from Marketing Manager and Logistics Manager. Marketing Manager had adaptability appear only twice (4%) and adaptability appeared only seven (16%) times for Logistics Manager. ES concepts by job title are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

MBA ES concepts by job title.

One employer, Amazon, rose above the others in heavily using Indeed to post job descriptions. Out of 186 ES concepts, there were 64 (34%) attributed to job descriptions by Amazon. The top three concepts Amazon sought in job descriptions were implementation, innovation, and creativity. Amazon was named the most innovative company in 2017 (Robischon, 2017) because of its ability to provide a work environment that encouraged innovation (Vickery, 2019: para. 1). Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, explained that the culture of his business was about “looking for innovative ways of thinking about problems and solutions” (Soper, 2016: para. 4). Lee (2016: para. 6) described how Amazon had emerged as an innovation leader because it had “figured out how to combine the entrepreneurial culture of a small company with the financial resources of a large one”. Allowing Amazon employees the ability to approach problem solving in an environment which embraces high judgment failure means that an employee can try out an idea and, if it does not work, try something else (Soper, 2016: para. 11).

Comparison of ES concepts

The second research question compared ES concepts desired by companies seeking MBA graduates to the ES concepts desired by companies seeking undergraduate business degree holders. There were 186 ES concepts in MBA job descriptions and 127 in undergraduate job descriptions. An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare ES concepts in job descriptions requiring undergraduate business degrees and job descriptions requiring MBA degrees. There was not a significant difference in the scores for job descriptions requiring undergraduate business degrees (M = 11.5, SD = 13.6) and job descriptions requiring MBA degrees (M = 16.9, SD = 15.4; t (20) = −0.866, p = 0.397). These results suggest that ES concepts in job descriptions are not significantly different from employers requiring MBA degrees than from employers requiring undergraduate business degrees. A comparison of the ES concepts totals desired by companies seeking MBA graduates with those desired by companies seeking undergraduate business students is summarized in Table 1.

Table 1.

Comparative summary of ES concepts.

Master of Business Administration ES concepts	Total	Undergraduate degree ES concepts	Total
Implementation	46	Implementation	40
Collaboration	34	Collaboration	30
Innovation	30	Creativity	23
Creativity	25	Self-motivated	12
Adaptability	21	Adaptability	10
Self-motivated	12	Innovation	4
Persistence	10	Optimism	4
Optimism	5	Identifies potential opportunities	3
Risk-taking	2	Seeks change	1
Seeks change	1	Persistence	0
Identifies potential opportunities	0	Risk-taking	0
Total	186	Total	127

Note: ES: Entrepreneurial Spirit.

The top ES concepts sought by employers hiring undergraduates and graduates included implementation and collaboration. For the MBA study, innovation was the third most frequently appearing concept, while for the undergraduate study the most frequent was creativity. An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare the innovation ES concept in job descriptions requiring undergraduate business degrees and those requiring MBA degrees. There was a significant difference in the scores for job descriptions requiring undergraduate business degrees (M = 0.16.5, SD = 0.47) and those requiring MBA degrees (M =1.2, SD = 1.35; t (48) = −3.626, p = 0.001). These results suggest that the ES concept of innovation is more highly sought after by employers requiring MBA degrees than by those requiring undergraduate business degrees. A summary of the ES concepts sought by employers hiring undergraduate degree holders is shown in Figure 2, and a summary of the concepts sought by employers hiring MBA graduates is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 2.

ES concepts by totals for undergraduate degree holders.

Figure 3.

ES concepts by totals for MBA graduates.

Garcia-Granero et al. (2015) explained that innovation involves the implementation of ideas and is represented in job descriptions in a variety of ways. For example, the Logistics Manager Job title category seeks a candidate that can demonstrate the ability to work in a fast-paced environment where continuous innovation is desired (Amazon, 2019). In the Marketing Manager Job title category, one particular job posting described the company as a community of innovators, risk-takers, and trailblazers seeking a candidate who is innovative and prefers working in unconventional ways or on tasks that require creativity (WayFair, 2019). Vila et al. (2014) summarized the complexity of the role innovation plays in the strategic plan of an organization and the importance of the purposeful recruitment of innovative human talent. Innovation can be a driving factor in the success of a business. According to a report by the (Society for Human Resource Management, 2019: 5), the top missing skills in job applicants are problem-solving, critical thinking, innovation and creativity.

Findings

There are three findings from this study. The first is that employers hiring undergraduate degree holders and MBAs both seek ES skills in implementation. Implementation is often called execution in the literature. Execution is a highly prized skill in business because without the ability to perform nothing can get done. Business executives complain that execution skills are lacking in employees. Reasons for this include a lack of prioritization from top management, a lack of commitment from middle management, a lack of direction, poor communication, and a failure to reward progress (Freedman, 2003). Those with an entrepreneurial mindset focus on adaptive execution, meaning that they are able to change direction as ideas and opportunities evolve (McGrath and MacMillan, 2000). Summarizing the needs of MBA curriculum, Bhaskar et al. (2020: 97) conclude that a “program that is constantly evaluating the job market and expectations, keeping up with innovation, and adapting to changing conditions, will continue to remain relevant. The focus should be on facilitating a model that provides the very best in academic rigor along with practitioner skills”. Binks et al. (2006) suggest that entrepreneurship education can bridge the gap by offering skills development in entrepreneurial skills and aptitude.

The second finding is that collaboration is an ES concept sought by employers hiring candidates with an undergraduate business or an MBA degree. Collaboration is closely related to teamwork because in both people work together to achieve a common goal. However, the two are not exactly the same as collaboration involves individuals sharing responsibilities of a project or task. In contrast, a team usually has a leader and formal or informal processes for working together and resolving disputes (Campbell, 2011). Supported by the literature review, Rao et al. (2014) identified that employers are seeking MBAs to develop the qualities of leader, team player, innovator, and corporate citizen. According to employers, the MBA curriculum should provide students with an ability to work with diverse teams through individual and team projects and to follow a “we” mindset. Also, Ahmad and Pesch (2017) conducted a study surveying undergraduate and MBA students to assess their understanding of skills that employers thought were most important for new graduates. Employers rated a total of 17 skills that college graduates should possess in order of importance. The top six skills were communication (1), honesty/integrity (2), strong work ethic (3), interpersonal skills (4), motivation/initiative (5), and teamwork (6). Regarding the skills employers felt college graduates needed to improve, teamwork was ranked 12 out of 17, but this ranking should not diminish the importance of developing collaboration and/or teamwork skills since collaboration is essential to business operations (Bedwell et al., 2014: Bhatnagar, 2020; Schaupp and Vitullo, 2019; Smith and Somers, 2016). Ultimately, the development of collaboration skills enhances the MBA entrepreneurial skills set such that employers who hire MBA graduates can maximize the rewards of their human capital.

The third finding is that the ES concept of innovation is an essential skill associated with employers seeking MBA graduates, but it is not an essential skill for employers seeking undergraduate degree holders. Interestingly, innovation has a close connection to creativity and implementation. The process of innovation includes a critical first stage of creativity, a second stage of development of that creative idea, and a final third stage of implementation (Choi and Van De Ven, 2013). Creativity, in this context, is defined by Gong et al. (2013: 444) as the “generation of novel and useful ideas” and implementation is the process in which creative ideas are “turned into tangible products and practices and incorporated into operations”. While creativity appeared in 13% of the MBA job descriptions and 18% of the undergraduate job descriptions, the importance to employers may be underrepresented due to the role creativity plays in the innovation process.

The demand of employers seeking MBA graduates, specifically including the ES concept of innovation, is perhaps one of the driving forces behind innovation education. Sullivan (2011: 497) posits that business schools inherently create the talent that is essential for innovation and that innovation is “enabled by the management and leadership talent that are the products of business schools around the world”. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (2010: 3) credits innovation as a major element of business success and a key strategy for businesses to thrive in an economic downturn and, equally important, as crucial for future sustained growth. According to Varela et al. (2013: 436), MBA programs are the “most conspicuous and systematic effort to equip individuals with the skills needed to manage people and organizations”. Due to this powerful economic force that comes with innovation, it is not surprising that business schools have made education in innovation a top academic priority (Kars-Unluoglu, 2016).

Yet, a gap does exist in developing the skill of innovation in MBA programs. Kars-Unluoglu (2016) conducted a study investigating the gap in understanding of the current status of innovation education by analyzing MBA innovation course syllabi from the 20 top-ranked business schools. The findings indicated a lack of consensus on what topics should be taught in innovation curriculum. It is evident that innovation education has a presence in MBA program curricula, but there is more work to be done by business schools to develop the innovation skills of today’s MBA degree holders.

Generalized MBA degrees have concentrations in all core areas of business and have long been credited as the flagship qualification of graduate business schools. The generalized MBA curriculum develops ES concepts, many of which are the same characteristics identified as needed for successful entrepreneurship. Faris (2019) noted that successful entrepreneurs have traits such as creativity, the ability to identify opportunities, optimism, persistence, and risk-taking. Higher education institutions play a vital role in developing and fostering ES. Gieure et al. (2020: 546) describe how ES can be ignited “when students are surrounded by the right environmental factors such as knowledge, training, mentoring, advice, and work experience”.

Lazear’s (2005) jack-of-all-trades theory seeks to explain the difference between generalists and specialists, identifying that entrepreneurs tend to be generalists and those who work for others tend to be specialists. A segment of the Italian working population, both self-employed workers and salaried employees, was studied to investigate whether expertise across a wide variety of fields increased an individual’s chances of becoming an entrepreneur. The results showed that the more roles a person had, the more likely they were to be an entrepreneur. Each additional role taken on by a worker increased their probability of becoming an entrepreneur by about 15% (Silva, 2007). This helps to confirm Lazear’s (2005) study, which found that individuals were more likely to become entrepreneurs if they had had more previous jobs/roles.

The connection to Human Capital Theory is that entrepreneurs seek employees (human capital) who have a specialized skill set. As Astebro and Thompson (2011: 637) describe, entrepreneurs make “purposive investment in human capital that is more diverse than individuals intending to become specialists”. The findings of this study indicate that, while employers are seeking ES concepts developed in MBA programs, the concepts of implementation, collaboration, and innovation are the most sought-after. This supports the jack-of-all-trades theory that employers are actually seeking specialists, such as a specialist in innovation, who have acquired these ES concepts rather than an employee with an MBA generalist degree.

Limitations and recommendations for future research

There are limitations in this study that present opportunities for future research. The sample was limited to job descriptions associated with the job categories of Computer and Information Systems Managers, Financial Analysts, Financial Managers, Logistics Managers, and Marketing Managers. As such, the results are confined to these specific job categories and cannot be generalized to other occupational fields.

ES concepts associated with the desired entrepreneurial skills required of MBA graduates were examined. One company, Amazon, constituted 32% of the job descriptions analyzed for the study, indicating a possible limitation in the narrow scope of represented businesses. Given Amazon’s global position as the largest private-sector, for-profit employer—a company that has added 125 jobs in the USA every day since 2012 (Doyle, 2019)—the percentage of job descriptions represented by Amazon is, however, not surprising.

The study investigated the ES concepts desired by companies seeking MBA graduates compared with those desired by companies seeking undergraduate business degree holders. The concepts of implementation, collaboration, and innovation emerged as the top MBA entrepreneurial skills. The literature identified a gap between the skills developed in MBA programs to those required by employers of MBA degree holders. Confirmed in a recent study conducted by Fisher (2019), there is a lack of empirical research on the effectiveness of MBA programs in the development of competency skills; therefore, it is recommended that additional research should be focused on how implementation, collaboration, and innovation can be integrated into the MBA curriculum.

While implementation and collaboration also emerged as the top ES concepts in employers seeking a business administration or management degree, innovation materialized as the sole top entrepreneurial concept unique to employers hiring those holding an MBA degree. Innovation is credited with being the economic force that sustains competitive advantage in the business world. Korn (2012) reported that business schools have taken advantage of innovation offerings through the use of research labs, classes, and entire majors associated with innovation education. Yet these efforts seem to fall short. Kars-Unluoglu (2016) identified a significant gap in understanding of the current status of innovation education, and research in the area of innovation education is limited. Future research on its effectiveness is needed to better prepare MBA graduates with the knowledge and skills to effectively manage and support innovative initiatives in the business world. In addition, further research is warranted on the current status of innovation education in graduate management education to identify which programs offer a specific curriculum in innovation and to assess the effectiveness of that curriculum.

It is perhaps the lack of entrepreneurial skill development in MBA programs that has some employers looking for candidates that hold alternative credentials. Fisher (2019) revealed a lack of empirical data demonstrating that the skills developed in MBA programs contribute to the business world. Syed et al. (2018) argued that employer prerequisites for additional graduate degrees make seeking an MBA degree a costly risk for new students contemplating their career paths, especially when some employers are considering alternative solutions in lieu of hiring MBA graduates. Future research is needed to ensure that MBA programs are able to develop ES skills that are transferable to the workplace. Investigating the alignment between degree granting institutions, employer needs and students’ ES skill development in MBA programs may help to ensure that graduates are equipped with the entrepreneurial skills most desired by companies.

Conclusion

This study sought to identify the most commonly occurring ES concepts in job descriptions posted on Indeed by employers seeking to hire MBA graduates. The findings show that employers who hire MBA graduates want employees with the ES skills of implementation, collaboration, and innovation. These skills desired by employers seeking MBA graduates were compared to those desired by companies seeking business undergraduate degree holders. While employers seeking undergraduate degree holders and MBA graduates both want skills in implementation and collaboration, innovation, specifically, is statistically significant for MBA graduates. Candidates with the skill of innovation are more highly sought after by employers requiring MBA degrees than by employers requiring an undergraduate business degree. These findings confirm that the ES concepts of implementation, collaboration, and innovation are highly desired by employers hiring MBAs.

There are implications for several key stakeholders. First, employers of business graduates can benefit by knowing that including specific keywords such as innovation, collaboration, and implementation in their job descriptions can help them acquire new hires who are more likely to have ES. In addition, business schools can benefit from the findings by understanding that they contribute to the growth of the economy and that, if they include in their curriculum entrepreneurship education relating to innovation, collaboration, and implementation, there will be alignment between industry, education, and employers. Business school faculty and administrators can benefit from the study by understanding the importance of teaching the skills of innovation, collaboration, and implementation in coursework. Additionally, they now know that innovation is specifically sought by employers hiring MBA graduates, which may drive curriculum changes at the graduate level. Together, all stakeholders have opportunities to strengthen the skill sets demanded in the 21st century.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Karla J Saeger

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