Percept Research Attends MBA Roundtable Entrepreneurial Symposium

Brian Mahoney, Managing Partner of Percept Research, attended the rescheduled 2012 MBA Roundtable Curricular Innovation Symposium from April 16-17, 2013.  The MBA Roundtable serves as a catalyst for thought leadership on MBA curricular design and innovation.  The annual symposium is designed as a forum for business school leaders to share and generate ideas that lead to improved MBA curricular offerings.

The Symposium was hosted by the Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson in Boston and the sessions were conducted at the Babson Executive Conference Center.  Dr. Dennis Hanno, Dean of the Olin Graduate School of Business, welcomed MBA faculty and administrators from across the globe to the conference.

Entrance to Olin Hall at Babson

MBA Roundtable’s Curricular Innovation Study conducted in spring 2012 found that half of the respondent programs had increased their focus on entrepreneurship in both the core and elective portfolio over the past three years.  Entrepreneurship was the second most frequently added concentration within that same period.

The Symposium sessions were centered on the ways business schools are developing the entrepreneurial mindset of MBA students.  Through panel presentations, expert speakers, and topic-based exchanges, the attendees discussed how business schools are integrating entrepreneurial thought and action across the core curriculum.

Philippe Sommer (University of Virginia), Brendan Burns (Columbia University), and Brad Burke (Rice University) compose a panel moderated by Chip Filer (Old Dominion University)

The entrepreneurship discussion continues into summer 2013 when the MBA Roundtable will disseminate the results of a focused research project on “Entrepreneurship and the MBA.”  The study was commissioned to example how business schools are integrating entrepreneurship education into graduate business curricula and programming.  This comprehensive study involves four phases:

1. An initial literature review completed in January 2013;
2. In-depth interviews with 25 leading business schools completed in March 2013;
3. A benchmarking study to be fielded among 500 MBA programs mid-April 2013; and
4. The thought leadership exchanged at the Babson Symposium in April 2013.

With secondary analysis, qualitative and quantitative market research conducted by Percept Research, this study represents the most expansive research project to date for the MBA Roundtable.  The MBA Roundtable appreciates the support of the University of Louisville, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Virginia in sponsoring this entrepreneurship research study.

Tina Mabley (University of Texas at Austin) puts forward a question to the expert panel

The April Symposium is was originally planned for fall 2012, but was rescheduled due to the impact of Hurricane Sandy last year.  The 2013 MBA Roundtable Curricular Innovation Symposium will be held at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business in Columbus, Ohio from November 11-12, 2013. 

The fall 2013 Symposium will focus on the interdisciplinary MBA with a closer look at the ways business schools are building interdisciplinary education via joint and dual degree MBA programs, cross-university partnerships, and collaborative experiential labs. 

As the research partner to the MBA Roundtable, Percept Research also offers significant first-year discounts to members that participate in the firm's MBA Lifecycle Survey Suite.