How Does Skill Preparation in Higher Education and its Cost Influence Alumni’s Entrepreneurship Career Choice? - Volume 10 - Number 4

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Sarah

The study analyzes how university skill preparation and associated costs shape arts alumni entrepreneurship choices, focusing on freelancing and venture founding. Using the SNAAP alumni survey, it measures perceived importance and perceived preparedness to estimate skill preparation gaps. Three logistic regression models evaluate how perceived preparedness and gap effects vary across freelancing, founding arts-related ventures, and founding any business, while controlling for family resources, race, and student loan debt.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Research Question

Identifying Latent Entrepreneurship Skills

The Role of Perceived Preparedness of Skills in Entrepreneurial Paths

The Role of Skill Preparation Gap in Entrepreneurial Paths

The Role of Other Factors: Race and Student Loan Debt

The Role of Other Factors: Race and Family Resources

MENU ~~ ~~ VOLUME 10 , NUMBER 4 How Does Skill Preparation in Higher Education and its Cost Influence Alumni’s Entrepreneurship Career Choice? Research Question The SNAAP survey includes questions for alumni to rate both how important the skills they learned in school have been for their careers (perceived importance), and how well their alma maters helped them develop these same skills (perceived preparedness). Survey results and previous SNAAP Data Briefs (see Frenette, 2020) suggest a gap between alumni’s sense of perceived importance and perceived preparedness (the skill preparation gap). Using three logistic regression models, this study investigates the impact of perceived preparedness and skill preparation gaps on three approaches of arts alumni entrepreneurship: freelancing, founding an arts-related venture, and starting a business of any kind. The study also examines other factors such as family resources, race, and student loans in determining whether someone will start a new venture or work asa freelancer to compare with the influence of university training. Identifying Latent Entrepreneurship Skills The SNAAP survey asked alumni about the training they received from their degree-granting institutions in 16 skills, and the importance of these skills in their careers (see Column 1 of Table 1). Alumni may have developed these skills in arts-focused courses or other programs offered by their alma maters. Although the SNAAP survey includes one item specifically listed as“entrepreneurial skills”, we conceptualize entrepreneurship skills using a holistic perspective. Mitchelmore and Rowley (2010; 2013) developed a comprehensive entrepreneurial competence framework that includes four constellations of competencies, suggesting that entrepreneurship skill is a multidimensional concept constituted by a variety of managerial, conceptual, and relational skills. Therefore, we conducted a factor analysis of all the other 15 skills in the survey to identify latent entrepreneurship skills. The analysis reduces the 15 skills into four latent factors (see Column 2 of Table 1) . The Role of Perceived Preparedness of Skills in Entrepreneurial Paths The logistic regression generated the following findings regarding the potential impact of the perceived preparedness of skills on the three entrepreneurship career paths: freelancing, founding a business in general, or founding an arts-related business. The perceived preparedness of arts specialty, business management, critical thinking, and leadership skills are all relevant to all the three entrepreneurial career choices: The Role of Skill Preparation Gap in Entrepreneurial Paths The three logistic models with the three entrepreneurial career approaches as dependent variables suggest that the skill preparation gap has different impacts on the probability of an arts alumnus taking an entrepreneurial career. The skill preparation gaps in arts specialty, business management, critical thinking, and leadership skills have a significant negative association with venture creation (both arts-related and otherwise) . The skill preparation gaps in critical thinking and arts specialty skills have a negative association with alumni being freelancers. Unexpectedly, skill preparation gaps in business management and leadership skills have a positive association with being a freelancer. There are a few potential explanations for the unexpected relationship between the skill preparation gaps in business management and leadership skills and freelance work. Freelancing may not always be a preferred career choice; some people may need to take freelance work before they can develop the business management and leadership skills required to secure full-time employment or start a business. It is also possible that our current approach to defining and teaching business management and leadership skills does not meet the expectations of arts alumni who are more inclined to ha

FAQs

How does the SNAAP survey measure skill preparation for alumni?

It uses alumni ratings of perceived importance of skills learned in school and perceived preparedness of their alma maters in developing those skills, creating a skill preparation gap.

What role does perceived preparedness play in alumni entrepreneurship paths?

Perceived preparedness in arts specialty, business management, critical thinking, and leadership skills is relevant to all three entrepreneurship choices: freelancing and founding both arts-related and general businesses.

How does the skill preparation gap affect venture creation and freelancing?

Skill preparation gaps in arts specialty, business management, critical thinking, and leadership show significant negative associations with venture creation. Gaps in critical thinking and arts specialty are also negatively associated with freelancing, while gaps in business management and leadership are unexpectedly positively associated with freelancing.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Sarah