GMAC Survey Shows Over 10% of MBA Alumni are Entrepreneurs: MBA News

A GMAC survey looking at the career paths of MBA alumni from around the world has found that, while 79% of MBA alumni work for employers and 5% having already retired, 11% of MBA alumni run their own businesses. The research, based on the responses of 21,000 MBA alumni who graduated between 1959 and 2013 from 132 business schools, shows that the likelihood that alumni will be involved in entrepreneurial ventures increases the longer they have been out of business school.

While only 5% of MBA alumni graduating in the period of 2010-13 worked for themselves, the proportion increases to 23% for those graduating before 1990. However the GMAC survey also showed that the time between graduation and entering the entrepreneurial space has decreased over time. Self-employed MBA alumni from the 2000-2009 cohort waited three years, while those graduating in the 90s waited nine, those graduating in the 80s waited 15, and finally rising to 20 for those graduating prior to 1980.

Of the entrepreneurs from the classes of 2010-2013, 45% began their businesses on graduation, with 14% entering the technology sector. The two most popular sectors overall for MBA entrepreneurs are consulting and products & services, both of which account for 31%. The highest proportions of entrepreneurial MBA alumni can be found in the Asia Pacific region, Canada, and Latin America.