ASU MBA ranked No. 6 for entrepreneurship worldwide

The business education publication Poets&Quants (P&Q) is a vital resource for students weighing their business school options — and this year, the magazine ranked Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business MBA as No. 6 in the world for entrepreneurship, ahead of London Business School (United Kingdom), Yale University and Duke University.

“In W. P. Carey, and across ASU, we are proud to advance innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Ohad Kadan, Charles J. Robel Dean and W. P. Carey Distinguished Chair in Business. “We know that the world is changed by business, and provide our MBA students with vast opportunities to be leaders of that change through startups, venture opportunities, intellectual property, small business ownership and more.”

The ranking’s methodology is designed to measure how entrepreneurship resources, like incubator space or mentors, are allocated to individual students within MBA programs. There are 16 total data points, with the heaviest weighted categories being the average percentage of MBAs launching businesses during B-school or immediately after, and the percentage of MBA elective courses that are 100% focused on entrepreneurship and/or innovation.

Luiz Mesquita, associate dean for graduate programs at W. P. Carey, explains the intentionality W. P. Carey has given to building entrepreneurship opportunities at the school. “Within the amazing innovation ecosystem at ASU, W. P. Carey has built an MBA that encourages entrepreneurship through dedicated coursework, funding opportunities and mentorship. If you have a great business idea, this is the place to grow it,” he said.

One such opportunity is through W. P. Carey’s New Venture Challenge, a course and competition designed for ASU graduate students, exceptional ventures and their co-founders who seek to advance a new venture concept to the next stage. The course gives participants across ASU the opportunity to further develop core aspects of their business model and fine-tune pitch messaging with feedback from experienced entrepreneur faculty and mentors.

“The New Venture Challenge course gives students an incomparable opportunity to pitch ideas and receive tailored feedback and guidance to improve their business model, strategy and approach,” said Jared Byrne, director of W. P. Carey’s Center for Entrepreneurship and New Business Design. Students who complete the New Venture Challenge also have a chance to compete for a share of $50,000 in funding.

W. P. Carey MBA students additionally have access to the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute, E+I @ Fulton, Innovation Space at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, as well as other schools across campus, corporate sponsors and community stakeholders that are a part of ASU’s extensive innovation ecosystem.

Learn more about innovation and entrepreneurship at the W. P. Carey School of Business.