Understanding and enhancing the development of entrepreneurial motivation in undergraduate music students

This thesis examines the motivation to engage with entrepreneurship amongst undergraduate music students. Even though entrepreneurship education has been established as beneficial for helping music students prepare for their futures, there are still many challenges involved in encouraging them to engage with it. It is relatively unknown how music students become motivated or demotivated by entrepreneurship. Therefore, this project has set out to gain a better understanding of this phenomenon in the hopes of informing better practice that can encourage and enhance the entrepreneurial development of music students.
The project consists of a main qualitative study supplemented by a quantitative study. The qualitative study was conducted with a group of 16 undergraduate music students at a UK university. Each participant was interviewed three times across the span of one calendar year using the semi-structured design. The quantitative study used the questionnaire method which was deployed once to capture a cross-sectional view. A total of 125 respondents took the questionnaire.
Both studies attempted to map out the factors that may influence the development of entrepreneurial motivation from different perspectives. The results were triangulated for validity. The findings suggest that music students are motivated to engage with entrepreneurship if they: (1) perceive it to be compatible with their identity; (2) feel confident or assured that they can manage the task; and (3) are certain that it will be a rewarding or fulfilling experience. It is proposed that all three perceptions must be present for the students to become motivated. New suggestions for improving practice recommends that rather than emphasising entrepreneurship as a tool that is only useful for career preparation, it can have more appeal and value if presented as an opportunity for students to find their purpose and to learn to cope better with failure.