Music Students’ Bohemian and Entrepreneurial Career Identities

Entrepreneurship in the arts has started to gain attention from scholars as well as arts educators and policy makers in recent years. Advocates suggest that entrepreneurship curricula in art schools can help to prepare students for the tough conditions they will face on the arts labor market after graduating. However, this opinion faces resistance by some academics, arts educators and especially students themselves. The opposing view is that entrepreneurship does not cohere with artists’ often strongly pronounced bohemian identity. This thesis investigates music students’ bohemian as well as entrepreneurial career identities and whether they influence students’ attitude towards entrepreneurship education. It adopts a quantitative approach and samples 146 music students from two Dutch music schools. First, a factor analysis is applied to find out if and how bohemian and entrepreneurial career identity items group together or are mutually exclusive. Then, with a multiple linear regression analysis, the relationship between the career identity factors and students’ perceived need for entrepreneurship education (PNEE) is measured. The level of students’ PNEE is assumed to reflect their attitude on entrepreneurship education. This variable is operationalized according to Bridgstock’s (2013) definitional classification of arts entrepreneurship education and is tested by means of a second factor analysis. Results reveal that (1) parts of students’ bohemian and entrepreneurial career identities do cohere, (2) the three stances on arts entrepreneurship suggested by Bridgstock (2013) are reflected in music students’ PNEE, and (3) the career identity factor related to “Open-mindedness” has a significant, positive effect on students’ PNEE.