Creativity, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Leadership and Professional Motivations: Comparing Design Students in Different Levels of Undergraduate Education

摘要

The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of how design creativity, innovativeness and entrepreneurship motivations change during the undergraduate academic years in students of the same institution. The experiment consisted of Singaporean students from a design and technology university invited to participate and provide insights into their creativity, entrepreneurship, professional, and leadership motivations (EPL). Creativity outcomes were measured by the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT), while the EPL framework monitored students’ aspirations, which can be viewed as the space in which their careers may evolve. The statistical analysis of the creative outcomes served to explore whether significant differences emerge among student designers in concept generation. Participants at the novice level generated the second-best novel design solutions, while contributing the most useful solutions overall. Our research also found that students seem to become less entrepreneurial and innovative as they proceed throughout their university years. Plausibly this translates to their desire to enter technically proficient and service-oriented careers in established firms.